Consider pluses of natural family planning
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| Dr. Beth Londino talks to Michelle Harrison of Medina. |
An alternative method for birth control that does not use artificial contraceptives or medications, “natural family planning is a means of empowering a woman to be able to recognize her own window of fertility by tell-tale signs her body gives her,” says Dr. Beth Londino, a family practitioner at Northside Medical Clinic.
At the same time, she adds, “this is a couple’s method for family planning. It helps men understand women better and opens up communication between couples about pregnancy.” When a woman is in her fertile time, the couple can decide whether they want to try to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy, she says.
A woman has an average window of fertility of five to six days each month. That window depends on the woman and her menstrual cycle.
Dr. Londino calls this the only method of birth control that can either achieve or avoid pregnancy. “It can be used to help fertility. What is so marvelous is that it almost has as high a rate (20 percent effectiveness) as in-vitro fertilization.”
When understanding natural family planning, it also is important to know what natural family planning is not, says Dr. Londino. It gets a bad reputation when people think it is the outdated, “notoriously unreliable,” calendar rhythm method of birth control, which tries to predict a woman’s fertility based on her previous monthly cycle, she explains. Natural family planning uses signs of a woman’s current cycle to predict fertility instead of relying on a sometime unpredictable ovulation cycle.
History of Natural Family Planning
- Natural family planning originally was taught by John and Lynn Billings in the 1960s. Both doctors, the Australian couple realized the effectiveness of observing a woman’s vaginal mucus secretions in relation to her fertility.
- After doing more research on the effectiveness of natural family planning, Dr. Tom Hilgers created the Creighton Method as a highly standardized form of the Billings Method. His model also was in response to Pope Paul VI’s 1968 Humanae Vitae encyclical where the Catholic Church proclaimed that any form of artificial contraception is morally wrong.
- The Sympto-Thermal Method is a form of natural family planning that looks at body temperature changes as well as cervical mucus and other internal variations in order to predict a woman’s window of fertility.
Dr. Londino uses the standardized Creighton Method to teach her patients about family planning. This method, adopted by many in the medical field, can be taught only by accredited medical doctors and nurses. “Everybody that teaches the method teaches it the same way,” says Dr. Londino, “so everyone who learns the method learns the same way.”
Dr. Londino is training her nurse in the method so her patients will have better access to information on natural family planning.
Benefits of Natural Family Planning
- Any woman can learn the method, says Dr. Londino. “It has been taught to women without formal education in third world countries. Studies in China, India, and Africa have proven the method to be 99 percent effective when followed correctly.” That makes natural family planning “just as effective as the pill” – but without the side effects, she says.
- Any woman can use the method. “Women do not need to have regular cycles to use the method because natural family planning only looks at signs during your current cycle to predict fertility,” Dr. Londino says. Women who are breast-feeding also can use the method because it has no side effects. n The method has been able to help women with chronic mucus problems, cervical problems, and even menstrual-related migraines and PMS.
- This method of family planning is also essentially free. Once the couple learns the method, the costs are minimal because there are no pills or other forms of contraceptives to purchase.
Dr. Londino first became interested in the method because of her Catholic faith. She now teaches it to patients of all beliefs. “I have been very much encouraged from the warm response from the non-Catholic community. Many like how it is non-medicinal and that it gives the woman more control over her own body.”
“I think this is an exciting time for natural family planning. There is a receptiveness in the community and a real need.”