Many couples who attend a natural family planning course today will be taught only one fertility sign. The other signs of fertility will not be taught or, in some cases, will be discouraged. How sad that is. When this happens, the teacher is making the choice for the couple. The couple is given no choice.
In addition, some NFP teachers will not teach the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) or the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding. Both methods have been researched and published in scientific journals. The method with the most research and with the research done in many countries throughout the world is LAM. Yet oftentimes the research is ignored and couples are taught to start charting just a few weeks after childbirth.
God has provided several natural ways to discern fertility and has provided a wonderful means for couples to space their babies naturally through the right kind of breastfeeding. When these natural fertility signs are not taught and when couples are not taught the option of natural child spacing via breastfeeding, the couples are being deprived of important information which they have a right to know.
Breastfeeding has so many benefits to mothers and babies that it seems unjust to tell a couple that they must wean their young baby in order to get back to cycling and NFP. This was the advice generally given in the Sixties before we began to teach natural family planning, and it is still not uncommon today.
The problem is that too many mothers learn some good things about breastfeeding, but they are not taught the importance of breastfeeding frequently. Thus they have a very early return of fertility, but the baby’s nursing still wants to delay the next ovulation. This can really stretch out the duration of pre-ovulation mucus—-and abstinence. Yes, this can happen even with eco-breastfeeding, but if a mother weans at past 12 months, at least she has the satisfaction of knowing that her baby has benefited greatly from that much breastfeeding.
I thank the priests we know who encourage and support breastfeeding mothers and encourage natural child spacing. I thank especially the priests who give Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood to expectant couples who come to the Church to have their baby baptized. They are helping these couples get off to a good start.
Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor