What every woman, man, and Catholic bishop and priest need to know about God’s plan for spacing babies.
Below are more witnesses from eco-breastfeeding mothers.
“In brief, we chose ecological breastfeeding based on receiving a copy of The Art of Natural Family Planning 4th Edition as an early wedding gift. Just under 5 months postpartum, I experienced a very short (less than a hour), very light (less than 1/4 tsp, including a small bit of tissue or blood clot) episode of spotting. I really have no idea what caused it, as I experienced no signs of mucus before this and no signs after until a couple weeks after solids were introduced at about 7 months. I charted for a very short time when this mucus started but stopped when the mucus went away. I did not chart after that but just sort of kept an eye out for fertile mucus. I observed fertile mucus beginning when my daughter was about 18 months old and started charting a couple weeks later. At about 19.5 months, I experienced a day of spotting. We successfully charted my first postpartum ovulation at about 20.5 months postpartum, followed by my first true postpartum period after an 8-day luteal phase. My next three cycles also had 8-day luteal phases. This was followed by a cycle with an 11-day luteal phase, so my first “fertile” ovulation was when my daughter was about 25 months and 1 week old. We then switched to trying to conceive and were blessed with the conception of our son (over 5 weeks into that cycle – good thing we were charting and had accurate dates!) when our daughter was a few days less than 27 months old.
Thank you for your research and teaching of ecological breastfeeding. It has certainly been a blessing for our family.
God Bless,
Jeana (and Dominic) Jones”
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“Many of the women said that ecological breastfeeding didn’t work for them, but they also mentioned pacifier use and their babies sleeping through the night. I think some moms think they are practicing eco-breastfeeding but they haven’t read Sheila Kippley’s books. Of course, there is a group of women whose periods return earlier than the average and yet they do practice eco-breastfeeding. I practice ecological breastfeeding and my period returned at 29 months with my last baby.”
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Further reading: The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor. Both Catholic laity and clergy should read Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood. It applies the papal Theology of the body to the bodily activity of breastfeeding.
Book Sale: 30% off Kippley books in print at lulu through August 7.
Sheila Kippley