Lactational amenorrhea (LAM), lactational pertains to breastfeeding while amenorrhea means not having monthly periods, is the effect of breastfeeding on a woman who has just given birth. It is considered one of the natural methods of birth spacing, and is recommended to allow women to fully recover from the stresses of childbirth before the next baby comes.
Here are the criteria to comply to achieve 98 to 99 percent LAM effectiveness:
You should fully or nearly fully breastfeed. This means that you nurse your baby at least every four hours during daytime and every six hours at night. No substitution or supplementation of breast milk should take place, whether it is water, juice, or cereal drink. A breasts pump may be used if certain factors make it difficult to directly breastfeed. However, be cautioned that the risk of getting pregnant is increased to five to six percent if artificial methods to expressed breast milk are utilized. This is because artificial breast pumps stimulate the release of the hormone prolactin in an amount that may vary from natural ovulation, increasing the chance of getting pregnant.
Menstrual period has not yet returned – resumption of menstrual period is defined as having bleeding or spotting for two consecutive days, occurring beyond the first two months after giving birth. This means you may have resumed ovulation and are already fertile. In this case, LAM may not be reliable as birth spacing method.
The baby should not be more than six months old – infants beyond six months old already need supplemental feeding, hence the decrease in frequency of breastfeeding. With this the ovarian function may no longer be reliably suppressed by the continuous secretion of the prolactin hormone, and fertile ovulatory periods subsequently return.
Related posts: