Multicenter study of the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM): I. Efficacy, duration, and implications for clinical application. Clinical study of the lactational amenorrhoea method for family planning. An assessment of the nine-month lactational amenorrhea method (MAMA-9) in Rwanda. A study of breastfeeding and the return of menses in Hoima District, Uganda. Effectiveness of the lactational amenorrhea method in Pakistan. Contraceptive efficacy of lactational amenorrhea in urban Chilean women. Breastfeeding pattern and the duration of lactational amenorrhea in urban Chilean women. Lactational amenorrhea and the recovery of ovulation and fertility in fully nursing Chilean women. Santiago Breastfeeding Promotion Program: preliminary results of an intervention study.
A multicenter study of the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) was carried out to test the acceptability and efficacy of the method. Additionally, the data are used to test new constructs for improvement of method criteria. A protocol was designed at the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University Medical Center, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center, and was reviewed and modified in collaboration with the co-sponsors, the World Health Organization and the South to South Cooperation for Reproductive Health, and the principal investigators from each site. Data were gathered prospectively on LAM acceptors at 11 sites. Data were entered and cleaned on-site and further cleaned and analyzed at IRH, using country-level and pooled data to produce descriptive statistics and life tables. The 98+% efficacy of LAM is confirmed in a wide variety of settings. In addition, the results yield insight on the possibility of continued use beyond 6 months. LAM is found to be highly effective as an introductory postpartum method when offered in a variety of cultures, health care settings, socio-economic strata, and industrial and developing country locales. In addition, LAM acceptance complements breastfeeding behaviors without ongoing breastfeeding support services. The parameters studied yield high efficacy and method continuation. Therefore, the basic tenets of the 1995 Bellagio consensus on LAM is reconfirmed and it is recommended that LAM be reconfirmed and it is recommended that LAM be incorporated into hospital, maternity, family planning, maternal and child health, and other primary health care settings. The effect of breastfeeding on fertility is well known; however, its use as a method of family planning was, until recently, untested. In 1988, the Bellagio Consensus Conference proposed guidelines that became the basis for a method of family planning called the lactational amenorrhoea method (LAM). The principle of LAM is that a woman who continues to fully or nearly fully breastfeed her infant and who remains amenorrhoeic during the first 6 months postpartum is protected from pregnancy during that time. We have assessed this method in the context of a breastfeeding support intervention study of 422 middle-class women in urban Santiago, Chile. The cumulative 6-month life-table pregnancy rate was 0.45% among women who relied on LAM as their only family planning method (1 woman pregnant in month 6). The findings indicate that LAM, with its high acceptance and efficacy, is a viable method of family planning and can safely serve as an introductory method for breastfeeding women. This report presents a secondary data analysis based on prospectively collected records gathered during a field assessment that was carried out in Rwanda in August 1993. The assessment used service statistics and follow-up interviews to evaluate the efficacy of a modified lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) as a nine-month introductory postpartum natural family planning method. The program, carried out by Action Familiale Rwandaise (AFR), reflects high efficacy of the method in a compliant sample that sought this method followed by another form of family planning. These results are promising and provide guidance for the extended use of LAM past six months. Programmatic findings suggest that studies be conducted of the contribution of extended LAM to improved weaning practices, the high efficacy of continued reliance on substantial lactation and amenorrhea beyond nine months, and male involvement in LAM and breastfeeding. The effect of breastfeeding on reestablishment of ovulation and fertility and on birth spacing are now well known. A study was conducted on lactational amenorrhoea (LAM) at 180 days in Hoima District, Uganda in order to understand whether and how LAM could be applied in fertility control and birth spacing. Since the introduction of supplementary food by Ugandan women does not replace or substitute for breastfeeding, a study was designed to determine if LAM was effective irrespective of supplementation of infant's diet. One hundred and fifty four mother/child pairs were entered into the study and 134 women completed the sixth month of the study. At the end of the period, eighty four women (62.7%) were amenorrhoeic of whom only 33 (39.3%) were exclusively breastfeeding and no woman had dropped out of the study because of pregnancy or the use of other family planning methods other than LAM. The study confirmed that LAM could be applicable in Uganda to the majority of the breastfeeding women (62.7%). It is expected that if health workers increase the intensity of breastfeeding support as well as the women's knowledge and motivation to use LAM for family planning, this would contribute to children's health as well as to birth spacing that is one of the major factors related to infant deaths. According to data from this study, the return of menses is irrespective of whether supplements have been introduced and their frequency. To determine the efficacy of the lactational amenorrhea method of family planning (amenorrhea during full or nearly full breastfeeding for 6 months postpartum).
                Prospective noncomparative study.
                Normal breastfeeding women in Karachi and Multan, Pakistan, most delivered at home by a midwife.
                Three hundred ninety-nine newly delivered mothers who successfully had breastfed a previous child and chose the lactational amenorrhea method to prevent a subsequent pregnancy, 391 of whom were followed for a full year.
                Mothers were taught, before or shortly after delivery, to use the method and were interviewed in their homes each month by a Lady Health Visitor.
                Life-table pregnancy rates. Periods of postpartum or lactational abstinence were excluded in the calculation of the pregnancy rates.
                During full or nearly full breastfeeding, while the women were amenorrheic and not otherwise contracepting, the rate of pregnancy was 0.6%. The pregnancy rate during lactational amenorrhea alone was 1.1% at 1 year postpartum.
                The lactational amenorrhea method was found to be highly effective for 6 months. A high degree of contraceptive protection endures for a full year during lactational amenorrhea, but not after the return of menses during breastfeeding. The contraceptive efficacy of breastfeeding was assessed in 236 healthy urban women who were followed at monthly intervals during the first postpartum year. Proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the influence of time postpartum, menstrual status and breastfeeding pattern upon the risk of pregnancy. Time and menstrual status had a highly significant effect on this risk. Those women who remained in amenorrhea had cumulative probabilities of pregnancy of 0.9% and 17% at 6 and 12 months postpartum, respectively. In those who recovered menstrual cycles, the risk rose to 36% and 55% at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Milk supplementation also increased significantly the risk when considered alone but not when time and/or menstrual status were included in the analysis. However, amenorrheic women who introduced bottle feeding, had a higher risk of pregnancy after 6 months postpartum than those who remained fully nursing. The analysis was unable to detect a significant influence of the nursing frequency. The results confirm that lactational amenorrhea is an effective contraceptive during the first six months postpartum. The first postpartum bleeding marks a great increase in the risk of pregnancy. Supplementation also increases the risk, particularly in amenorrheic women. The influence of the breastfeeding pattern and several clinical variables upon the duration of postpartum amenorrhea was assessed in a group of healthy women selected for having had a normal pregnancy and delivery and being highly motivated for prolonged breastfeeding on demand. 676 women who were fully nursing at the second month postpartum entered the study. Supplements were administered to 11% and 48% of the infants by the end of the 3rd and 6th month, respectively. The first bleeding was experienced before the end of the sixth month postpartum by 57% of the cases. Supplementation had a strong negative influence while nursing frequency had a significant positive influence upon the length of amenorrhea. Notwithstanding, a frequency of 8+ suckling episodes per 24 h could not maintain amenorrhea in around half of the subjects. Age and parity had a moderate negative influence upon the risk of experiencing the first postpartum bleeding. Maternal weight and ponderal index, infant sex, birth weight and growth rate showed no significant influence upon the length of amenorrhea. In this urban population selected for having the highest motivation and best breastfeeding performance, the association of breastfeeding with amenorrhea was weak in comparison with what has been described for other populations. The risk of experiencing the first bleeding was reduced while fully breastfeeding with a high number of nursing episodes per day and night, particularly in older women with higher parity. But even in such situation 25% and 50% of the women had started to cycle by the end of the fifth and eight postpartum month. The probability of experiencing the first postpartum bleeding, the first ovulation and the risk of pregnancy during exclusive breastfeeding was assessed in a selected group of urban Chilean women. Admission criteria included having had a normal pregnancy and a vaginal term delivery of a healthy infant and the desire to maintain breastfeeding for as long as possible. The risk of bleeding and the recovery of ovulation was assessed in 48 women selected for being amenorrheic and fully nursing at day 75 postpartum and their willingness to participate in the blood sampling protocol. The first bleeding and ovulation was experienced while fully nursing by 28% and 26% of these subjects, respectively, at day 180 postpartum. The probability of experiencing the first bleeding and the probability of pregnancy during full nursing were calculated for 236 women not contracepting who were enrolled during the first month postpartum. The cumulative probability of bleeding and of pregnancy was 52% and 9.4% at day 180 postpartum, respectively. The risk of pregnancy was less than 2% in the subset of amenorrheic cases. In this urban population selected for having the highest motivation and best breastfeeding performance, the association of breastfeeding with infertility was too weak to serve as an effective birth spacer, except for the period of lactational amenorrhea. When the first postpartum bleeding took place before the sixth postpartum month in fully nursing women, it had a good predictive value to indicate the onset of a higher risk period. A prospective intervention study was undertaken in Santiago, Chile, to assess the impact of a breastfeeding promotion program and the acceptance and use of the lactational amenorrhea method for natural child spacing. The intervention study significantly increased the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and amenorrhea. In addition, the use of the lactational amenorrhea method proved highly efficacious, with an unplanned pregnancy rate of less than 0.5% by 6-month cumulative life table. Total family planning coverage at 6 months was increased in the intervention group.
We found no clear differences in life table pregnancy rates between women using LAM and being supported in doing so, and fully breastfeeding amenorrheic women not using any method. Because the length of lactation amenorrhea in women using LAM was very different between the populations studied, and is population specific, it is uncertain whether the LAM extends lactational amenorrhea.