For many couples, having a child is a source of
joy brought about by careful thought and conscious
choice. It is also a tough decision to make most
especially for women who have other things in mind
such as their career or further studies. For
millions of women and their partners who opt not
to get pregnant, contraception is always a viable
option.
Christians have always condemned contraceptive
sex. Both forms mentioned in the Bible, “coitus
interruptus” and sterilization, are condemned
without exception. The early Fathers recognized
that the purpose of sexual intercourse in natural
law is procreation, hence contraceptive sex, which
deliberately blocks that purpose, is a violation
of natural law. However, in this day and age,
things are changing and contraception can not be
disregarded.
Birth control or contraception is a course of
therapy involving one or more actions, devices, or
medications that prevents pregnancy. In other
words, the mechanisms responsible for lessening
the possibility of the fertilization of an ovum by
a spermatozoon can be precisely referred to as
contraception.
Stepping into the past, the oldest methods of
contraception included “coitus interruptus,”
certain barrier methods, and herbal methods.
Historic records say that Egyptian women used a
pessary made of various acidic substances and
lubricated with honey or oil, which was good at
killing sperm. In Asia, women took to oiled paper
as a cervical cap while the Europeans had
supposedly used bee wax.
It was not before the seventeenth century that the
condom came into being. The earliest forms of
condoms were actually made from animal intestine.
It was only with the advent of modern latex
condoms, that they became all the very effective
and accepted. It came to prominence as an
effective means of contraception and not to
mention giving hopes avoiding syphilis whatsoever.
There are other types of contraception, too many
to choose from, but if couples want to go for a
natural birth control method, Fertility Awareness
Method (FAM) can be a solution. Any method of
identifying the fertile and infertile time in the
menstrual cycle by self observations is a kind of
fertility awareness method. The term Fertility
Awareness Method, or FAM, however, has come to be
associated with the “three over six” way of
identifying ovulation and the infertile or fertile
time. This method, similarly described by both the
World Health Organization and Professor John
Marshall in the 1960s and geared largely for
couples wishing to avoid pregnancy, identifies
ovulation after three temperatures above the
previous six temperatures have been observed and
cervical fluid has dried up. A coverline is then
drawn slightly above the highest of the six
temperatures before the temperature rise.
FAM also refers to a natural birth control method
outside of a religious framework that supports the
use of barrier methods (such as condom, diaphragm,
and spermicide), emergency contraception, and
abortion. It allows a woman to identify days in
her menstrual cycle on which they are likely to be
fertile. Many women use this information to help
them get pregnant, but it can also be used to help
them avoid pregnancy.
FAM is often confused with the ineffective rhythm
method, which uses mathematical calculations based
on past cycle lengths to predict infertile days
for the present cycle. FAM relies only on daily
observation of fertility changes in the present
and is deemed more effective. It eliminates the
problems of hormones affecting the milk in
breastfeeding women and avoids the hassle of
staining which can occur with pills and IUDs.
FAM is a natural birth control method that is safe
and highly effective when used correctly and
consistently.
