I heartily agree with nearly all of Anne's comments. I disagree, however,
that natural family planning is considered unreliable and unscientific
because it is not well studied. M. Labbok and others have published many
studies on the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) which is a form of
natural family planning, and I find these studies impressive.

My opinion of why NFP is considered "unreliable" is that it is frequently
lumped in with the "rhythm" method in popular text books. Of course, anyone
who is fluent in the NFP  concept knows that NFP most definitely is *not*
equivalent to rhythm. Further, anything that requires one to exhibit some
self-control is likely to get labeled as unreliable. Finally, LAM is less
reliable when the woman does not exclusively breastfeed. So that includes
most of the US women.

I'm extremely opinionated on this topic, so I'll hush up before I depart
from an objective discourse.


>Natural family planning, like breastfeedring empowers women, but is often
>considered unreliable and unscientific mainly because it is not well
>studied..
>
>--
>Anne Andrianos, MS,RN,IBCLC
>[log in to unmask]


--
Marie Biancuzzo, Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
PO Box 387
Herndon VA 20172
Phone 703-748-0092
Fax 703-758-0891
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