[Maternal lactation and birth spacing: importance of obtaining information in public health policy]. / Lactancia materna y espaciamiento de los nacimientos: importancia de la obtención de información para las políticas de salud pública.

ABSTRACT

The presence of lactational amenorrhoea cannot be fully relied upon to protect the individual mother against becoming pregnant. Nevertheless, the use of breast-feeding as a birth-spacing mechanism has important implications for global health policy. This article identifies the information that should be collected and examined as a basis for developing guidelines on how to reduce the dual protection afforded by post-partum lactational amenorrhoea and other family planning methods, and discusses when such methods should be introduced.