Report Of Pregnancy Rate While You Are Breastfeeding

Pregnancy WomanOverall, breastfeeding is a decent form of birth control and is officially called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM). As with other birth control methods, LAM has to be used correctly in order to be effective. The criteria for using LAM is as follows:

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Your baby must be under six months old.

- Your baby is almost exclusively breastfed. This means you aren’t supplementing with formula. Some experts say that the baby should not be ingesting more than two mouthfuls per day of water or other foods.

- Your baby is feeding regularly during the day and night. The baby should go no more than four hours between breastfeeding during the day and no more than six hours between breastfeeding during the night.

- Your menstrual periods have not yet resumed.

LAM has a pregnancy rate of between one to two pregnancies per one hundred women. This is slightly worse than the pill, which reports pregnancy rates of 0.3 per one hundred women. LAM is a better form of birth control than condoms or diaphragms.

Of course, you can get pregnant if you are breastfeeding, since nothing short of a hysterectomy is 100 percent effective, but used properly, LAM is a fine form of birth control. It is also true that some women rely on breastfeeding not just for nutrition but to comfort their infants.

These women will have a higher incidence of infertility for the first three to six months postpartum than those women whose children rely on pacifiers and drinks like water or juice for comfort. It has also been reported that women using LAM had improved fetal and maternal health.

In order to maintain infertility while breastfeeding, make sure you feed your baby the same amount of breast milk and breastfeed for the same length of time every day. Women who return to work or introduce solid foods into their baby’s diet may find that they have returned to ovulating. Before beginning work or expanding your baby’s diet, you may to want to add another form of birth control.

If you are interested in learning more about LAM as a form of birth control, please visit the Web site listed in the notes section at the end of this chapter or call your local La Leche League office for information.

If you go to your provider with the desire to breastfeed solely as a form of birth control, please bring your information to your postpartum visit.

Many obstetricians and gynecologists don’t have a good grasp on the intri­cacies of breastfeeding and what mothers are being taught before they leave the hospital. This is a good time to educate your doctor after you have educated yourself.

We believe that most healthcare providers would be more than happy to explore this method with you and help you make it work to the best of their ability, as long as they feel you are informed of the strengths and weaknesses of whichever method you choose.

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