LAM and The Seven Standards

For women who meet the criteria (listed below), LAM is 98% effective during the first six months postpartum.
Breastfeeding must be the infant’s only (or almost only) source of nutrition.
Feeding formula, pumping instead of nursing and feeding solids all reduce the effectiveness of LAM.
The infant must breastfeed at least every four hours during the day and at least every six hours at night.
The infant must be less than six months old.
The woman must not have had a period after 56 days post-partum (when determining fertility, bleeding prior to 56 days post-partum can be ignored).
Ecological breastfeeding is a stricter form of LAM developed by Sheila Kippley and the Couple to Couple League International. Their studies have shown it has a 1% failure rate in the first six months postpartum, and a 6% failure rate before the woman’s first postpartum menstruation.

The Seven Standards of ecological breastfeeding are slightly different from the LAM criteria:
Breastfeeding must be the infant’s only source of nutrition – no formula, no pumping, and (if the infant is less than six months old) no solids.
The infant must be pacified at the breast, not with pacifiers or bottles
The infant must be breastfed often. The standards for LAM are a bare minimum; more frequency is better. Scheduling of feedings should be avoided.
Mothers must sleep with their infants – in the same room, if not in the same bed.
Mothers must not be separated from their infants for more than three hours a day.
Mothers must take daily naps with their infants.
The woman must not have had a period after 56 days post-partum