Natural Family Planning - The Billing's Method

Natural Family Planning is the alternative to birth control pills most commonly espoused by the Roman Catholic Church. This form of birth control is very effective when used properly, but there are still many women leery of it because it's not as effective as the Pill or a condom. The Billing's Method relies heavily on a woman knowing exactly how her body responds during ovulation and what to expect from it, so it's important to understand how this method works before embarking on it.

The Billing's Method works by understanding how your body reacts to ovulation. In ovulation, the mucus that is excreted through the cervix is very different from the regular mucus that is found naturally in a woman. It is sticky, white and has the consistency of uncooked egg whites, making it easy to spot once you know what you're looking for. Another factor is a rise in body temperature during ovulation and though it's not necessary to chart this (because body temperatures can rise from so many other factors) it's something to keep an eye out for. Some women also have different sensations around the vulva and clitoris when they're ovulating; they may feel sexual sensations more intensely for example. Other women have problems with bloating and minor cramping when they're ovulating.

Once you start keeping track of these sensations in the time of ovulation, then it becomes much easier to figure out when you're most fertile and thus should avoid sexual intercourse. Women are most fertile for about one hundred and twenty hours during ovulation and their body's reactions make them ideal for holding sperm; the mucus for example is a perfect place for sperm to stay without harm.

Keeping track of the ovulation symptoms is key to this method working because this way you can take into account changes in your system that would affect your menstrual cycle. It also works well for women who are naturally irregular since you go on a month by month case instead of trying to predict it. However, you don't have to do much more than keep track of your symptoms and chart them; you don't have to take a body temperature or do any internal checks; you just have to keep track of the changes in your body.

The Billing's Method of natural family planning should only be done under the supervision of an instructor, at least for the first while, because although it has a 90% or more rate of effectiveness, it is only effective when it's done properly. You can find instructors online or by talking to your doctor about this method of family planning. The Billing's Method, when properly done, is a great way to control your chances of pregnancy without worrying about taking drugs or using internal devices and is often the only way for those of a religious bent to control their rate of pregnancy.

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Natural Family Planning Methods - Safe, Inexpensive and No Side ...

Family planning has been a necessity since time unknown. An unmarried or a married couple is cautious about unwanted pregnancies since they are not prepared for it all the time. There are innumerous methods available today that are both effective and foolproof. However, these methods that are developed by a lot of scientific research may prove to be impractical in cases where certain customs and rituals prohibit the use of it or it is the cost of these methods that are a matter of concern or lastly, the dreadful side effects for the women that may hinder their normal lifestyle. Even before these artificially fabricated methods were developed, man has been practicing natural methods of birth control for ages now. Natural family planning methods are not only safe but they are 100% side-effects-free and inexpensive as well.

To implement these methods onto your regular birth control measures you need proper education of the same as well as a lot of practice to get a hang of it. With limited knowledge and improper calculations there is no guarantee that it would not lead to pregnancy that is uncalled for. So let's have a look at all these natural family planning methods to gain more knowledge about them.

1. Standard Days Method:

This method is majorly based on a lot of scientific research undertaken on 7,500 different menstrual cycles. Understanding this method is simple. The first day of your periods is the Day 1 of your cycle. From Day1 to Day7 you are infertile so it is safe to have unprotected sex. From Day8 to Day19 you are at your most fertile phase. You must use alternative contraception or have no intercourse at all. Day20 to Day 32 is again safe to practice sex. This method is applicable to only those women whose menstrual cycle is between 26-32 days.

This method needs no calculations, record-keeping or physical exams like in other natural family planning methods. To assist you with this method a colored beaded chain is available in the market. A rubber ring on the beads helps you keep a track of your fertile and infertile days by regularly changing its position over the 32 beads each day.

2. The Ovulation method:

This is also referred to as the cervical mucus method. It is based on interpreting the appearance and feel of the cervical mucus secretions. At the peak of fertility these secretions are clear in texture, sticky and wet in consistency and also stretchy. It resembles the egg white of an uncooked egg. This helps you understand your fertile days.

3. Symptothermal method:

This method involves observing the overall bodily changes that occur on account of ovulation. You see changes in cervical mucus, a rise in the body temperature by 0.2- 0.4 degree Celsius. a change in the position and feel of the opening of the cervix and also other occurrences of bloating, pain in the area of the ovaries, low backache and breast tenderness.

4. Rhythm method:

This method is a little unreliable because it depends on calculations of certain days of a woman's cycle which have high chances of variations. It is a method based on three line of thought. Firstly, a woman ovulates 14 days before the onset of menstruation, plus or minus 2 days. Secondly, sperm can survive inside a woman's body for 3 days. Thirdly, an egg can only be fertilized within 24 hours of its release from the ovaries. Based on these assumptions calculations are done. It is not recommended for women with irregular menstrual cycles.

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Natural Family Planning Made Ridiculously Simple

Copyright 2006 David Picella

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?

NFP and Infertility: [http://www.majella.us] Pregnancy calculator: [http://picella.com/tools/pregnancy-date-calculator.htm] David Picella, NP, is a PhD student at the University of Milwaukee Wisconsin.

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Natural Family Planning Methods - EzineArticles Submission ...

Natural Family Planning methods (NFP) are variations of the rhythm method. This covers techniques used to determine a woman's fertile and infertile periods within her menstrual cycles.

This is done by knowing when ovulation (the release of an egg from one of the woman's ovaries each month) takes place and abstaining from intercourse during a woman's fertile days. Fertility is known by checking the calendar and observing certain bodily signs like fluctuations in body temperature or changes in the vaginal mucus.

"Each of the approaches in natural family planning involves a conscientious awareness of when you can become pregnant, which is but a brief span approximately in the middle of each menstrual cycle - from about 72 hours before ovulation to about 24 hours after ovulation. The key is to determine when these days are and then to avoid having intercourse during that time," said Dr. David E. Larson, editor-in-chief of the "Mayo Clinic Family Health Book."

"All told, a couple needs to abstain from intercourse seven to 10 days a month in order to have the greatest chance of preventing pregnancy," added the editors of Consumer Guide's "Family Health & Medical Guide."

NFP is the only birth control method approved by the Catholic Church but millions of people throughout the world rely on it either because of religious convictions, poverty (which prevents them from buying other effective contraceptives) or ignorance of other contraceptive methods.

There are four types of NFP methods: the temperature method, the calendar method, the mucus inspection method and the muco-thermal method. Each of these techniques has a different way of determining the time of ovulation.

How good are these methods? NFP has a success rate of 80 to 99 percent depending on the kind of technique you use. In general, the more restrictive the method, the greater the chances of avoiding pregnancy.

"This may surprise you: if followed faithfully, some types of 'natural' birth control can prevent pregnancy better than the diaphragm or condom. But there's a big hitch: the most effective versions of this method are so restrictive that it's all too easy to slip up," according to Deborah Franklin in Health magazine.

In the temperature method, ovulation is determined by taking the woman's temperature daily first thing in the morning after waking. This should be done preferably at the same time each day using a sensitive "basal" thermometer. It's also advisable to take the temperature at the same spot - either in the mouth or armpits. A slight rise in body temperature usually indicates ovulation. Sex should be avoided for at least two days after the temperature increase.

"Near the middle of the menstrual cycle, the temperature may drop slightly (indicating that ovulation is about to occur) and then rise rapidly and continue to climb for the next three days. The temperature will not return to preovulation levels until the beginning of the menstrual period. The 'safe' days to have sexual intercourse are from four days after the sudden rise in temperature until three or four days after the end of the period. It is important to become familiar with the menstrual cycle by recording temperature levels for several months before relying on this method of birth control," said the editors of Consumer Guide's "Family Health & Medical Guide."

The calendar method works by determining the probable day of ovulation with the help of a doctor. To do this, a woman must keep a record of her menstrual cycle for a year or more. From this record, the doctor can pinpoint "safe" and "unsafe" days.
"Subtract 18 days from the number of days in the shortest cycle (14 days from ovulation to your period and four days for the average life of sperm) and 10 days from the longest cycle (14 days from ovulation to your period, minus one day for the lifespan of an egg and minus three days for a margin of error) . The numbers you calculate are the first and last days of your cycle during which you can become pregnant," Larson explained. (Next: The Billings birth control method.)

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New Family Planning Method - Essure Procedure and Its Advantages ...

Family planning is one of the most important decisions that a couple must consider. When you have finally decided on how many children you want to have, the next step is to decide on what type of birth control you would take.

You can select from the many choices available depending on which one will fit your body system. Before, the only option for women who have decided not to give birth anymore is tubal ligation where the fallopian tubes are being tied.

To date, a new family planning method called Essure procedure is already available and is usually covered by insurance plans. A tiny soft spring called micro-insert is being placed at the fallopian tubes.

Tissue will grow inside the micro-inserts due to the natural response of the body. The tissues will block the sperm before it reaches the egg. It takes about three months after the micro-inserts are placed into the fallopian tubes for the tissue to grow.

During this period, additional birth control should be used. To verify if the system is already in place, an X-ray test is being conducted three months after placing the micro-inserts.

This procedure is considered more advanced compared to other birth control methods because there are no incisions that will take place and no hormones are contained. It can be done in about 15 minutes in a doctors clinic with a small amount of anesthesia.

The Essure practice is a permanent type of birth control and most women can get back to normal workload two days after the procedure.

It has been introduced worldwide and has already been used by thousands of women. At present, there have been no reported side effects of the procedure and most patients are satisfied with it.

It is already running for several years and no cases of pregnancies were reported. The effectiveness of this birth control method is 99.80 percent based on clinical data acquired for four years.

For busy women, the Essure procedure is ideal if you want a permanent birth control method because you do not have to spend much time recovering from the surgery. Experts have proven that this is much safer than tubal ligation.

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Poverty Alleviation And Family Planning In India - Prospects And ...

India started its planned economic development in 1951 after getting independence in 1947 having in our hands the experience, a wide literature of well proved strategies and variegated plans pertaining to, used by and created or formulated by the well developed western economies, apart from its available natural resources. We (the Indians) were over enthusiastic and over ambitious on account of having the ready and well proved weapons sought from the western world for combating the problem of development. Therefore, instead of starting from the very beginning and covering the whole path, we, being enticed and allured by the surprisingly fascinating fruits of industrialization, started our efforts but having longed for being developed and grabbing fruits thereof in a haste. Thus we lost sequences in our development path. We ignored agriculture, the spine of our economy. Thereby our agricultural development lagged far behind the level required for feeding our industrialization up to the mark. Agriculture based small industries became shattered and the villages became ruined. This raised a huge bulk of unemployed people in the widely spread rural sector. The unemployed persons started migrating to the urban areas in search of job.

The urban development and industrialization there had not sufficient level to absorb the whole migrating mass to provide them proper urban life facilities. As a result thereof a fast mushroom growth of slums came about which eventually turned into big slum spots in cities and urban towns within a no longer period of 20 or 25 years. This hampered urban growth and urban life. On the other hand, in rural areas there emerged acute shortage of energetic workforce, service centers, infrastructure, intellectuals etc.This hampered the rural development whereby agricultural development and rural life remained slang lower. That is why, even having traveled a long path of planned economic development, the state of affairs in rural India still remains almost the same as it was before planning. There is a big gulf between urban and rural people regarding wealth, wage, education and income. Moreover, the rural-urban migration, due to the pitiable state of affairs in rural areas, resulted into an unchecked and unsystematic urban extension.

Thus, instead of overall development, an unbalanced and unfair development of our economy became resulted therein. Consequently, a wide spread general unemployment prevailed in both the rural and the urban areas (as per ECONOMIC APPRAISAL 2006-07, the estimated number of unemployed persons rose from 7.98 million in 1983 to 9.02 million in 1993-94, to 10.51 million in 1999-2000 and to 13.10 million in 2004-05. These figures make amply clear that the average increase per year in the number of unemployed persons is going higher and higher without revealing any effect even of the economic reforms initiated in 1991. The average increase per year in the number of unemployed persons was 1.04 lac persons during the ten years' period from 1983 to 1993-94. It became 2.48 lac during the next six years' period and rose to 5.18 lac during the five years' period from 1999-2000 to 2004-05.).

In addition to this a considerable number of politically, socially and economically sound and effective elites emerged in cities and urban towns. These elites interfered in the formulation and execution of development plans, on one hand, and in the fixation of priorities, on the other. Thereby our development plans became urban oriented and concentrating on rich minority. Thus the poor majority and the rural economy became ignored. The unemployment situation in both the rural and the urban sectors became almost uncontrollable. The government became politically weak and therefore its priority became to please the rich minority so that it may run. To mitigate resentment and dissatisfaction among the general mass the government had to play pseudo role to remedy some times the rural and some times the urban mass alternately through various unsuccessful employment and poverty alleviation programmes. However, the condition of rural people became more embarrassing than that of urban since the rural people were already subsisting in privation.

However, the root cause of this stinging situation lies in our galloping along the development path instead of traveling along the true locus by creeping, walking and running as and when needed. All the same, the rapid population growth has added a lot to make the unemployment situation a mammoth. On account of extended medical facilities, uplift of living standard due to increased national income, control over epidemics, check on famines, alleviation of starvation, extension of maternity services etc. during the development process in plan period, the death rate considerably went down (from 27.4 per thousand per year during 1941-50 to 9.0 per thousand per year in 1998) but the birth rate remained slang high (it was 39.9 per thousand per year during 1941-50 and came down only to 27.0 per thousand per year in 1998).Therefore population growth attained an increasingly high rate that was however tried unsuccessfully to be lowered through family planning programme. Therefore, whatever the number of employment-opportunities emerged on account of the development process, it was gulped by a rather high increase in population.

Thus our mistake in the development process and the high rate of population growth are the two factors responsible for the rampant unemployment and poverty in Indian mass. To solve this massive problem we have to rectify the mistake in our development move, on one hand, and to mitigate the high growth rate of population, on the other. As far as the rectification of mistake in the development move is concerned, the time of making the mistake good by starting a fresh has gone far back. Therefore we should better take a drastic turn to re-fix our priorities, reformulate our strategies, reselect our programmes and reconstruct our plans so as to make our development move rural oriented, congenial to the micro-level needs of the people, akin to the overall development and compatible to the extenuation of economic disparities. This will bring about fast agricultural development, uplift of village life and revival of village industries, artistry & handicraft to check the massive rural-urban migration. As regards to the check on high population growth the prevailing family planning programme has been proved insufficient and incomplete. To form a complete and adequately effective family planning programme we should go in full details of why a child is born.

The factors making a child take birth can be grouped under three heads as (1) biological factor, (2) socio-cultural and religious factors and (3) economic factors.

1-Biological Factor :-

Sex is a prominent biological need of any creature in this world. Man is not an exception. Therefore sexual gratification is but naturally tended to and thereby man and woman indulge in sexual intercourse. The coitus makes the female counterpart conceive even if there is no intention for conception. As a result thereof the child is born as a by-product of sexual gratification. The best way of checking such an unintentional child birth as a result of sexual intercourse is either the use of contraceptives or the termination of pregnancy. The latter is painful, some times unethical, expensive and risky too. Therefore use of contraceptives is more preferable. Though being easier, more acceptable and safer way of preventing undesired pregnancy, the effectiveness of contraceptives in controlling birth rate depends but upon the knowledge of the people about contraceptives, availability of contraceptives, quality of contraceptives and the purpose of coitus whether it is purely for gratification or conception also is intended there. Contraceptives are very much effective to check unwanted pregnancy. There is a wide range of contraceptives in vogue.

The condom as mechanical contraceptive among males and the pills as oral contraceptive among females have been proved most acceptable, commonly used and comfortable due to the fact that other contraceptives have limitations and side effects their own. During 2003-04 condoms were used by 17.83 million males and pills were used by 8.75 million females. Surgical operations were undergone by 4.88 million males/females and IUCD implantation was conducted to 6.08 million females. These figures manifest why condom has become synonymous to contraceptive for a common man and woman, respectively. All the same, the barrier contraceptives and IUCS have the main drawback that their application needs a specified time period before starting intercourse. Therefore, in an unplanned and rather instant sex, that is generally performed in the families where separate accommodation is not available for husband-wife coition, there is no room for the use of barrier and IUCS contraceptives. That is why in slums or poor families where only one bedroom accommodation is available for the whole family, the barrier contraceptives or IUCS are not properly responding in birth control. Therefore, other types of contraceptives should be made prevail in slums and poor localities. The unintended child-birth on account of purely the biological factor can well be checked by making contraceptives so affluently prevail that in every case of coitus for mere gratification the use of a suitable contraceptive is made sure.

2- Socio-cultural & Religious Factors :-

Man is a social being and, therefore, social customs, cultural traditions and religious faiths play dominant role in his life especially in poor and backward communities. Social factors inducing a person to have more sons are - (i) Social security and (ii) Religious faiths. Sons are believed to be the reliable means of social security of the family for two reasons - (a) they care their old, physically wasted and worn out parents and (b) They provide safety to the family in case of conflicts or demise of some of them. The tendency of producing more sons due to the (a) factor can be limited to great extent by old-age-house system and the (b) factor can be made idle through social security services like life insurance, dependent minors allowance, unemployment allowance etc. As regards to the religious faiths, there are two main beliefs. One speaks of higher spiritual gain or place in heaven after death for a person having more sons and the second relates the production of more children to religious service and the duty of woman, that is to increase progeny, for which she is believed to be sent by God. These two beliefs contribute a lot in increasing the number of child-births especially among backward people. However education or literacy is advocated to be instrumental in the extinction of such beliefs from people's mind. But poverty alleviation is the most powerful instrument to change thinking of the people. Economically sound man generally dares to break religious orthodoxy for enjoying the materialistic life since economic means or res entice him towards the fascinating mirth of luxury. This temptation makes him come out of religious harness and prefer the real worldly life to the imaginary unworldly life in Elysium of heaven. Apart from economic uplift certain schemes or programmes launched by government may be proved rather fruitful in instilling the importance of small family in the people's mind. Some examples are as under.

(1) Fair-price-shop facility, if given on the basis of family units in a way that even a divided family would be considered as a single family unit during survival of the pre-division head of the family, will certainly attract people towards small family size provided the facility covers almost all consumable items for a member family unit and that too at a very low price in comparison to the market price.

(2) Various schemes of bounties, subsidies or economic helps for poor if launched on the per undivided family unit basis instead of per capita or per divided family unit, will comparatively benefit more to small families whereby big families will be discouraged.

(3) Among the poverty stricken people who mainly contribute to high birth rate, some are found fully adopting family planning. Such persons having only one or two children and being sterilized, may be taken out and established as poor elites by providing them reservation and priority in various activities like employment, education, bank loans, candidature in local body elections etc. These elites will become models for their community and will lead the community. Then other persons of the community will take them as their role models and will follow them. These elites can thus better instill the advantage of small family through demonstration effect among the people.

3-Economic Factors :-

Economic factors are very much effective factors like biological factors. A pressing economic need is similar to an acute lust in immensity. A person in acute economic privation leaves off even the deeply instilled social, cultural or some times biological allurements too for economic gains; similarly as in the state of aggravated sexual excitement he can forsake all social, cultural or economic gains for sexual gratification. Economic support in old age and poverty are the two main economic factors making people tend to produce more children. In old age when a person becomes generally sick, pulled, worn out and non-earning, he becomes dependent on his heirs for food, clothing medical treatment and other expenses. More the sons or heirs he has, lesser will be the share of burden of supporting him. This gives him an impression that old age life is more secured with more children to support. That is why he is tempted to produce more children. The effect of this factor in population growth can be easily subsided by old-age-house system and old age pension scheme. As regards to poverty, it generates three causes of more child-birth as given below.

(1) The currently prevailing media based means of entertainment are out of reach of poor man, on one hand, and these fascinating means have snatched the old, socio-cultural, cheap and some times free entertainment sources like folk dramas, ballad, mummery, street magicians, community chorus, community games, rural fairs, community festivals etc. from the poor, on the other hand. Therefore a poverty stricken person has to search the way of entertainment in sex and that too being circumstantially unprotected whereby child-birth goes on taking place one after one successively. The population increase on account of this factor can be checked by so designing the modern media based means of entertainment that these become easily available to poor people.

(2) In poor families a child becomes earning hand at the age of seven or eight years. As per the family's subsistence level of living the expenditure on the child's looking after is considerably lower than the wage he earns. Therefore the surplus of his earning over his consumption adds to the family income and thus contributes to the uplift of family's standard of living. Moreover the feelings and sentiments regarding education or future welfare of the child droop before the agony of unsatisfied basic needs due to privation. Therefore, a child in a poverty stricken family is proved an asset rather than liability in its stead. This makes a poor man to produce more children. The population increase due to this tendency can be controlled by making the child-labour totally banned and by making the child-education compulsory and free.

(3) There are some types of family occupations where a number of faithful workmen are required. The required manpower, if taken from own family, is proved most suitable and profitable there. If a person is owner of a series of units of small scale or cottage industries, small business units etc. the hired managing persons are generally proved costlier, unfaithful and un-devoted. If a family member is deployed at each such unit the safety and profitability is increased. Similar is the position in a single cottage industry unit where margin of profit is low and hired labour makes the profit uncertain. If family man power instead of hired one is used there the profits become almost preserved on account of devotedness, faithfulness and per need flexible working hours of the working force. Moreover, the wage rate of a family labour is generally lower than that of a hired labour since the cost of living of a member of own family is lower than that of of the family of the hired man. In these circumstances the requirement of labour is intended to meet out by producing more children in the family which contributes to the population increase. This type of population increase is though difficult to be fully checked but, all the same, it can be mitigated to a marked extent by making such occupations joint ventures of more than one family. In addition thereto, for family occupations in the form of small scale or cottage industries, subsidy schemes and market protection schemes may help in increasing the profit margin and preserving the profits whereby the tendency of replacing hired labour by family labour will become lowered.

The whole length of the discussion hereinabove concludes that to alleviate poverty and to solve the unemployment problem of India the development plans and the family planning programme both should be reformed on the linen suggested hereinabove whereby the extra employment opportunities will be generated fast on one hand and population growth will be checked, side by side, in such a way that growth of employment opportunities would considerably exceed the population growth.

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Family Planning - What Dads And Moms Need To Know

If you are about to start a family with your spouse, you will often hear about "family planning". But what really does it mean? It is often understood as prevention of pregnancy. However, it is more than just that.

What Family Planning Really Means

It refers to:

o Deciding how many children you will have

o Planning when to have a child and the time interval between children

o Selecting suitable birth control methods to prevent pregnancy

What Family Planning Does NOT Mean

Due to lack of information on pregnancy planning, many couples may make decisions that can haunt them for life. Here is what you should know about it:

It is NOT a one-man show

It is a joint decision between the husband and wife. It is important to make informed decisions based on your as well as your spouse's needs. For this, couples should work toward developing an open communication channel between both partners with consideration for each other's feelings and desires.

o Talk about your desires and aspirations.

o Listen to your partner to understand his or her needs.

o Build trust by respecting your partner's feelings and accepting differences in opinion.

It is also important to speak to a family plan counselor who can guide you and your spouse through the various birth control options available and help you evaluate the pros and cons of each.

Family planning decisions are NOT universal

Each couple is different and has different needs. What may be right for you may not be right for another couple. Your pregnancy planning decisions may depend on several factors, including personal finances, health issues, and the time you and your spouse can devote for your future children.

It is NOT only about abstinence

One reason many couples opt out of family planning is because they believe it involves refraining from sex. While abstinence is one of the best birth control methods, there are many other options that you can use and still enjoy a satisfying sex life.

Here are some common birth control methods and their effectiveness (according to the Family Planning Council).

o Condoms (for males and females) : 86% - 97% for male condoms / 79% - 95% for female condoms

o Diaphragm : 80% - 94% during first year of use

o Emergency contraceptive pills : 74% - 89%

o Injections (Depo-Provera) : 99%

o Oral contraceptive pills : 95% - 99%

o Contraceptive implants (Implanon) : 95%

o Contraceptive rings (NuvaRing) : 99%

o Contraceptive patches (Ortho Evra) : 95% - 99%

o Intrauterine devices : 98% - 99%

o Cervical caps : 60% - 90%

o Female sterilization : 99%

o Vasectomy (male sterilization) : 99%

o Synthetic hormones (Norplant) : 95% - 99%

o Vaginal spermicides : 50% - 95%

o Withdrawal : 4% - 19%

Remember, each of the above birth control methods has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the methods are irreversible and may prevent pregnancy forever. Carefully research your options well and speak to a medical expert before you make the final decision.

Paul Banas was looking for a business idea that would allow him the flexibility to spend time with his family. Paul Banas is a founder of GreatDad.com - a leading source of experience, recommendations, inspiration and advice for dads - delivered from the male perspective.

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Cycle Beads Review - Natural Family Planning Made Easy

Research has shown that many couples who choose natural family planning do so because it has no worrisome side effects. Although for some avoiding birth control is a religious decision, for many others it's a health consideration. Natural family planning can help a woman get in touch with her cycle and develop more respect for her body, and some couples say it is good for the relationship because it fosters good communication about the sexual relationship.

While many couples rely on a calendar, chart or tools such as a thermometer to keep up with where the woman is in her cycle, a simpler method is available: Cycle Beads. Cycle Beads are an easy to use, totally natural tool that makes it much easier to use natural family planning to predict ovulation and either prevent or plan a pregnancy.

Cycle Beads are a string of 32 colored beads (they look like an oversized necklace), each one representing one day of a woman's menstrual cycle. (Most women have a 28 day cycle, but some have up to 32 days in each cycle, hence the extra beads. If a woman has more than 32 days in her cycle, she's probably not a good candidate for Cycle Beads.) The string of beads has a small black rubber ring that is moved from bead to bead each day. The color of the beads indicate the likelihood of pregnancy.

The first bead is red which represents the first day of the period, where the woman starts the cycle each month. When the woman gets to the fertile time of her cycle, the beads are white instead of colored. So if a woman wants to avoid pregnancy, she would need to abstain during this time or use another method of contraception. Or if she is trying to achieve pregnancy, she will know when she is ovulating.

Dr. Victoria Jennings, PhD, the developer of Cycle Beads, says that their failure rate is about 5%, which incidentally is the same as the failure rate of the birth control pill according to some sources, and far better than the condom. Women who have irregular cycles may not want to use Cycle Beads, but the majority of women can use them quite effectively.

Since nursing affects a woman's fertility, moms who are breastfeeding need to have had 4 periods after the birth of her baby before they begin using Cycle Beads for best results.

Cycle Beads are also useful for women to use not as a birth control device but to be more aware of their cycle. Young women just starting their period could use them to educate themselves about their cycle.

Carrie Lauth is the host of Natural Moms Talk Radio, a free weekly internet talk radio show and podcast for natural family living. For more information about Cycle Beads including an interview with their designer, visit http://naturalmomstalkradio.com/blog/natural-moms-podcast-106/

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