IRH and Natural Family Planning
The Institute for Reproductive Health* is the leading technical resource and learning center committed to mainstreaming modern Natural Family Planning in health and development programs. The institute works in partnership with individuals, communities and organizations in the public and private sectors towards empowering couples, increasing their family planning choices, and improving the well-being of their families. IRH views NFP as an education-based approach to family planning following a client-based learning model and includes a component on basic fertility awareness and counseling on couple communication. Natural Family Planning (NFP) has an important role to play in meeting the reproductive needs of couples. NFP is not a method in itself, but rather refers to methods used to plan for or prevent a pregnancy based on identifying the woman's fertile and infertile days and the timing of intercourse to achieve their intentions. IRH efforts in developing and testing newer and simpler NFP methods are based on biological scientific facts established through research, such as the probability of pregnancy from intercourse on days relative to ovulation, a study done by *Wilcox,A.J.et,al, (1998). Probability of Pregnancy from Intercourse on Days Relative to Ovulation
Why - a new NFP Method? There is a big demand for simple natural methods of family planning
There is low use of existing natural methods
There is high use of some kind of periodic abstinence and withdrawal
There is low understanding of fertility
