Yaatri

Why such an assumption? The poster you refer to as a lady is of the other gender.

Yaatri

In some cases it is painful. That is the only thing this poster is right about. Everything else is so.....so republican.

Yaatri

Somehow, I knew this would come up. If living in a city that saw devastation, makes one absolutely right, there are lots of people who are living in Baghdad who have seen just as much devastation if not more.

Yaatri

When a woman nurses the baby on demand, her body adjusts the amount of lactation to the baby's requirements. If your SIL had been able to (I understand, she couldn't) to nurse the baby on demand, the pain issue would have resolved itself in time.

Yaatri

There is also the added benefit of contraception when the baby is exlcusively breastfed and on demand.

ralfp

(Regarding the fact that in the US it's okay to show the breasts of poor African women, but not European, Asian, etc. women, on TV)

Last night's (July 26) Nightline about the starvation in Niger.

What a horribly depressing story (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=979480). I'm posting the link because most Americans care more about one silly CIA employee's husband's visit there than the starvation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Score8

This is a common error (not the spelling kind) that new parents make. Is it less likely that you will have a child? Sure. But, do not perpetuate this myth. It works about as well as 'Family Planning.'

Uterine contractions are a common and somewhat painful side effect of breastfeeding that are perfectly natural. Just another one of those things that moms have to deal with (as though there aren't enough.)

What can be more painful (according to the Mrs.) and more uncomfortable is the pumping. It is manageable when done in the home, but finding a place at work or while traveling to bust out the Barbarella contraption, which makes a racket, brings a bit more humility into the process than is probably necessary.

tazi

They also help to restore your body to pre-baby form. As I said though, I never experienced any pain.

Yaatri

Thanks for pointing out the errors. I am an awful typist. As far as misconception is concerned, I think you are presuming that I am in the buisness of perpetuating this "myth". Where have I claimed it is a fool proof conceptive method. But it does help. We have discussed that too at length in the past. It would put my words in perespective for you if you seek and search for that thread.

dhuey

Indeed, calling it contraception is not the same as calling it 100% effective contraception. My understanding from reading up on it and from my wife's OB/GYN is that in the first several months of exclusive breastfeeding on demand, the effectiveness is very high -- probably higher than condoms. After five or six months (i.e., introduction of other food for baby), it starts to get a bit risky to rely on it. The problem is that the mother will ovulate before she knows that she's back on her cycle.

Yaatri

You are absolutely right. My wife told me that it could be take as long as 14 months as long as 14 months after the birth of the first baby for a woman to ovulate. It's not like as soon as other foods are introduced, the woman starts ovulating. There maybe other factors too. The amount of time sopent with the baby might be a factor too. If the baby sleeps with the mother, the baby not only nurses during the night, thus increasing the nursing time and continuing the demand on the body to keep on lactating at a higher level than would be necessary otherwise.

both my sons are strong adovcates of breastfeeding. Not fanatics like some people at La Leche League (sp?). SIDS is almost unheard of in culttures where children are breastfed on demand. And I eman in real time, when the baby is right next to you. When the baby falls alseep nursing, and neverlets go even when asleep. The baby might wake up off and on, take a few swigs and sleep.

I am going to go a little off topic here. I ask my younger son, now 8, "How come you are so smart?" "I don't knowwwwww maybe becaususe mommy gave me nummy?" Nummy, from yummy, is our word for breast milk as well as breasts. He says he still misses it. We were talking about how babies and mommies recognise each other. I told him that mommmy responds to a lot more than just visible clues. For example, when a mommy hears her baby cry she starts a let down imemdiately. SOmetiems it happens even when it's some other baby crying.

He said, "lets all snuggle up to mommy and cry." He snuggled up to her and started to pretend crying like a baby.

Yaatri

There is a lot we can learn from other, 3rd world cultures where many people still live like they did before modern medicine and without pressures of modern urban life, and keep in mind that not every thing OB/GYN or a pediatrician tells us may be correct. We all know that 50 years ago or so they told women that breastfeeding was not necessafry, that it was clean. My MIL even took a shot in her berasts to make her stop lactating.

In addition to lower infant mortality and access to better medicine, stil far from adequate by western standards, is also contributing to increasing birth rate. Because of widespread malnutrition, and well intentioned efforts by internantional aid organisations to reduce malnutriton among women and children by supplying baby formula. When a large number of mothers do not or cannot nurse their babies, the gap between pregnancies decreases. The other side of the coin is that many babies die, not because the baby formula supplied by an aid agency was contaminated, but the water tham women used was most often was. Many babies die of simple dehydration from upset tummy caused by bad water.

CDTraveler

Grief, I thought this myth had been debunked ages ago. This such an "effective" method of contraception that of the 12 women in my new mom's group, the 2 who believed it, and nursed on demand around the clock, both ended up giving birth to a second child within 12 months of the birth of the first.

My doctor, a fertility specialist, says that for many woman, being around an infant constantly may actually cause them to ovulate more than otherwise expected. She cites the phenomenon of infertile women who adopt - and then find themselves pregnant with just a few months. No, they are not lactacting, but she believes (and has spent years studying) that a woman's body responds in as yet unknown ways to the presence of an infant by becoming more fertile.

If you are breastfeeding and don't want to get pregnant again - use real contraception, not myths.

Yaatri

Good grief, people keep misunderstanding. Where have I said it is a fool proof method of contraception?

CDTraveler

You didn't, and I didn't. However, by calling it "contraception" at all, you imply that it has some measure of effectiveness. It doesn't.