By YOLANDA Z. SOTELO

HERE’S good news for couples who want to plan their families the natural way: The TwoDay Method.
The newest natural family planning method uses the woman’s cervical secretions as indicators of fertility and all the woman has to do is check her secretions daily
As its name implies, the TwoDay Method means that the couples planning the number of their children abstain from sexual intercourse for only two days a month, making it more acceptable for most couples.

It’s a very simple method: If a woman notices cervical secretions yesterday or today, then the couple, who wants to avoid pregnancy, abstains from sexual intercourse today, Nora Geslani Duran, a trainer of the Institute for Reproductive Health-Philippines, said.

“If the woman has secretions today, she can get pregnant today. If she has secretions yesterday, she can get pregnant today,” Duran explained.
The IRH-Philippines and the Provincial Population Office (PPO) conducted a two-day consultative workshop on January 30-31 with key program stakeholders in the province. These include municipal health officers, municipal population officers, municipal nurses and midwives.
Governor Victor Agbayani said the Pangasinan province remains the “undisputed pioneer province in the effort to achieve family planning commodity self-reliance” after the United Nations Agency for International Development withdrew its assistance for family planning commodities.
“Side by side with modern methods, we are pushing the use of natural family planning methods so that married couples can have a choice,” he said.
Duran said the TwoDay Method is simpler than the Mucus-Billings Method which calls for the woman to observe her cervical secretions, needs charts and is based on the woman’s menstrual cycle.
But the TwoDay Method is still currently undergoing an efficacy trial in several countries, Duran said.
The Standard Days Method (SDM) on the other hand, is a tried and tested way to plan a family for those wary of modern methods (like pills, IUD, injectables), Duran said.
Provincial Population Officer Luz Muego said the provincial government, which is “committed to natural family planning methods,” is scaling up the use of SDM in the province.
The PPO is targeting the users of traditional methods (like withdrawal, calendar/rhythm) which accounts for 22 percent usage among women of reproductive age in the province.
“The traditional methods are actually not methods and are not scientific,” Muego said.
The SDM or the use of cycle beads is a simple fertility awareness-based method which helps a woman to know her fertile days by counting the days of her cycle. It identifies days 8-19 of the cycle of an average woman (whose cycles ranges from 26-32 days) as fertile days.
Both the TwoDay and the SDM methods has all the advantages of natural methods – so side effects, no costly or imported commodities needed, promotes couple communication and involves both husband and wife.
Both can also be used by couples who wanted to have a child as they will know the days when the woman is most likely to conceive a child.
The SDM has been tested in three countries (Peru, Bolivia and the Philippines) and has an effectiveness of 95.25 percent with correct usage, Duran said. It was developed by the IRH-University of Georgia.