Natural Family Planning

Inside Catholic just published a story about NFP. I was unable to leave my comments at their website, so I'm going to write about it here! Stop reading if talk about NFP makes you uncomfortable. I'm surprised at the slightly negative approach that the author took. She hinted that people are mostly frustrated with it and that couples do not like the periodic abstinence that is necessary when trying to avoid pregnancy. Natural Family Planning has been nothing but a blessing for our marriage. Periodic abstinence is nothing compared to the complete abstinence required before marriage. Why is it so frustrating for many people? Since a natural result of marital intimacy during a fertile period is a child, perhaps we should actually view this periodic abstinence with a small dose of sorrow. Shouldn't we be a little disappointed that we feel unable to help our Creator bring a child into the world at this time?
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I will admit frustration with the Creighton method but it had nothing to do with periodic abstinence. When we were first married, this is the method we were trying to use to postpone pregnancy. God had a different plan! We became pregnant two months into our marriage and delivered a healthy baby girl. Thirteen months later, our second daughter arrived. Sixteen months after that, our first son was born. All three children were unexpected but welcome. However, couple close pregnancies with C-sections, and you get one very worn out mother. Our goal was not to avoid children altogether, it was to space them farther apart.

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We signed up for a class about the Sympto-Thermal Method offered by the Couple to Couple League. Creighton offers only one clue to identifying fertility. The Sympto-Thermal Method offers at least three ways to identify your fertile days. We got the hang of this method and immediately understood why the Creighton Model didn't help us to avoid pregnancy. We planned and welcomed our fourth child two and a half years after the third. He is now fourteen months old. We hope that we will be blessed some day with another, but in the meantime, we'll give my body some time to continue recovering and hope that our plan is in line with God's plan.

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Natural Family Planning is such a healthy choice for marriage and such a good tool for communication and understanding. Many people who are not Catholic (or who are Catholic and contracepting) do not understand why anyone would use NFP, much less have four children and desire more. We hear judgmental comments occasionally from people, but we take them in stride and pray for their hearts to be opened. Children are not liabilities; children are assets! Not all assets are easily earned, but these assets, these God-given gifts, are the only things that we take with us to Heaven. Encourage couples to continue with NFP even when they are frustrated.

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Post Script: I found a beautiful article on Infertility at Faith & Family online. This article complements the practice of Natural Family Planning.

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Photo credit to WeddingChaos from flickr dot com.