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By: Ikedi Ani-okoye.

Family planning introduction

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.

basic idea of natural family planning

The basic idea of natural family planning, or NFP, is to observe your own body's patterns to make a decision whether or not to have sexual intercourse on a particular day of your cycle. By observing signs like these, you can learn to predict your fertile days and aim for (or avoid) sex on these days, depending on whether or not you want to get pregnant.

Family planning clinics

Family planning clinics offer free, confidential advice and information on contraception and sexual health. You can get details of your nearest family planning clinic from your phone book, GP, hospital, health authority, or from the Family Planning Association (FPA) website (see below).

Family planning clinics can be used by women, men and young people (including those under 16 years of age). Most health authorities will also have services especially for young people. You can refer yourself, or be referred by your GP, or another health worker. You may need to book an appointment to see the doctor. Many clinics also run walk-in clinics.

CONCLUSION

Natural family planning, sometimes known as fertility awareness, is a method of contraception which uses natural signs or indicators to identify when a woman is at her most or least fertile during each menstrual cycle. In this way, pregnancy can be more easily avoided (or achieved).

If used precisely, natural family planning is an effective method of preventing pregnancy. However, if a woman's menstrual cycle is irregular, the method is less reliable.