Anthropological and Methodical Differences of Natural Family Planning and Fertility Awareness–based Methods

Abstract

The term natural family planning (NFP), both in the scientific terminology and in the practical language of health policy, is often referred to as natural contraception or fertility awareness–based methods (FABM). “NFP. A guide to providing services,” issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988, presents NFP as a method inconsistent with any other contraceptive method but later published “Family Planning, a Global Handbook for Providers,” wherein NFP is not presented as a stand-alone method group but is grouped with FAB methods, which are combined with barrier contraception active during the fertile phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle if there is a desire to postpone pregnancy. In other words, the WHO family planning recommendations present FABM as one group of contraceptive methods. The WHO is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. For these obvious reasons, the article mostly concentrates on WHO definition of FAMB. This article presents the anthropological and methodological differences between NFP (including and modern NFP methods that employ urinary hormone metabolite detection) and FABM and, through comparative analysis, determines that NFP is synonymous with neither FABM nor any of the methods of this group but is rather a distinct group of family planning methods. Summary: The term natural family planning (NFP), both in the scientific terminology and in the practical language of health policy, is often referred to as natural contraception or fertility awareness-based methods (FABM). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. WHO family planning recommendations present FABM as one group of contraceptive methods For these obvious reasons the article mostly concentrates on the WHO definition of FAMB. The article presents the anthropological and methodological differences between NFP and FABM and, through comparative analysis, determines that NFP is synonymous with neither FABM nor any of the methods of this group but is rather a distinct group of family planning methods.