Nurse-midwives' knowledge and promotion of lactational amenorrhea and other natural family-planning methods for child spacing

The purpose of this study was to describe and assess certified nurse.-midwi ves' (CNMs) knowledge and promotion of two modalities for child spacing, na tural family-planning (NFP) and the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM). On e thousand two hundred CNMs were randomly selected from a national membersh ip list and mailed a 24-item questionnaire on NFP and LAM. Of the 514 respo ndents (42.8% return rate). 450 (87.5%) were currently practicing as CNMs. Respondents had an average age of 46 years, with an average of 10 years of practice. CNMs ranked NFP as the ninth most used and the eighth most effect ive family-planning method in their practice, with an average perceived met hod-effectiveness of 88% and use-effectiveness of 70%. Although most respon dents felt somewhat prepared during their education program to provide NFP, only 22% would offer NFP as a family-planning option for child spacing. (C ) 2001 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.