Last week's blogs talked about breastfeeding being 98-99% effective as long as you answered yes to three questions. But let's talk about other forms of birth control when you choose or need to have an alternative method.
Currently the mini-pill which contains progesterone only is the birth control pill of choice for breastfeeding mothers. Does it have any effect on your milk production? According to the manufacturer's insert, no. Unfortunately that is not always the case. Anytime you start altering hormones you run the risk of altering other hormones, which is obviously the case with some women who are breastfeeding.
In one week I had five breastfeeding mothers call me because their supplies had decreased significantly. When queried, they had all started on the mini-pill. I counseled them to seek other forms of birth control. All but one was able to recover her full milk production. Through the years I have worked with many women in the same situation. I don't have statistics, as I am not aware of any studies that have measured this, however, in my experience about 20% do not recover their productions.
Moral lesson? Be wary of using any birth control method that contains hormones, if breastfeeding is important to you. There are plenty of other ways to prevent pregnancy, including exclusively breastfeeding in the first six months-- if you can answer yes to the three questions for LAM or Lactational Amenorrhea Method of birth control.
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When you look at people groups that are hunters and gathers, mothers breastfeed and wear their babies until they are 5-6 years old.
In those family units you usually see one child under the age of three. And in their lifetime those women typically give birth to only four children.
Breastfeeding is an amazing birth control.
This is just not the case, of course, in most of the world today. The secret lies in breastfeeding for so long and not being separated from your baby, but how fascinating that this was the way it use to be.
Read more about breastfeeding as birth control.
Thanks Cassandra for this great question. This is really important to understand when considering LAM or the Lactational Amenorrhea Method of birth control.
Typically you ovulate 14 days before your period starts. But when you are exclusively or intensively breastfeeding--pumping as frequently as you would normally breastfeed, the opposite is true. The following is from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's Protocol Contraception During Breastfeeding:
Amenorrhea is the most important [aspect]..., as it alone is associated with a significant reduction in fertility. The intensity of the breastfeeding is also very important since it contributes both to the duration of amenorrhea and to the suppression of normal ovulation in the first postpartum cycle, creating the physiological conditions to ensure that the first bleed will tend to precede the first adequate ovulatory development.
- LAM is 98-99% effective in preventing pregnancy during the first six months.
- In Rwanda, the method was used the first nine months, continuing breastfeeding frequency by feeding before each solid foods feeding.
- Women pumping after return to work, as long as they pumped with the same frequency as the baby normally feeds, had a 96.5% efficacy rate using LAM.
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breastfeeding and birth control.
I'm breastfeeding; do I need birth control? This is an important question and one that needs a truthful answer.
Breastfeeding is an amazing means of birth control. In fact, it is 99% effective under certain conditions. I heard Dr. Miriam Labbok speak on this several years ago. (As a side note, she told us that the study she conducted actually showed a 100% birth control.)Then she ran some quick and dirty numbers and found that:
If we were to remove breastfeeding from the world completely, in one year there would be another country (population wise) the size of Canada. Wow!
When do you know if breastfeeding is an effective means of birth control? Here are the three questions to ask yourself:
- Is your baby less than six months old?
- Are you amenorrheic (your menstrual cycle has not returned)?
- Are you fully or nearly fully breastfeeding?
If you can answer yes to all three questions, your risk of pregnancy is less than two percent. Once one of these changes, you will need another form of family-planning.
Free Report - Avoid The Top 7 Breastfeeding Mistakes
Want to learn how to overcome the most common barriers new mothers face when trying to breastfeed successfully? Download the free report to discover how moms like you are avoiding the painful mistakes associated with improper breastfeeding.
|