Comments on: Breastfeeding: An Optimal Way to Space Babies

By: Oksana

Oksana — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:34:13 +0000

I forgot to mention, to working moms: my sister is a working mom, and pumped at work every 3 -4 hours, and nursed on demand when at home, day and night, and she didnt get a period at all. When her baby was a year old, she decided to quit the daytime pumping during work, and she got pregnant without ever getting a period. So it does work for working moms too. You just have to be committed.

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:05:28 +0000

Oksana, I agree that breastfeeding as you describe will usually delay your period.

By: Oksana

Oksana — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:33:19 +0000

Just because you are breastfeeding, that doesnt mean you wont get pregnant. It really depends HOW you breastfeed. You should have baby nurse whenever he wants, and not go more than 3 hours in between. And nurse at night as well. Introducing solids doesnt mean you need to exchange a nursing session for a solid meal.People make a big deal over offering solids. My first son, I nursed him a lot, whenver he wanted, day or night. Also, I only offered solids when he expressed interest, which was around 7 – 8 months, but just offered, until he didnt seem interested, and kept nursing fully. At 14 months, he fell, and split his lip, and didnt want to nurse for 8 hours, so I got my period two weeks later, and got pregnant when he was 15 months. My daughter is 7 1/2 months, and I still havent had a period.

By: anonymous poster

anonymous poster — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:12:04 +0000

Mom in Israel,
I wrote that my pregnancy was unexpected, because I would have preferred to have had more time with my infant before becoming pregnant again (especially because pregnancy decreases my milk supply by about 50%, which was how I realized I was pregnant). Nevertheless, I was happy to be having another baby, and she is much loved today. I posted my experience because so many people seem to think that breastfeeding, expecially tandem nursing, will prevent pregnancy. I just noticed Yael’s post & wanted to add that I was definitely nursing more than 100 minutes per day, especially because my infant & toddler didn’t always nurse together.

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:29:48 +0000

I was sure I had responded to the earlier comments but I guess I never did.
Mia, thanks for sharing your story.
Sylvia, understood!
Yael, I haven’t heard that. I wonder if it appears in the new book.
I’m sorry the commenting format doesn’t suit you, Katherine. I’ll keep it in mind as I learn how to develop the site more.
Anonymous poster:
I’m sorry you had to deal with an unexpected pregnancy. I think that ecological breastfeeding for child spacing works best for people who don’t want to use birth control at all (for example strict Catholics and some Orthodox Jews) and are happy with whatever spacing they get. And, of course, who enjoy the closeness with the baby. As I mentioned, with ecological bf the key is recognizing the signs of a return to fertility. After six months there may not be a warning period before the first ovulation. I also know many people who got pregnant while using a diaphragm.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

By: anonymous poster

anonymous poster — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:37:09 +0000

Like Miriam, I met all the qualifications for ecological breastfeeding when nursing my newborn, except I was also tandem-nursing his older sister. Before my period returned I also started using a diaphragm (and was careful to use it properly), because I wanted to wait a year before becoming pregnant again. I figured that even though the diaphragm is not as effective as other methods, in combination with tandem nursing it would be sufficicently effective. And I wanted to avoid using the pill, which I knew from prior experience would affect my milk supply. Nevertheless I became pregnant before my infant was 9 months old. Ecological breastfeeding does not work for everyone.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:36:55 +0000

MII just wanted to say I don’t like the comment feedback format. Now it delivers the entire comment into my inbox, as opposed to just an announcement about new comments. It means people are less likely to come back to the site to rejoin the conversation, and also it is disjointed because you don’t see all the comments together. I prefer the old format. Just wanted to let you know…

By: Yael in IN

Yael in IN — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:33:26 +0000

I had read all these requirements for Ecological Breastfeeding and still heard people telling me they got their periods back sooner than the average. I recently read some LLL literature that said the actual number of minutes breast feeding (along with night feedings/sleeping together) seems to be the key to delaying fertility. I remember the article saying a woman has to BF during the day for 100+ minutes(I could be wrong about the amount of time) to delay fertility.

By: sylvia_rachel

sylvia_rachel — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:08:29 +0000

Oh, of course, I know that I was just pointing out that I am able to report on some results of “ecological breastfeeding” but not that one.

By: Mia

Mia — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:23:13 +0000

Katherine we must live in different Israels. I do know of people like that but it is very rare with the mothers I know.
I nursed my children exclusively until the started eating Mutzakim food (don’t remember the term in English) and that was the same time I returned to work. My daughter never took a bottle and would eat before I left and would wait for me to come home. This made the metapelet crazy. And for a while I would meet them for a midday nursing.
I nursed my daughter until she was 2.
And I nursed my son until I wanted to get pregnant again when he was 21 months old.
I did almost everything on the list, except for that I went back to work. And it worked for me.