What is so amazing about people is that when they notice something that preoccupies the perception of people, there is always the risk that facts will be blurred by myth. While it is easy to recognize that such things do happen, explaining why they happen is less clear-cut.

One of the things that is shrouded in both facts and myth is pregnancy. The curtain of ideas surrounding pregnancy is so intense that at times it becomes impossible to tell which one is true and which one is just a product of somebody else’s fancy. One of these myths is the belief that one will not become pregnant when one is breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding and Pregnancy

Before we set out to explain the correlation between breastfeeding and pregnancy, it is best to state off the bat some of the facts. When a woman is breastfeeding, it means that she is feeding her baby straight from her body. On the other hand, pregnancy is commonly defined as a condition wherein a woman is carrying in her womb a baby. So how did breastfeeding and the chances of pregnancy become related?

It is a common belief that a breastfeeding woman will not become pregnant. One must qualify that statement by stating that "a breastfeeding woman will not become pregnant as long as she is breastfeeding." Given that this is so, it will be better to explain why this is so. The truth is while a woman is breastfeeding, she is not likely to become pregnant in the course of lactation. This condition is known in medical circles as the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM). Lactational amenorrhea method is a natural procedure of avoiding pregnancy that is based on the postpartum infertility that only occurs when a woman is fully breastfeeding.

Are All Breastfeeding Women Safe from Pregnancy?

While it is a common belief that breastfeeding will help a woman avoid pregnancies, this is not the case. While it is true that breastfeeding may help a woman avoid becoming pregnant, there are many conditions that she has to fulfill in order to totally avoid pregnancy. Strictly following these requirements is the key to making breastfeeding the best means to avoid pregnancy because it is a natural way to avoiding pregnancies. These factors include the following:

1)The first requirement to make breastfeeding an effective means to help a woman avoid becoming pregnant is that breastfeeding should be the only source of nutrition for the infant. If the mother employs other methods such as pumping and feeding the baby solid foods, the effectiveness of lactational amenorrhea method is greatly reduced.

2)To make breastfeeding a more effective means of avoiding pregnancy, a mother must breastfeed her child at least four hours during the daytime and at least every six hours at nighttime.

3)The infant must not be older than six months.

4)Another key factor in making lactational amenorrhea method prevent pregnancy is that the woman must not have had the condition before.