Saturday, April 19, 2008

Breastfeeding Fact O' The Week #02



...although I don't always do them weekly. :D

From Kellymom.com

Myth #1 – Breastfeeding cannot be relied upon to prevent pregnancy.

Myth #2 – Any amount of breastfeeding will prevent pregnancy, regardless of the frequency of breastfeeding or whether mom’s period has returned.

Exclusive breastfeeding has in fact been shown to be an excellent form of birth control, but there are certain criteria that must be met for breastfeeding to be used effectively.

Exclusive breastfeeding (by itself) is 98-99.5% effective in preventing pregnancy as long as all of the following conditions are met:

1. Your baby is less than six months old
2. Your menstrual periods have not yet returned
3. Baby is breastfeeding on cue (both day & night), and gets nothing but breastmilk or only token amounts of other foods.


...I personally have been nursing for now 17 months today. I've yet to see a period (Yessssss!!!!!) but my daughter is no longer nursing exclusively, so I'm on birth control. ;)

Read the whole article at Kellymom.com for more information. It's a very fascinating article!

*See my other Breastfeeding Fact O' The Week post on the Benefits of Breastfeeding a Toddler, which even lists the vitamins and nutrients in breastmilk after age 1. Very informative!

4 Comments:

Sassyfrazz said...

Those are good advice..and true. I got my period about 2-3 months after every kiddo. I am nursing Maddie still and I am not prego. I am not on BC (since January) and really, I am super fertile. I am a bit surprised I am not prego yet. We are fine with whenever (if God choses) to bless us with another child. I think I am ready now. I do want to make it to the theme park this summer...but we will see.

Candi said...

Wow---you are sooo lucky!! I started my period at about 4-5 weeks with Logan. With Lucas, I started bleeding around 3 weeks and thought it was maybe just from not getting cleaned out after having him. However, when I had a period pretty much 28 days later, I knew that the one before was also a period. BTW--with both boys I have only bled for 5-10 days after they were born!! I remember with Logan, it was super, super light by day 3 and I was very surprised by that. He had to stay in the NICU and went home when he was 5 days old--and my bleeding had pretty much stopped!!

Tonya said...

YOU GO girl! No cycle for THAT long makes me wish I were still nursing. (Although our youngest is 7 and that'd be kinda weird) LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, it's really sweet of you to take the time to post information like this. Here's something I've learned. I thought that you had to have given birth to breastfeed... however, when my sis-in-law started her adoption process she learned that she could nurse her baby. (She didn't, but it was still neat to know)

Shannon @ Gabi's World said...

Happy 17 months! Preston will be 16 months tomorrow (22nd)! Man, I am so behind in my blog reads, I am trying to get caught up right now on yours! Between the 2 jobs, kids, and now my MIL living with us, I am so pressed for any "me time." Congrats to your friend on the birth of her twins! I can't wait to see the pics!