Natural family planning
Natural family planning means that no methods of contraception are used.
There are various methods of natural family planning:
- Not having sexual intercourse. However, it is natural for people to have sex.
- Not having sexual intercourse when a woman is in her fertile period. These kinds of methods are also known as fertility awareness methods. However, it is difficult to know on which days a woman can get pregnant.
- Withdrawing the penis before the man ejaculates.
- Breast-feeding.
Rhythm method: it is difficult to calculate when a woman is fertile and cannot have sexual intercourse
Fertility awareness methods
When using fertility awareness methods you will not have sexual intercourse on the days when the woman is most at risk of getting pregnant or you will take precautions to lower the chances of getting pregnant. There are multiple ways to predict the fertile days in the menstrual cycle. These are less reliable than methods of contraception. There are few women who have a menstrual cycle that is the same exact length every month. The day of ovulation can differ every month. If you combine methods, you can predict the ovulation more closely.
- Calendar method: ovulation takes place about 14 days before the menstruation. If you have a very regular cycle, you can calculate when the ovulation will be approximately. 7 days before the predicted ovulation and 2 days after that there is a high risk of getting pregnant when having sexual intercourse without a condom. You can choose to set day 8 to day 19 as the most at risk days in your cycle to be more certain.
- Temperature method: the body temperature rises after the ovulation with a maximum of 0.5 degrees. If you temperature yourself every morning directly after waking up and keep notes of this, you can see when you ovulated. If you notice this spike in temperature every month around the same day, you can use it to predict your ovulation. 7 days before the predicted ovulation and 2 days after that there is a high risk of getting pregnant when having sexual intercourse without a condom.
- Cervical mucus method: look and feel the cervical mucus. Your vaginal discharge becomes more transparent and stretchy when ovulation is coming up. Here too it applies that from 7 days before ovulation and 2 days after there is a high risk of getting pregnant when having sexual intercourse without a condom.
Withdrawal method
Withdrawing the penis before the man ejaculates:
- Before he ejaculates, a man may already lose a bit of fluid that might contain sperm cells.
- It is difficult to know exactly when a man ejaculates. An orgasm is often very overwhelming or fast and unexpected. Then it is very difficult to withdraw the penis before the first semen comes out.
- If the man ejaculates near the vagina, sperm cells might reach the vagina. This means the woman could get pregnant.
Withdrawal method: the man removes his penis from the vagina before he ejaculates.
Breast-feeding
The breast-feeding method only works under the following conditions:
- The method only works during the first 6 months following delivery and only if you have not had your menstruation yet. After 6 months, it is best to use a method of contraception, even if you have not had your menstruation. For instance: the condom or the mini-pill.
- The woman must only breast-feed her baby. This means the baby only gets breast-milk. There should never be more than 4 hours between feedings during the day and 6 hours between feedings during the night.
- The woman should not express milk. Expressing milk is squeezing the breast with a hand or using a pump to suck milk from the breast.
If you do not meet these conditions, use a method of contraception. While breast-feeding, it is best to use a condom or the mini-pill.
Woman breast-feeding her baby.
Not very reliable
It is difficult to use natural family planning methods correctly. You can get pregnant if you do not use these methods correctly.
If you do not wish to have children, it is best to consider using another method. Ask a doctor or midwife for advice.
Not very reliable