<<<1-26-2005......
..My questions are: Do mothers know about LAM?  Is it still widely used
today? What benefits have you seen with the LAM? Thank you, Erin, SN>>>

In our general population, many women have heard something about
breastfeeding postponing menses but most [unfortunately] also believe this
can't be relied on to avoid a pregnancy. In the 1980s I taught Natural
Family Planning classes through the local Catholic Archdiocese. The
certified volunteer teachers at that time came from both the Couple to
Couple League [USA's Sheila Kippley: 'Breastfeeding and Natural
Childspacing'] and WOOMB - World Organization of Ovulation Method-Billings
[Austalia's John & Evelyn Billings MDs] which I trained through. The
clients in these classes included women/couples motivated to seek this
information from various naturalistic lifestyle choices and/or religous
traditions including Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. Some pregnant or
nursing clients sought information specifically focused on using
breastfeeding to delay ovulation. In relation to the general population,
by no means would LAM be considered "widely used" in this country, either
in the 1980s when I was involved in these classes, or in the 1990s when it
was termed LAM and the World Health Organization published its set list of
guidelines. [First LAM session at La Leche Leauge International Conference
1997 by Miriam H Labbok, MD. ?] However, during both of these periods,
breastfeeding [vs artificial contraception] was globally credited in
preventing the greatest number of pregnancies. You would need to further
reaserch whether that estimate is still valid. Benefits of using LAM
include eliminating contraceptive medications in the mother and therefore
eliminating concerns of its effects on milk supply, MER, and baby. Women
using LAM will of course be effectively following the same recommendations
which ensure successful breastfeeding: full milk supply, good weight gain,
delayed solids, etc. And LAM is free, and therefore available to every
woman with the information to use it. Hope this information is helpful.

Denise Bastien LLLL IBCLC RN BSN

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html