The daily blogs during World Breastfeeding Week will promote the natural spacing of births using the kind of breastfeeding called Ecological Breastfeeding. This involves maternal behaviors associated with extended breastfeeding amenorrhea and related infertility. Amenorrhea means the absence of menstruation. We call these behaviors the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding which are listed below.
- Breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life; don’t offer your baby other liquids and solids, not even water
- Pacify or comfort your baby at your breasts.
- Don’t use bottles and don’t use pacifiers.
- Sleep with your baby for night feedings.
- Sleep with your baby for a daily-nap feeding.
- Nurse frequently day and night and avoid schedules.
- Avoid any practice that restricts nursing or separates you from your baby.
To go 1 or 2 years without menstruation while ecologically breastfeeding is normal for a breastfeeding mother. To experience even 3 years of breastfeeding amenorrhea is very unusual but still normal for some mothers. To have her periods return during the first six months if she is truly doing eco-breastfeeding would also be quite unusual but still within the range of normal for some mothers.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor