Breastfeeding

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Related Topics pages:

Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM)

Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV

Breast milk is often the primary, and sometimes sole, source of nutrition for infants in developing countries. Researchers at Family Health International (FHI) contributed to studies showing that breastfeeding also can provide temporary contraception to women who practice the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM). LAM is about 98-percent effective in protecting against pregnancy if the following criteria are met: the mother has not experienced the return of her menstrual periods; the mother is fully or almost fully breastfeeding; and the baby is less than six months old.
 
When an HIV-positive woman breastfeeds, she risks transmitting the virus to her baby. FHI has produced evidence-based strategies to help HIV-infected women carefully balance the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child with the well-known benefits of breastfeeding.

FHI scientists are also developing a device that promises to inactivate the virus in breast milk without harming the child--allowing HIV-positive women to breastfeed their infants safely. The centerpiece of the "Just Milk" project, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a standard nipple shield (typically used when infants have trouble latching on to the breast) that is equipped with a tiny fabric disk treated with an inexpensive microbicide. The disk is designed to act as a "filter," inactivating any HIV in the milk. Preliminary results suggest that the microbicide released from the shield inactivates HIV quickly and efficiently.