Fw: Breastfeeding infertility

[Guest guest]



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I think you have provided an answer to one of your questions in the last sentence of your first paragraph where you wrote, "That is why I am rather unwilling to see any action taken directly to introduce infertility as morally allowed." The breastfeeding mother is not acting DIRECTLY to cause infertility. Her direct action is the perfectly natural action of feeding and nurturing her baby. It is the baby's suckling that triggers a response built into female human nature by God himself. The fact that mothers today may know this and may hope for continued infertility does not in any way negate that what the mother is doing is fulfilling God's plan for baby care.

The moral action of consuming an "oral contraceptive" is not adequately described as the action of "swallowing the pill," just as taking a strychnine pill is not adequately described as "swallowing the pill." The intention or purpose of both is clearly "contra naturam." The purpose or intention of taking anti-baby medications is to render the marriage act sterile, to repeat the sin of Onan, to contradict 20 centuries of teaching about the immorality of unnatural forms of birth control. Pope VI specifically addressed hormonal birth control agents in section 14 of Humanae Vitae: "Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means."

It seems to me that an effort to justify taking the Pill by calling it a means of achieving infertility in some way analogous to breastfeeding infertility is to engage in sophistry. It's not far removed from the sophistry of medically inducing death at the other end of life. After all, the argument might go, the natural processes if left to themselves will soon lead to the cessation of heart-beating. So all we are doing with our death-inducing meds is to hasten the processes of nature. "Playing God" with birth control agents to prevent conception or the continuation of life has led to "playing God" at the other end of life.

I leave it to the doctors to opine on whether there are any conditions for which the OC or other hormonal birth control agents are good medicine. I would add only that whatever the reason for the medication, its abortifacient potential would require that the woman be sexually abstinent while taking it.

F Kippley"Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality""Natural Family Planning: The Question-Answer Book" an ebook available atwww.NFPandmore.org

Re: Re: breastfeeding and special populations

Dear list,I found Kipley's clarifications very helpful - but I still have some doubts, which I would like to discuss and hear opinions about.First, I think it should be stressed that the main motivation for breastfeeding should be breastfeeding itself, not the infertility caused by it. Otherwise breastfeeding would be instrumentalized. In the real world it is unlikely that a woman would breastfeed only to keep herself from menstruating and thus available for sex, but for the sake of argument - I think this would be contraception.My other concern is the luteal insufficiency following first ovulation before first bleeding. Roughly speaking this effect might reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy by half, increasing the effectiveness of lactational amenorrhea. I think this effect size is similar to the perfect use of the oral contraception and in general I would accept such risk when OC is used as a medication. (I know that there are some results suggesting that the use of OC is never justified, but it is not general knowledge. So I stick with interpretation that in such cases the use of OC is justifiable due to the double effect principle.) However, for breastfeeding it would start to be a problem, when it would be used primarily for family planning.Lactational amenorrhea is increasingly mentioned in the context of informed consent for potential postfertilization effects. I do not fully agree with the logic used in these arguments, which usually do not consider exceptional situation of breastfeeding, but in this context I would rather advocate the use of mucus observation during breastfeeding than blindly relying on the absence of menstruation.So my conclusion is: breastfeeding is for breastfeeding, its other effects can be welcomed, but should be not extensively sought for themselves.I do not advocate against any of the recommendations of ecological breastfeeding or alternatives - it is only about the emphasis.Regards Mikolajczyk, MD