Health workers' guide to natural family planning

Health workers can help couples avoid unwanted pregnancies and choose when to have a baby by teaching them how to use natural family planning (NFP). A new WHO document for health workers describes how NFP works,. how effective it is and how couples can be taught to use it. The guide deals with 4 natural methods of family planning, all of which relate to identifying just when a woman is fertile or infertile during her menstrual cycle. The rhythm method requires the woman to calculate her fertile days according to the length of her menstrual cycles; the cervical mucus method makes the same calculation according to the amount and color of mucus in the vagina; the basal body temperature method relies on recording temperature changes during the menstrual cycle; and the symptothermal method bases the calculation on cervical mucus, body temperature and other signs of fertility such as tenderness of the breasts or abdominal pain. WHO studies of NFP show that the cervical mucus method works in 97 case out of 100 where couples use the method correctly. WHO believes that NFP is suited to couples who do not wish to use other contraceptive methods for family reasons or because of religious beliefs.