The pill, for example, has certain benefits but along with the benefits, it also has side effects. In addition, if you forget to take the pill, the chances of pregnancy are higher.
Condoms act as a barrier while making love, and tend to diminish pleasure. With natural family planning, this does not arise.
How effective is it?
This method of family planning is not 100% effective. In fact, the only methods of contraception that are 100% effective are: 1. Total abstinence 2. Removal of the ovaries 3. Castration
Vasectomy and tubal ligation have very low failure rates, and are almost 100% effective, but not quite. 14 out of every 10,000 vasectomies, 4 out of every 10,000 tubal ligations, result in pregnancies.
Do I need to have a regular cycle?
You need not necessarily have a regular cycle for this method to be effective, though if your cycle is completely skewed, you could consider another method of birth control. However, even if you are a little irregular, you can tell when you are ovulating because of the discharge of cervical mucus. Therefore, you can avoid having sex during this time. If you are regular with your period, natural family planning is 98% effective.
How can I tell when I am fertile?
As men are normally always fertile, this method of family planning depends on when the woman is fertile, and having intercourse when the woman is not fertile. So how can you tell when a woman is fertile? A woman is fertile when she discharges cervical mucus. The mucus has a consistency of raw egg-white. After ovulation, the mucus disappears. Other signs include a slight rise in a woman's body temperature when she wakes up in the morning. This is best measured with a Basal Body Thermometer, as the rise is often just 0.5 degrees. She may also get a feeling called ovulation pain.
What advantages does this method of family planning have over others?
The natural method of family planning helps build the foundation for a better marriage, because a certain amount of healthy abstinence is introduced in the relationship. It also helps develop self-control. In addition, it is a method done and discussed together. Both partners keep a tab on the wife's menstrual cycle, and both are involved in this method of family planning. By keeping a tab of the wife's cycle, any irregularity can immediately be noticed, and the doctor can be alerted. However, if the pill is regulating the cycle, any health issues may go unnoticed.
Before practicing natural family planning yourself, you should consult your gynecologist for further information. Certain doctors are skeptical about the effectiveness of this method, as doctors tend to be of any natural methods. There are courses held throughout the world, which coach couples to practice natural family planning effectively. It must be remembered that this method not the rhythm method of birth control, and is more scientific and effective.
Natural family planning has been shown to be up to 99% effective when used for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy. It can also be used as a method of assisting infertile couples to achieve pregnancy. Sometimes couples learning the cervical mucus method of natural family planning experience confusion as they attempt to accurately document the signs of fertility. NFPList.org has published a flowchart that demonstrates an algorithm for making cervical mucus observations which can be summarized as follows:
The very first thing that must be done before anything else is to decide if the cervical mucus was lubricative. The lubricative sensation must be obvious. If the mucus is lubricative, it is considered ?peak-type? indicating that it is very fertile. It is still necessary to observe and finger test a lubricative observation so that the characteristics of the peak-type mucus are documented completely. Determining whether or not lubrication is present occurs before any visual observations are made?this is important to remember!
If the mucus is not lubricative, then it is necessary to determine whether or not anything can be lifted from the tissue or stretched between the fingers. If there is no ?lift? AND there is no lubrication, then the observation is essentially dry (see flowchart). If the mucus can be lifted, then the finger testing procedure must be performed.
When lifting mucus, if it is either stretchy (1 inch or more) or at least a portion of it is clear (meaning that it looks like saran-wrap and you can see through it), then it is considered peak-type mucus. If non-lubricative mucus is not stretchy AND it is also not clear, then it is considered non-peak mucus. It should be noted that non-peak mucus is also fertile meaning that intercourse on a day of non-peak mucus would be expected to lead to a pregnancy.
This brief algorithm for making cervical mucus observations is obviously not meant to substitute for proper instruction with a certified natural family planning instructor. Similarly, without proper instruction, natural family planning cannot be expected to be as reliable as has been shown in published studies. While there are multiple methods of natural family planning that rely on the observation of cervical mucus based on very similar decision making strategies, they may not all be exactly the same.
If this article has peaked your interest in natural family planning, then perhaps now is the best time to find someone in your area who can introduce you to a this wonderful, safe, effective, and low cost way of understanding and learning to live in harmony with your fertility. What are you waiting for?
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