US experts suggest innovative ways of family planning

Experts from a US university Wednesday suggested some innovative family planning methods develop by them that can be adopted in India.

"Georgetown University has been emphasising on family planning and has come up with some of the innovative methods, such as Standard Days Method (SDM), Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) and Family Planning Method (FAM)," Priya Jha, country representative of the Institute of Reproductive Health (IRH) of Georgetown University, said.

Jha was explaining the efficacy of various family planning methods in Indian context at an event here.

IRH has been working in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote innovative family planning across India.

"These methods are immensely useful and have no side-effects. These are turning out to be the most preferred ways of family planning compared to other contraceptive methods like copper-T.

Most women use special strings of beads for the Standard Days Method. They are called CycleBeads. It helps keep track of their cycles.

LAM is a newly-developed interim family planning method that is based on utilisation of lactational infertility for protection from pregnancy.

"We are focusing on family planning because women have to suffer through hormonal disorders leading to many serious health issues. Family planning helps in country's development," said Victoria Jenning, who has 30 years of experience in family planning.

"SDM not only helps a couple to plan family but also to evade hormonal disorders that is caused by the oral contraceptives and the surgeries," Jha said.

"Till now in Jharkhand alone there are 243,962 users of LAM and 102,562 users of SDM. IRH is further looking ahead to scale up its operation in other Indian states," said Michael Stern of IRH.