How to Teach Natural Family Planning

Natural family planning is one way to prevent pregnancy that involves being in tune with your menstrual cycle and body changes. If used correctly, natural family planning is 90 to 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. Natural family planning can be helpful if and when you are ready for a pregnancy, since you will learn your body's natural rhythms and know when you are most fertile.

Things You'll Need

• Calendar
• Thermometer
• Chart

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Instructions

Calendar Method

• 1

  Instruct your client to purchase a calendar and mark the first day of her menstrual period with a large "X". Have her draw a line through each day on the calendar in which she menstruates and circle the day her period ends. Instruct her to track her periods in this way for at least three months to find a distinctive cycle.

• 2

  Have her count 10 days from the first day of her period. This is the first day she will be fertile. For a woman with a normal, 28 to 30 day menstrual cycle, she will be fertile (or ovulating) until around day 14 of her menstrual cycle.

• 3

  Instruct your client to have sexual intercourse during days 10 to 14 of her menstrual cycle if she wishes to become pregnant.

• 4

  Inform your client she can have sexual intercourse in the 10 days after her period starts or after day 14 of her cycle to prevent pregnancy.

Temperature

• 5

  Have your client take her temperature on a daily basis and record it on a chart if she wants to take part in the cervical mucus and sympoththermal method. She will need to track her temperature for about three months for this method to be effective and a definite cycle to be established.

• 6

  Instruct your client to look for a rise in basal body temperature, usually about one degree. This should happen around the same time every month and will indicate she is ovulating.

• 7

  Instruct your client to check her cervical mucus on a daily basis. Cervical mucus changes consistency during the menstrual cycle, becoming thin and slippery at the time of ovulation. At the time of ovulation, her cervical mucus will have the consistency of uncooked egg whites. If necessary, have her feel uncooked egg whites to better determine ovulation using this method.

• 8

  Have your client avoid sexual intercourse at the time she demonstrates symptoms of ovulation (raised body temperature and thin cervical mucus), if she wishes to avoid pregnancy. This may be earlier or later than days 10 to14 of her menstrual cycle.

• 9

  Instruct your client to have sexual intercourse during her ovulation period, usually every other day, if she wishes to become pregnant during that month.