So, today I have been fascinated reading all the threads from the feministe blog that dawn eden mentioned in her blog as they were totally bashing her. I personally think Dawn Eden is great. I agree with her. The one thing that I noticed about the comments made by the people is how they don't know how to argue, they are so defensive in their arguement, that all they do is poke fun or reprimand those that are different than them. It is actually funny how wrong they are about the other side. They are very good at using extreme cases that prove their points while forgetting the majority that contradict them. There was one thing that I did agree with, many of those who say they are pro-life use contraception. Most of those who use contraception, however, are not aware of the effects of using it. They simply think of it as a way of planning out their families as society says too. Well to counteract this I want to explain Natural Family Planning. No one who commented on the feministe threads had any clue about it except that it was one way to get around using contraception. So what is Natural Family Planning or NFP?
NFP is a way of naturally using the woman's cycle to either achieve or postpone a pregnancy without contraception. There are times when a couple can have sex and there are times when they abstain if they are not wanting to get pregnant, if they want to get pregnant these times they abstain become the times that they partake in because they want to concieve a child. They know when and when not these times are by a few checks done every day. To understand this however, one needs to know about a woman's cycle.
The first part of a woman's cycle is called Phase 1, it has a more scientific name that i forget at the moment, but its when a woman has her period until the first day that she starts producing vaginal mucus. During this time there is little to no chance of getting pregnant if a woman was to have sex. The little chance comes from the end of the phase 1 where someone might misjudge whether or not mucus has started. It is why it is recommended that if a couple is first starting this they abstain for the first 3 months until a woman has a grasp on her cycle. It is important to take a woman's temperature every morning at approximately the same time to watch for temperature jumps and also to check for the start of vaginal mucus as the start of phase 2.
The second part of a woman's cycle is the fertile part of her cycle, phase 2. You need again to take the temperature everyday around the same time to see shifts in the woman's basal temperature. In this part of a cycle a woman produces a range of vaginal mucus, Though this may take a cycle or two to learn what the mucus does. You will at least know you have mucus, be it tacky or stretchy. The tacky mucus usually comes at the beginning and end of the phase while the stretchy more clear stuff comes usually for about 6-7 days in the middle of phase 2. If you are wanting to concieve the ultimate time to have sex is during this time, as this is the time a woman is ovulating.
About 2 days after a woman ovulates her temperature spikes up about 4 tenths of a degree and she is now into the luteal phase or phase three, the last phase of a woman's cycle. This phase is where a woman has no chance of pregnancy unless by divine intervention, or carelessness of phase boundaries. The first three days may have some tacky mucus present, but on the evening of the third day as long as the mucus has dried up and is no longer present, then the couple can have sex and have no chance of getting pregnant. This phase can be 9 to about 16 days long in woman. However, this phase usually is consist in a woman within 1-2 days, so if you find your luteal phase to be 12 days, it will always be around 12 days give or take a day. During this phase a woman's temperature stays high as she is producing progesterone. It may drop in the last day or so of the phase when the progesterone lowers for the period to start again.
So this is NFP in a nutshell, I have a few more things I need to do tonight, so I am going to leave it at that. I'll clean up any lose ends next time I post and explain why its so great to use this method. (Why even a man enjoys it let alone us girls who get respect from it.) Until then...
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