How to Prevent Pregnancy

Every woman loves entering motherhood at some time or the other in her life. Pregnancy is an assailable time for a woman, when she eagerly awaits the budding life inside her to bloom. However, there are times when a woman chooses not to get pregnant. There could be various reasons for it, pertaining to health, financial and social constraints.

Natural Methods to Prevent Pregnancy

Planning a pregnancy or avoiding it are both big decisions for a woman which change the course of her life. For either of them, she has to be mentally and physically prepared. When a woman seeks an answer for ways to avoid getting pregnant, a lot of options spring up before her, like birth control pills and oral contraceptives. However, medications come with their share of effects and side effects, and the side effects at times turn out to be severe. Many women, over a prolonged use of birth control pills to avoid getting pregnant have suffered from headaches, nausea, vomiting, spotting in between periods, decreased sex drive and breast tenderness. After all, these contraceptives too contain hormones (like estrogen and progestin). Any hormonal imbalance due to these medications is bound to disturb the ovulation cycles in a woman.

• It is important for a woman to understand her ovulation cycle correctly. So the first step is to figure out when her monthly cycle starts and for how long it remains. The duration of monthly cycle for a woman is between the first day of her period and the day before her next period commences.
• A woman needs to find out the fertility period in her monthly cycle. A basal thermometer will help you figure out the fertility time better, by tracking your basal body temperature. Else, check for the cervical mucus. This is the easiest and the best way to know whether the woman is fertile at that time or not. Abundant mucus with a thin consistency indicates fertility.
• Once the lady is aware of the fertile period of her monthly cycle, she can feel a tenderness in breasts (which is experienced by most women during ovulation). This is also the time when the woman may find the idea of sex quite appealing.
• So to prevent pregnancy, a lady must abstain from sexual intercourse 3 days prior to ovulation, during ovulation and 3 days after the ovulation.
• To avoid pregnancy after intercourse, withdrawal method has to be followed, in which the partner is required to withdraw his penis to ejaculate. So this reduces the chances of a woman getting pregnant even during her fertile period.

Apart from the above stated, here are some more tips on avoiding unwanted pregnancy:

• For men, it is advised to use condoms during sexual intercourse as they prevent the ejaculated semen from entering the vagina.
• Usage of Intrauterine device (IUD) implants, also known as Copper T (inserted inside uterus) prevents the sperms from fertilizing the egg. Other means like using diaphragms, injectable Progestins and cervical caps have proved effective in avoiding pregnancy.
• Consuming emergency contraceptive pills within 72 hours after sexual intercourse will stall the pregnancy. This is an option for females who have forgotten to take a contraceptive before or during the sexual intercourse.
• Abstinence is one of the effective and the natural ways to avert a pregnancy. It means: a big NO to sexual intercourse. Avoiding sex during a woman's fertile period will prevent the woman from getting pregnant.
• Women, who have kids and do not feel the need to have more, can opt for a complete sterilization like tubal ligation (shutting the fallopian tube) or removal of uterus - hysterectomy (one of the techniques of family planning), which can be termed as permanent infertility.

In the eastern side of the world, Holy basil is consumed excessively as it is believed to be a natural contraceptive (which is definitely a better alternative to birth control pills and medications). And for all the young people out there, there is only one message: "Prevention is any day better than abortion". Teenagers have to be very careful regarding relationships and sex, as teen pregnancies are many times not handled effectively. Abortion is a serious procedure that has its own set of risks and complications. Educating the teenagers about sexual health is very important. So why not prevent the pregnancy in the first place if one is not prepared to handle it?