Contraception and Child Bearing

This is a big subject for me right now...My husband and I are at a point where having a baby is a realistic thing. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I remember saying, "I want four kids!" That was when I was in fantasy land! Now as I am approaching the point in my life where we will actually stop preventing and start trying to have a baby I am darn scared! I have been on the pill, which is by far my method of choice, for many years. It has helped me emotionally and physically and has been great for preventing pregnancy. I started taking the pill to help lighten my periods and reduce cramps which was a blessing! I have tried the Depo shot, that was the WORST 3 months of my life! I had a spotty period the whole time and was a crazy psycho chick (and I gained 10 pounds!!!!)!

I feel that people need to be more responsible with their bodies. Teen pregnancy and unplanned pregnancy for those in a bad financial, emotional or physical situation is really inexcusable. There are so many methods of contraception (especially abstinence when we are talking about teens!) that there should not be an issue. Unfortunately, I think that many women are uneducated or misinformed about all of the means of prevention out there. I also feel that many women do not want to "insult" there guy buy telling him he needs to were a condom (especially young teen girls). I know when I was a teen I surely was not ready to have a child so I did what was necessary to prevent that and for me that was abstinence. I also know that until I KNOW I can provide for another human being in every way necessary, I will continue to take the appropriate precautions.

I do want to touch on the religious/cultural aspect of contraceptives. Having gone to Catholic school my entire life, I am very aware of their position on the use of contraceptives. HOWEVER, I certainly do not agree with their ideology. I find it so hard to understand how a religion can impose on a people in this manner. They certainly aren't paying for diapers and formula so they should not be telling me to use the "natural family planning" method of prevention that has a fail rate of up to 25%! That is a one in four chance! This figure is also with good monitoring - which most people do not keep up with.