LACTATIONAL AMENORRHEA METHOD OF FAMILY-P LANNING

The contraceptive effects of breast-feeding still play an important ro le in child spacing in developing countries; however, its use as a met hod of family planning was untested until 1988, when an international group of researchers met in Bellagio and reached a consensus statement that reads ''The maximum birth spacing effect of breast-feeding is ac hieved when mothers fully or nearly fully breast-feed and remain ameno rrheic (and no menstrual bleeding has occurred before the 56th post-pa rtum day). When these two conditions are present, breast-feeding provi des more than 98% of protection in the first six months. That became t he basis for a method of family planning called the lactational amenor rhea method (LAM). Which is a new introductory family planning method that simultaneously promotes child spacing and breast-feeding, with it s optimal nutrition and disease preventive benefits for the infant. Th is method is based on the natural infertility caused by the hormonal s uppression of ovulation.