KiwiParent from Parents Center NZ Test Volume | Page 28

body isn’t ready to take on a second intense job.” Protection using LAM continues during the first six months if your periods don’t return and if you are frequently breastfeeding but efficacy does decline and many women chose to add another method. It is also worth noting that LAM appears to be slightly less effective in working mums expressing milk. This is because it is stimulation of the nipples which directly affects suppression of ovulation. If you chose another form of contraception entirely it’s probably best to avoid hormonal ones like the pill or implants for the first six months because it’s possible they could affect your milk supply. The possibility of this after six months is much less likely. You can consider yourself fertile once menstruation resumes (although Katie’s experience proves it is possible to conceive before your period returns). myths conception A very good Kiwi friend of mine living overseas has recently welcomed baby number five into the family. When Katie (I’ll call her that to save any embarrassment since I’m going to talk about her private life!) told me she was pregnant again I was not surprised; she comes from a large family and has always wanted lots of children. What is interesting though, in relation to her conceptions, is that she is a breastfeeding mother. Most of her brood fed way past one year, day and night as requested, and yet she now has five children under seven. Katie is a very fertile woman. And one for whom breastfeeding day and night does not seem to prevent conception. Fortunately her husband (who does not come from a large family) is very happy about that. So, what is the truth about breastfeeding as a means of 26 kiwiparent – supporting kiwi parents through the early years contraception? How does it work? What are the odds? And what do you do if you want to breastfeed and want another baby? This form of contraception is called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method or LAM for short. It is 98 to 99 percent effective, which is about the same as the pill, when all three of the following apply: ? Your baby is under six months old AND ? Your periods have not resumed AND ? Your baby is exclusively breastfed freely day and night According to The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding there’s strong logic behind this method: “The baby who’s getting all his food, day and night, from his mother, isn’t ready to share her. His mother’s Recognition that breastfeeding can significantly impact on the gaps between children was particularly evident during colonial times. In some colonial communities where larger families are needed, attempts to limit family size can cause a lot of trouble! In colonial America “the staunch Puritan Cotton Mather, worried that mothers were nursing their babies to delay conception. An eighteenth century grandfather criticised his daughter-in-law for nursing so she would ‘not breed too fast’. On the other hand a colonial grandmother wrote of advising her 39-year-old daughter to keep nursing ‘that this might possibly be the last trial of this sort’, if she could suckle her baby for two years to come, as she had done several times before.” 1 J.D. Wray, in Breastfeeding: An international and historical review, explains that in Bangladesh extended breastfeeding reduces a mother’s risk of dying by as much as 50% by reducing her exposure to the risks of pregnancy and childbirth in a dangerous environment.2 In Mothering Your Nursing Toddler, Norma Jane Bumgarner states: “For families in the industrialised world, breastfeeding’s birth-spacing effects are less profound, but they still matter, if only in reducing the bother and expense, to say nothing of any possible risk, of contraception in the first months after childbirth. Mothers also enjoy freedom from the mood cycles associated with ovulation.” If, on the other hand, you really want to get pregnant again and it hasn’t happened, it may be that frequent breastfeeding is suppressing your fertility. If your periods haven’t returned then you might want to think about weaning at night, refrain from pumping during the day or perhaps generally cutting back which might kick start things. This from Mothering Your Nursing Toddler again: “A long stretch without nursing every day may do the trick, provided you can keep your toddler content during that time. A long stretch at night could be even better, because the hormonal mix that prolongs infertility seems to be more dependent on nighttime nursing”. Whatever choices you make, one thing is certain: there are no certainties when it comes to contraception or conception. Clearly the process of suppression and resumption of fertility is complex and very individual. If you want to read more on the subject, try Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility or check out her website www.tcoyf.com. For individualised information Natural Fertility New Zealand offers a service (for a fee) www.naturalfertility.co.nz References: 1. Norma Jane Bumgarner Mothering Your Nursing Toddler 2. Norma Jane Bumgarner Mothering Your Nursing Toddler Lisa Manning Lisa Manning is a former TV journalist and presenter. She is married to the British actor John Rhys-Davies with whom she has a sixyear-old daughter Maia. Lisa is an at home mum and La Leche League Leader in Pukekohe. If you’d like to get in touch with Lisa in response to this article with ideas, suggestions or feedback about La Leche League, she can be reached at [email protected]