Family planning is closely synonymous to birth control.  However, its implications are a bit different.  Family planning is commonly applied to situations wherein a couple wishes to limit their number of children, or spacing the age gap in between the children.  Generally, family planning is used to plan pregnancy rather than preventing it.

There is more than one way of imposing family planning.  One of the most common is the natural family planning or the NFP.  The general idea of NFP is to pay attention to your body’s patterns and temperature to know whether you are fertile or not on a particular day.  By knowing the signs and how to interpret them, you can predict your own fertility period, paving the way for easy decision-making whether it is safe or not to have sexual intercourse with your partner, basing on your want to either get pregnant or not.

The natural family planning works differently for each woman.  Examples of the methods of natural family planning include the Basal body temperature, cervical mucus or the ovulation method, calendar or the Rhythm Method, lactational amenorrhea, standard days, and symptothermal.  From these, two methods are currently taught to be highly effective, the ovulation method and the symptothermal method.

In the ovulation method, the cervical mucus is determined just days before and right after ovulation.  A woman is highly to become pregnant if her cervical mucus discharge is clear, slick and stretchy.  Some people attest that the mucus during the fertility days looks a lot like an egg white.  On the other hand, the symptothermal method is done by checking a woman’s temperature daily with the use of a special thermometer for the purpose and then records down on a chart her temperature reading.  Temperature varies at the time of ovulation.  During which, temperature is a bit higher than usual.  And for consistency, it helps to check the mucus as well.  Other noticeable signs may appear such as breast tenderness, pain in the ovarian area, low backache, or bloating.  In using either or both methods, do not forget to track down the results and whatever changes you observed in a chart.

Since women differ greatly from each other, signs may not be the same, which is perfectly all right.  But one of the indications that are common is the temperature curve.  To be efficient with the temperature charting, take the habit of checking your temperature first thing in the morning when you wake up or when you wake up at night if you work the night shift.  By recording every result, you will soon see a pattern.  On or before your ovulation, you will then notice a rise of about one-half degree Fahrenheit or one-third degree Celsius in your temperature, as your ovaries release an egg. Your egg can live up to 24 hours while sperms live longer like two to six days.  Therefore, in each of your menstrual cycle, you have about one week of being fertile.  After which, your temperature will decline again before, during or after you have your period.  And then, you will start again from the beginning like how it is with every cycle.

Experts of the natural family planning methods say that any woman using the temperature method alone, and is doing it correctly has a 99% of success and efficacy of birth control.  Also, the natural ways of family planning have been used worldwide offering an enormous help for couples trying to conceive, as it indicates undoubtedly whether or not a woman is ovulating.  NFP is highly suitable for every female like the breastfeeding moms, women going through their menopausal stage or those with irregular cycles.  It does not have any side effects, nor affect whatever medication you are taking.  Even if you are into other form of birth control, you can give natural family planning a shot, while at the same time, you will get to know more of your body changes, which certainly is a favorable thing.