Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

In as much as pregnancy and childbirth are a source of great joy and satisfaction for many parents, the large and ever increasing number of homeless juveniles and rejected babies indicates that pregnancy is not a welcome phenomenon for all women.

There are very many unwanted pregnancies that take place every single day all over the world and the outcomes of such pregnancies are not always pleasant. In fact, some of them can only be described as heartless and in human, regardless of the situations and circumstances under which they were committed.

Sometimes, people that find themselves with unwanted pregnancies resort to aborting the baby before it is due, while others wait until they deliver the baby and then throw him or her away. Such unfortunate eventualities could easily have been avoided if the subject did not get pregnant in the first place.

Therefore the main question here is how to avoid these unwanted pregnancies. There are a lot of family planning methods and techniques that have been developed over the years to answer this question and a lot of controversy surrounds the use of some of them.

However, most people will agree that knowing the safe period to avoid pregnancy and only engaging in sexual intercourse within this period is the best way to stay free of unwanted pregnancies.

What is the safe period to avoid pregnancy?

The monthly cycle of a typical woman can be categorized into two parts depending on the potential for conception. First, there is the fertile period during which any sexual intercourse with a viable male is likely to result in conception.

Then there is the barren period which is considered the safe period to avoid pregnancy. The greatest challenge for most couples lies in the precise determination of this period. The good news is that there is an easy method using which susceptible individuals can calculate their safe periods.

How to calculate the safe period

The idea of the safe period to avoid pregnancy is centered on the menstrual cycle of the woman. In general terms, the menstrual cycle refers to the period between the first days of the previous period to the first day of the present periods. This duration normally varies from person to person, and it is important to note that it is rarely ever constant even for the same individual.

A typical menstrual cycle is expected to last between 26 to 31 days. Menstruation is caused by ovulation, which is basically the release of eggs by the ovary for fertilization. The week before ovulation and the week after it are considered fertile periods during which a woman is highly likely to get pregnant.

The interval outside these limits is what constitutes the safe period during which the chances of pregnancy are close to nil. Thus by determining the limits of the fertile period, the safe periods will be made evident. There are many formulae that have been developed to assist in the determination of the fertile period and, by extension, the safe period to avoid pregnancy and most of these formulae have proved adept and effective at the task.