Abstinence – Does It Effectively Prevent Unwanted Pregnancy?   

Abstinence – Does It Effectively Prevent Unwanted Pregnancy?

  

 

Abstinence is one of the ways of controlling birth; it involves couples having to keep away from sex for particular periods in order for the woman not to get pregnant. The period of staying away from sex could be total or partial.

Periodic abstinence involves the couple staying away from sex because of the fear it might lead to the woman becoming pregnant. Total abstinence on the other hand, is when there is no intercourse at all continually.

This method of family planning is reliable to an extent especially if the couple is able to completely understand the rhythm of the woman’s cytotec bogota

menstrual cycle and the time of ovulation.

For this to effectively check pregnancy therefore, it means that the couple must abstain from sexual intercourse few days before, during and few days after ovulation. It means they should not have sex for at least one full week – 3 to 4 days before ovulation and 3 to 4 days after ovulation.

If the couple has sex too close to the ovulation period, the tendency is that some sperms might survive and eventually fertilize the released ovum. There is also the possibility of a released ovum surviving beyond one day. It is therefore safer to avoid sex for such a stretch of time.

Why do people practice abstinence?

Several people practice it for different reasons. Some of the reasons why it is practiced include:

  1. To prevent unwanted pregnancy
    2. For religious reasons – It is practiced when some couples want to embark on some forms of religious rituals such as fasting and prayers, etc.
    3. It enables one to concentrate on education without any form of distraction or fears of unwanted pregnancy.
    4. It also gives one the ample time to mourn one’s partner in time of bereavement.
    5. It is also a way of fulfilling the religious vow of keeping oneself pure until marriage.
    6. To enable a spouse recover from a disease condition