#HEALTHTALK 29: Child birth and spacing methods (1)

Source: George Jr Kamau //Pexels

One thing is necessary when it comes to child bearing—intending/new couples are expected to discuss and plan for the coming of their young ones. Two most critical considerations should be number of children desired, and frequency of conception. 

Firstly, considerations about the number of children to have should be determined by financial and psychological factors, more than any other factors. How many kids are you financially capable of caring for, based on your income as a couple? And how emotionally and psychologically ready are you for the delicate responsibility of parenting? 

The above two questions are the most paramount that every intending/new couple should ask themselves and answer sincerely when planning how many children they'd like to have. And they should do well to answer without any sentiments, especially since income levels pay no respects to sentiments, neither do psychological realities. If you're not yet ready for something, you simply aren't ready....yet. Be truthful to yourself if you are, and if you aren't, and plan based on your honest answer. 

World poverty index as we know it today is largely regulated at the point when couples conceive children and when they give birth. (This is my personal opinion). Hence, a lot of thoughtfulness and care should be taken by couples in their sex lives, since that is the major gateway to conception.

Secondly, considerations about the frequency of conception should be determined by family planning goals. Most people think family planning is all about birth control, but it's not. 

Family planning is your ability (as a couple) to anticipate and attain your desired number of children, and the spacing and timing of their births.

In other words, after you've decided on how many kids you want to have as a couple (based on your financial and psychological capacities), family planning then provides you a vehicle to accurately achieve your goals. 

Through family planning techniques, you can learn how to get pregnant, and/or anticipate a boy or a girl, according to your choice. 

You can also plan on when exactly you want to start getting pregnant, and/or when next you would like to get pregnant. Hence, you can literally decide the range (and maybe the exact date) of your child's birthday, even before they are conceived! Family planning does that for you. 

Child spacing can be effective, if the family adopts some family planning methods that control and help you anticipate pregnancy in a way that better suits your goals. 

For example, with family planning knowledge, you can understand that during conception, if an X-chromosome from the woman fuses with another X-chromosome from the man, a girl will be conceived. But if it fuses with a Y-chromosome from the man, a boy will be conceived instead.  

Also, in order to prevent conception or control its rate, family planning provides knowledge of various natural and artificial contraceptive methods which are safe, and also advices you on the reliability of each of them.

While family planning methods do not replace divine involvement in procreation, they do give us an insight into how we can play a more informed role in that process. 

Please keep a date with us on the next edition of #HealthTalk next week Wednesday, 24th February 2021, as we'll be taking time to discuss various family planning methods which can help you better anticipate your child's sex, plan for pregnancy, and/or control your rate of conception as much as is biologically possible.

See you next week. 

Lilian Eze is a Nutritionist-Dietitian and teacher in Lagos, Nigeria. She is also a Lead Content Creator at The Paul Anunaso Blog, and can be reached at lilian.thepaulanunasoblog@gmail.com