Modern Women On Planning Well

In the last fifty years, feminist movements have not only brought women to the forefront in education and employment but have also altered the way women look at their sexuality. The relatively liberal views have thrown up new challenges that need to be handled with a sense of responsibility. As we shed our 'puritan' views, the teenagers are forced to handle complex relationships of the adult world, often on their own.

Moreover, as the grip of religion and association of morality with sex loosens, the young must draw their own lines of permissibility. A lack of knowledge about sex and contraception may lead to painful experiences that youngsters may find impossible to handle. While familial support helps teenagers to handle the new found, almost compulsive, attraction to the opposite sex, objective awarness can help build confidence to make the right decisions that ensure a healthy life. Knowing all about contraception is an exercise in this framework, It must be appreciated that clear and candid discussions alone would lessen the confusion that exists about contraception.

Interestingly, misconceptions about contraception have existed for a long time. An illegal abortion was a major method of family planning and is still confused with contraception. In the earlier part of the 20th century as advances in medical practices that controlled mortality were established, the need for birth control measures became evident. In the latter part of this century, family planning services became an important part of medical practice. Different societies have taken their own time to accept morally and politically the need for contraception and implement it in real terms.

Today a number of clinics in India, government supported as well as private, successfully implement family planning programmes that reach out to the people. It is only our ignorance that keeps us away from benefiting from these programmes. Decisions taken in utmost privacy are based on knowledge and easy availability of family planning facilities. And it is this bit of information that we elaborate here.

Most societies have developed a conde of conduct to limit childbirth. A legally accepted marriage after the age of eighteen in girls with a stress on illegitimacy of childbearing out of marital bonds somewhat ensures that maternity is postponed. At the rist of sounding 'puritanist', it is worthwhile emphasising that teenagers who follow this social rule strictly for delaying pregnancy (and possibly sex) ensure reproductive health. Pre-marital teenage sex that often leads to unwanted pregnancies, not only finds no social sanctions but also puts the girl's newly matured reproductive system through undue stress which may have lasting effects.

A woman conceives when intercourse takes place around the time she ovulates. For the two events to occur un unison, in an average woman with active sex life it takes about two to three months. The probability of getting pregnant is maximum if the coitus takes place two days before or after ovulation. The sperms are viable for only about forty-eight hours in the fallopian tubes. A simple way of avoiding pregnancy is to abstain from intercourse on the these days. In practice the problem arises as there are no easy indications of ovulation. There are, however, some parameters that can be monitored with some effort to help in making a guess about the day of ovulation. The mucus in the cervix at the time of ovulation is profuse, clear and watery, at other times it is cloydy, yellow or a white, sticky discharge.