Lactational amenorrhea as a method of family planning
Canto-de Cetina, T.; Polanco-Reyes, L.
Salud Publica de Mexico 38(1): 58-63
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-3634 PMID: 8650598 Document Number: 201776
The contraceptive effects of breast-feeding still play an important role in child spacing in developing countries; however, its use as a method of family planning was untested until 1988, when an international group of researchers met in Bellagio and reached a consensus statement that reads "The maximum birth spacing effect of breast-feeding is achieved when mothers fully or nearly fully breast-feed and remain amenorrheic (and no menstrual bleeding has occurred before the 56th postpartum day). When these two conditions are present, breast-feeding provides more than 98% of protection in the first six months. That became the basis for a method of family planning called the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM). Which is a new introductory family planning method that simultaneously promotes child spacing and breast-feeding, with its optimal nutrition and disease preventive benefits for the infant. This method is based on the natural infertility caused by the hormonal suppression of ovulation.