Natural Health
"The World's oldest and still most widely practiced form of birth regulation is breastfeeding." ~ The Couple To Couple League
Natural Family Planning
What is Natural Family Planning and why should I care, you ask? Well, first of all I believe that every woman should know how her body works regardless of what she chooses to do, if anything, with that knowledge. Young women especially should have access to this information - there's nothing worse than thinking that something is wrong with you only to find out years latter that your body is just doing what it is supposed to be doing. Mothers, aunts & sisters do your young female relatives a favor and teach them about their fertility cycles! Secondly I've had many friends that have had nothing but problems while on the pill, everything from weight gain and migraines to near constant "breakthrough" bleeding - who would want to put themselves through that? Also, we know that estrogen (commonly found in many contraceptives) has been linked to breast cancer. Why purposely increase your risk for developing such a ravaging disease when there is a safe, natural alternative? Natural Family Planning (NFP) simply put is paying attention to the signals your body sends when you are fertile and using that awareness to achieve or postpone pregnancy.
I have been using NFP for about 10 years now and while I'm not an expert I feel I've got the basics down fairly well. Here is my extremely simplified explanation. Consider the first day of your period the first day of your fertility cycle. When your period is over you may or may not have "dry" days. A day in which you have no "fertile mucous" (a clear, stretchy discharge which produces a sensation of wetness) is considered a "dry" day. After your period and any number of dry days you will begin to be fertile. Fertile days are recognized by the presence of "fertile mucous" which is a clear, stretchy discharge. As you get closer to ovulation you will notice that the mucous becomes heavier and stretchier. The day you ovulate is called the "peak" day. After ovulation the fertile mucous ends but you may notice a white, sticky discharge in its place. As long as it's not clear or stretchy it is considered "non-fertile mucous." The first three dry days after ovulation it is still possible to get pregnant as the egg can survive for a few days. The number of days you bleed along with any dry days that follow varies from woman to woman, month to month and year to year. Women who have short cycles may have no dry days following their period while women who have longer cycles may have many dry days before they are fertile.The time from ovulation to when you next period starts is about 14 days (give or take a day), this part of the fertility cycle does not vary.
As you may be able to tell from my diagram on the right, breastfeeding completes a woman's cycle of fertility. Women who breastfeed usually do not resume menstruating until the child consistently goes five hours in a 24 hour period without nursing (of course there are always exceptions). With my first child I experienced Lactational Amenorrhea (absence of periods during breastfeeding) for 19 months, with my second 23 months, and with my third I was period free for 18 months. This is natures way of making sure that the nursling has the best chance for survival by assuring that there is no competition from siblings born too close together. It also offers health benefits to the mother such as lowered risk of developing post partum depression, iron deficiency anemia and breast cancer. The financial benefits are worth stating too. Formula is expensive and breastfed babies are healthier, requiring less trips to the doctor. Not only that but you don't have to spend hard earned money on bottles & bottle paraphernalia, feminine hygiene products or contraception. And just think of all those months without PMS! Using NFP effectively while breastfeeding is a little bit more difficult; you really need to have a good grasp of the basics first. While most women are not going to be fertile until after their cycle returns it is possible to ovulate before your first period. For more information on the Natural Family Planning & Lactational Amenorrhea Methods see the resources listed below.
- The Billings Ovulation Method: Natural family planning explained, where to find a teacher.
- The Couple to Couple League: is an international, interfaith, non-profit organization dedicated to teaching Natural Family Planning (NFP) using the sympto/thermal method. The League also teaches the world's oldest form of natural baby spacing, ecological breastfeeding.
- What is LAM?: The World Alliance For Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a global network of organizations and individuals who believe breastfeeding is the right of all children and mothers and who dedicate themselves to protect, promote and support this right.
- Breastfeeding and Fertility: by Katherine Dettwyler, PhD. Dr. Katherine A. Dettwyler is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition at Texas A&M University. She is also the co-editor of Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives and many other scholarly articles and is currently writing a book on research methodology in the study of infant/child feeding. She is a frequent speaker at universities, La Leche League conferences, and lactation consultant conferences.
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First on-line: 6/28/1996