Birth Control

How many kids do you want to have? For me, I think 3; One twins and a child. And if my wife wants more, then we’ll go more (Laughs!). But wait a minute, we’ve not had family planning. Family planning is not only for controlling birth, it is also for organizing it. It’s important we understand how to manage things that we are in charge of. Why do women go for abortion? Why do people have children that they don’t take care? It’s because of lack of family planning. Perhaps there’s no enough knowledge on how to control conception and avoid pregnancy. This doesn’t happen only among young people, it happens also among married people. We cannot separate sex from man. It is inherent in his nature. Though sex is put within the bounds of marriage, many do it outside marriage. But that is not the way God designed it. There are many intricacies associated with wrong sex. Close to average of all pregnancies are unplanned and half of these pregnancies are aborted in the process. Unplanned pregnancy is not only outside marriage, it happens also within marriage. Let’s consider the lists of birth control methods that we have. There are 1.  Sterilization methods (vasectomy in males and tubal ligation in females, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and implantable birth control), 2. Hormone-based methods (oral pills, patches, vaginal rings, and injections), 3. Physical barrier methods (condoms, diaphragms, and birth control sponges), 4. Fertility awareness methods, 5.Use of spermicides 6.Withdrawal method (coitus interruptus). Sterilization, while highly effective, is not usually reversible; all other methods are reversible, most immediately upon stopping them. Safe sex practices, such as with the use of male or female condoms, can also help prevent sexually transmitted infections. Other methods of birth control do not protect against STDs. Emergency birth control can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 to 120 hours after unprotected sex. Some argue sexual abstinence as a form of birth control, but abstinence-only sex education may increase teenage pregnancies if offered without birth control education, due to non-compliance. Countries where abstinence-only sex education was taught had high rates of teenage pregnancies while countries where comprehensive sex education was taught had low rates of teenage pregnancies. It’s obvious that young people don’t want to be force into sexual abstinence when their sexual rush is driving them crazy. Comprehensive sex education aims at giving all relevant information about sex and how individuals can decide on what they want as far as sex is concerned. About 222 million women who want to avoid pregnancy in developing countries are not using birth control method. But birth control use has decreased deaths among women by 40% and could prevent 70% if the full demand for birth control were met. By lengthening the time between pregnancies, birth control can improve adult women's delivery outcomes and the survival of their children. Birth control also increases economic growth and less of untrained children in the society because of unplanned pregnancy. Globally, condom is the most widely used birth control method. It is cheap, easy to get and use. Couples are encouraged to go for any of the birth control methods of their choice and the one that best fit their present need to avoid unplanned pregnancies. Happy Weekend!