Prolonged Breastfeeding as a Birth Spacing Method

Abstract

Studies of European populations rural Punjab India and Taiwan have shown that women who nursed for 1-2 years and did not practice contraception had birth intervals 5-10 months longer than those who did not nurse. Lactation has a fertility reducing effect that lasts a little less than a year. Conception rates are also reduced during a period of lactation amenorrhea. Comparisons with newly married women show that after the onset of menstruation fecundity is reduced as a consequence of nursing. The duration of lactation was directly related to the length of the anovulatory period. Partial breastfeeding is not as effective in delaying ovulation as full breastfeeding. Where family planning services are available there should be no reliance on lactation as a birth spacing method.