More couples are interested in family planning to reduce the risk of pregnancy early in the marriage while incorporating natural birth control methods. The options for regulating the menstrual cycle and creating a natural birth control method will help to reduce the number of drugs and hormones to which the woman is exposed. Options for birth-control methods should also be based on the family's lifestyle, personal preference and health status of the woman. It is important that the couple make an honest assessment of themselves and their relationship in order to reach an ideal and mutually beneficial decision.
Lifestyle Choices
A woman's body will react more consistently when they experience good overall health. This means making appropriate and smart lifestyle choices, such as reducing or eliminating alcohol intake, eliminating smoking, correcting vitamin deficiencies, eating well-balanced meals, maintaining an appropriate weight and getting at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day. Any exercise program should be supervised by a physician and nutritional intake should encompass a well-balanced meal plan.
Light
A woman's menstrual cycle can also be regulated by the amount of light exposure each night. In a study published in "Psychiatry Research" entitled Nightlight Alters Menstrual Cycles, researcher MC Lin used 16 volunteers who slept with a night light by their bedside for 13 to 17 days of the menstrual cycles. The control group used red placebo lights. Researchers found that the hundred watt bulbs shorten the menstrual cycles from 45 days to 33 days each month and reduced variability, but the placebo had no effect on the menstrual cycle.
Documenting Monthly Calendar
Natural birth control methods begin with an awareness of fertility. In other words, it is a practice that helps a woman recognize the days of the month she is most likely to get pregnant in order to either remain abstinent to avoid pregnancy or engage in sex to become pregnant. Charting a monthly calendar is an easy way of calculating the average numbers of days in the cycle and estimating future fertile times, according to Feminist Women's Health Center. A written record is kept of the menstrual cycle for eight to 12 consecutive months with day one of the cycle being the first day of bleeding. Using data from this calendar, a woman can calculate the longest and shortest cycle in the past year. By subtracting 18 from the shortest cycle and 11 from the longest cycle, the first and last days of fertility can be estimated.
Cervical Mucus
According to MayoClinic.com, another natural family planning method is observing cervical mucus. This mucus will change and consistency throughout the cycle and actually plays a vital role in the fertilization of the egg. When the cervical mucus becomes clearer, very slippery and stretchy, much like egg whites, ovulation will occur sometime in the two days prior or the two days after the peak of stretchy cervical mucus. Women should chart and record these secretions every day and learn to see the changes in order to predict days which are most fertile. When monitoring mucus, it is important not to douche because it washes away the secretions. Use of the spermicidal gel, creams or suppositories can also make it difficult to identify changes.
Basal Body Temperature
Taking the basal body temperature is a natural birth control method to identify in fertile or safe days. Specific thermometers, designed to identify small changes in body temperature, are used to monitor basal body temperature, according to The Feminist Women's Health Center. Temperatures should be taken immediately after waking up in the morning and prior to getting out of bed, even just to go to the bathroom. By using graph paper, the rise and fall of temperature can be identified. When combined with cervical fluid changes and menstrual period charting women are able to accurately identify their most fertile days. The largest drawback of using the basal body temperature itself is that other factors will influence changes in temperature, such as illness, lack of sleep, alcohol or drug use. This reduces the effectiveness of the natural birth control method.
