Myth or fact: Breast-feeding prevents pregnancy

Myth

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by Jennifer Wells

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The debate between whether breastfeeding does or does not prevent pregnancy is the classic example of a debate on which both sides agree on the subject matter but simply choose a 'yes' or 'no' label because those are the options at hand.

I chose the 'no' side of the issue because I do not wish anything I write to misdirect any woman, or even worse, teenager, into thinking that she is exempt from pregnancy while nursing and ending up with an unwanted pregnancy.

If you read carefully through the articles at hand, you will note an overwhelming response that pregnancy does release hormones, specifically oxytocin, which causes the menstrual cycle to change or even to cease altogether. What goes unnoticed by the under-informed, however, is that this does not guarantee the cessation of ovulation (the monthly release of eggs). Even a woman who has no noticeable menses while breastfeeding can release the sporadic egg, some within a week or two after giving birth. This is one reason you are advised to wait 4-6 weeks to continue intercourse, along with the greater need for the body to heal.

Women can argue from personal vantage or as witness to either side of the debate, but without the science that follows, no single argument holds more than personal experience and opinion.

For instance, two of my sisters generally experience no menses whatsoever after the birth for months at a time while they nurse their infants. Neither has become pregnant while nursing, so I could claim it a proven fact for the two of them that breastfeeding is a valid method of birth control. Knowing even more women for whom this was the case would further corroborate that theory in my mind.

However, I regained my menses at six weeks post-birth, in spite of full-time breastfeeding, and went right on birth control (safe for breastfeeding moms) at eight weeks, even though I was physically in no condition to continue with the marital processes because of complications I experienced. Given my first-hand experience, and those of many other women I know personally who shared my experience or some version of, I could say that breastfeeding absolutely does not intervene in the menstruation/ovulati on processes.

In both cases, I have proven my theory with several multiple-birth mothers. In times past, this is all it would take for me to now have a sturdy wives tale to pass along. The proof was, as they say, in the pudding.

However, we live in an informational age which leaves us without excuse for being unprepared. Any woman alive, however poor, is welcome to join a library and check out books on pregnancy and postpartum issues. There is a wealth of current, accurate information for the reading if we will make the time.

Simply put, no matter on which part of this debate you happen to fall, the simple science is that postpartum pregnancy is entirely up to the random and unpredictable hormonal and physical actions of each woman's body. This game of fate, as it were, makes a good argument for all women who do not wish to end up pregnant after giving birth to choose and stick with some form of birth control until they are again ready to re-enter motherhood.

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