Natural Family Planning (NFP) has an important role to play in meeting the reproductive needs of couples. NFP is not a method in itself, but rather refers to methods used by couples for planning pregnancies based on identifying the woman's fertile and infertile days and the timing of intercourse to achieve their fertility intentions. The discipline of NFP is abstinence, this is the secret to keeping your married love alive!
The development of a competency-based approach training design for NFP for trainers and service providers currently in use in the different training manuals and provider guides throughout the Philippines
production of iec materials for all types of organizations and general audience
FERTILITY AWARENESS
Fertility Awareness (FA) refers to the recognition of fertile and infertile phases of a woman's reproductive cycle. It is not NFP since it is limited and not correlated with the timing of intercourse. This can be used as an introduction or orientation to young people who are not yet sexually active, especially girls who just had their first few menstrual periods.
HUMAN FERTILITY
In the quest for responsible parenthood, fertility is the natural starting point for the sexual energies of men and women. Men are potentially fertile all the time when they are producing sperm. Women are only fertile for a few days around the time of ovulation.
MALE FERTILITY
Nature awakens the boy to his fertility with his first wet dream. This first wet dream experience tells the boy that his body is now able to produce sperms.
° When male approaches puberty, his body changes in many ways:
~ His shoulders and chest widen
~ His scrotum and penis grow
~ He usually has a quick growth spurt
~ Hair grows under his armpits, on his chest, and in his pubic area.
~ His voice lowers
~ He begins to produce sperms and have wet dreams.
° When will male fertility start and when does it end?
~ A man is fertile every day of his life from puberty until death.
FEMALE FERTILITY
A girl's first menstruation signals her body's readiness to bear a child.
° The female contribution in the conception of a child is the egg. Between two menstrual periods, an egg cell matures and is released into the tube where it waits for the sperm. This is called OVULATION.
° Around the time of OVULATION; the woman feels wet because of mucus that the body produces.
Between puberty and menopause, a woman is only fertile around the times when her body releases an egg. The egg cell lives for about 24 hours.
° The mucus secreted around or before ovulation can keep the sperm alive from 3-5 days.
° A woman's fertility starts at puberty, with her first menstrual period.
Fertility begins at puberty and ends at menopause when a woman's menstruation stops.
COMBINED OR JOINT FERTILITY
Combined or Joint Fertility is the equal contribution of the male (sperm) and female (egg) in the decision and ability to have a child, despite the fact that only the woman becomes pregnant and carries the child for 9 months and goes through childbirth.
° In the context of a partnership, fertility is an integral aspect of the love relationship, calling for individual maturity and responsibility in the reproductive empowerment processes.
LOVEMAKING and PREGNANCY
The husband is fertile all the time. The wife is fertile only at certain times every cycle. ONLY LOVEMAKING DURING THE WOMAN'S FERTILE TIME MAY RESULT IN PREGNANCY.
° Lovemaking can occur any time, yet a baby results from lovemaking "only during the woman's fertile time."
° Woman's fertile time is determined by:
~ The time of ovulation
~ The 24hour life span of the egg cell
~ The life span of the sperm cells.
° If sperms are inside a woman's body during her fertile time, they can live up 3 days and sometimes to 5 days and the woman may become pregnant.
Mainstreaming FA and NFP in the Philippine Family Planning Program (PFP) DOH-NCR, LGU and Private Sector Partnership
2001-2004
Social Media