ents, delays the onset of ovulation and monthly menstrual cycles" (Dermer 1), which contributes significantly to family planning and child-spacing. In doing this, the mother is practicing the lactactional amenorrhea method which is over ninety-eight percent effective in preventing pregnancy the first six months postpartum. The level of protection then decreases in relation to the intensity and frequency of breastfeeding. In Senegal, where mothers breast feed for an average of nineteen months, and in Bangladesh, where mothers breast feed an average of thirty-one months, births are at least two years apart. The child-spacing effect of breast feeding is especially relevant to women for whom contraception is unaffordable, unavailable, or unacceptable. Breast milk is readily available and convenient, no bottles to warm or formula to mix. In contrast, reliance on bottle-feeding is particularly risky for families with low incomes and limited access to clean water and fuel. Too often, contamination occurs when bottles cannot be properly sterilized, and malnutrition results when babies are bottle-fed liquids such as diluted juices or teas.The economics of breast-feeding are also important to consider. Breast-feeding saves families time and money that would be spent on purchasing infant formula, bottles, health care, and fuel. For example, "the average cost of feeding a six-month old baby is eight hundred and fifty-five dollars for one year" (Brockport 3), using powdered formula. Concentrated and ready to use formulas cost even more. This is equal to at least the average household's monthly per capita income in many developing countries. On the average, families spend two hundred dollars in health care claims for the average one year old artificially fed baby. Because breast fed babies are healthier than those who receive breast milk substitutes, families save time and money that would be spent on visits to health practitioners and on p...
