Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and

other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include
sexuality education,] prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-
conception counseling and management, and infertility management.

Family planning is sometimes used as a synonym for the use of birth control, though it often
includes more. It is most usually applied to a female-male couple who wish to limit the
number of children they have and/or to control the timing of pregnancy (also known as
spacing children). Family planning may encompass sterilization, as well as pregnancy
termination.

Family planning services are defined as "educational, comprehensive medical or social

activities which enable individuals, including minors, to determine freely the number and
spacing of their children and to select the means by which this may be achieved."

Raising a child requires significant amounts of resources: time,social, financial ,

environmental. Planning can help assure that resources are available.
Rachel L. Villas

BSBM1A

Getting the Men Involved

I knew a couple in college who took the idea of mutuality in a relationship very seriously.
Every morning, when the woman popped her birth control pill, the man colored in the circle
on the cardboard insert so they could both feel involved. Apart from this conscientious
couple, however, it’s a fact of life that women usually take responsibility for birth control.
Unless a man uses a condom, gets a vasectomy, withdraws, or creates token gestures like
my college friend above, it’s generally the woman who swallows the pill, gets fitted for the
diaphragm, or visits her gynecologist for an IUD. . . and deals with any physical and
emotional side effects that may result.

The beauty of Natural Family Planning as a method of birth control (and pregnancy
achievement) is that it holds great potential for involving men in the process. Both partners
must interpret charts, communicate about fertile/infertile times, abstain (or use a barrier
method) at times, and make decisions together. This constant communication and
awareness of fertility cycles can increase intimacy and strengthen the relationship.

Even Natural Family Planning can become a lopsided endeavor, however, if the woman
takes her temperature, keeps the charts, interprets her cycles, and makes the decisions,
while the man is reduced to simply asking, “Is it safe now?” If you would like to get your man
involved in the process beyond asking the “Is it safe now. . .?” question, here are some ideas.

Invite your partner to participate in the charting. I’ve heard stories of husbands popping the
thermometer in their wives’ mouths, taking it out at the beep, and reading off the
temperature. I’ve also heard of men who keep the chart, filling out the information each
morning down to the grittiest detail of cervical fluid and breast tenderness. I know one
couple who, when trying to conceive a child, had the husband check the wife’s cervical
position around the time of ovulation so they could best time intercourse. Surely this kind of
male involvement brings new meaning to the idea of physical intimacy in a relationship!

Help your partner grow to understand your fertility cycles and charts. It took me some time
and some research to understand my cycles. How much longer it must take a man to
understand these cycles when he has no first hand experience of them. Natural Family
Planning is a learning process for both members of the partnership. Go over your charts
together. Explain the significance of changes in basal body temperature, cervical fluid, and
cervical position. Let him in on some of the strange particulars of your cycle. Try reading
together Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility or this series of articles, or take a
class together on Natural Family Planning (see links for more information). Some months I
have trouble understanding my cycles. It’s a comfort to have a husband who can help me
interpret them and understand my confusion.