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Natural family planning has been shown to be up to 99% effective when used for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy. It can also be used as a method of assisting infertile couples to achieve pregnancy. Sometimes couples learning the cervical mucus method of natural family planning experience confusion as they attempt to accurately document the signs of fertility. NFPList.org has published a flowchart that demonstrates an algorithm for making cervical mucus observations which can be summarized as follows:
The very first thing that must be done before anything else is to decide if the cervical mucus was lubricative. The lubricative sensation must be obvious. If the mucus is lubricative, it is considered “peak-type” indicating that it is very fertile. It is still necessary to observe and finger test a lubricative observation so that the characteristics of the peak-type mucus are documented completely. Determining whether or not lubrication is present occurs before any visual observations are made—this is important to remember!
If the mucus is not lubricative, then it is necessary to determine whether or not anything can be lifted from the tissue or stretched between the fingers. If there is no “lift” AND there is no lubrication, then the observation is essentially dry (see flowchart). If the mucus can be lifted, then the finger testing procedure must be performed.
When lifting mucus, if it is either stretchy (1 inch or more) or at least a portion of it is clear (meaning that it looks like saran-wrap and you can see through it), then it is considered peak-type mucus. If non-lubricative mucus is not stretchy AND it is also not clear, then it is considered non-peak mucus. It should be noted that non-peak mucus is also fertile meaning that intercourse on a day of non-peak mucus would be expected to lead to a pregnancy.
This brief algorithm for making cervical mucus observations is obviously not meant to substitute for proper instruction with a certified natural family planning instructor. Similarly, without proper instruction, natural family planning cannot be expected to be as reliable as has been shown in published studies. While there are multiple methods of natural family planning that rely on the observation of cervical mucus based on very similar decision making strategies, they may not all be exactly the same.
If this article has peaked your interest in natural family planning, then perhaps now is the best time to find someone in your area who can introduce you to a this wonderful, safe, effective, and low cost way of understanding and learning to live in harmony with your fertility. What are you waiting for?
NFP and Infertility: http://www.majella.us
Pregnancy calculator: http://picella.com/tools/pregnancy-date-calculator.htm
David Picella, NP, is a PhD student at the University of Milwaukee Wisconsin.
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