Women's World by Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar

NEWLY-wed couples have a lot to think about after the blissful glow of the honeymoon has faded. One very important aspect of married life to consider is family planning.

Careful family planning helps you to space your pregnancies so that your body can recover and heal from the previous pregnancy. It also helps you to plan your family's financial resources so that you can comfortably welcome the new addition to your family.

You can practise family planning by using contraceptive methods. There are two kinds of contraceptives: non-hormonal and hormonal methods.

Non-hormonal methods

Family planning with non-hormonal methods include the use of natural methods, or devices and procedures that do not involve hormones.

Natural family planning method - This is a contraceptive method that relies on Mother Nature. With this method, a woman has to keep track of her fertile period through her menstrual cycle.

A woman usually ovulates about two weeks before her cycle begins. This will be the start of her fertile period and when she should avoid sexual intercourse.

The method of counting days is not very reliable, because not all women are as regular as a clock. A more effective method of charting ovulation is the basal body temperature (BBT) method, which involves charting the temperature of the vagina every day. Just as a woman is about to begin ovulating, her body temperature will rise and her cervical mucous will increase, and become clear in colour and "stretchy". You can check this with a basal body thermometer - different from a normal thermometer - every day.

A new development in this method is the ovulation predictor, which tests the urine for oestrogen metabolites (which marks the start of the fertile phase) and the LH surge that takes place 36 hours before the end of the fertile phase.

While this method is entirely natural and does not use any chemicals or devices, it is not always suitable for every woman, especially those who have irregular cycles, are often ill, work irregular hours or are unable to keep records. It requires so much constant monitoring and abstinence from sex for more than one week every month that it may cause stress and tension between a couple.

If you are not confident in using this method correctly, it could have a high failure rate.

Barrier methods - These are probably the most common contraceptive methods. They include latex condoms, diaphragms and caps, as well as spermicides.

They work by putting up a physical barrier that prevents the sperm from being able to reach the egg inside the woman's body. An added benefit is that they also protect against sexually transmitted infections, while other contraceptive methods don't.

While barrier methods are easy to use and relatively cheap, they should always be used in combination with another contraceptive method. After all, condoms have been known to break, or one may forget to put in the diaphragm in the "heat of the moment".

Lactational amenorrhoea method (LAM) - LAM is really just a fancy name for a form of contraceptive that occurs when you are breastfeeding. When you are breastfeeding, your body undergoes hormonal changes that suppress ovulation and menstruation. This method offers 98% protection from pregnancy.

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