As you know, we’re practicing Natural Family Planning (NFP)1. I know you think I’m secretly doing it so that we have babies sooner. This is not true (although I won’t lie, that’s probably one of the reasons I was more open to it in the first place). We’re doing it because we’ve become convinced that it’s the right thing to do.
And it really does work! The effectiveness of NFP is 97-99% (basically the same as the pill)2. And the beauty of NFP is that not only does it help you avoid pregnancy, it also helps you to achieve pregnancy. So when you are ready to start a family, you don’t have to wait three months for the pill to get out of your system before trying (as the manufacturers direct) – you can try the next month, knowing exactly when your most fertile time is!
So how does it work? It’s easy, and really it’s not that different from being on the pill. You (the woman) take your temperature first thing every morning (the same time every day, just like the pill). You note changes in your body. Just from that, you can determine when you are and aren’t fertile. If you want babies, go for it when you’re fertile. If you don’t, don’t. This is not the “rhythm method” – that didn’t work so well because it was based on averages, and each woman is unique. This is based on you as an individual woman.
So if they’re not that different, why does it matter which way I choose to avoid pregnancy? Well, in my mind, there are three main reasons to practice NFP: social health, personal health, and spiritual health. Stay tuned for a more in-depth explanation of each!
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_family_planning
2 http://ccli.org/nfp/basics/effectiveness-p01.php
This is the introduction to a series of five posts. (Yes, I might've gotten a bit carried away.) Here are the others in this series:
Part I: "Reason #1 - Social Health"
Part II: "Reason #2 - Personal Health"
Part III: "Reason #3 - Spiritual Health (History and Scripture)"
Part IV: "Reason #3 - Spiritual Health (Theology and Christian Marriage)"