What is Natural Family Planning?

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for certain methods used to achieve and avoid pregnancies. These methods are based on observation of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of a woman's menstrual cycle. Couples using NFP to avoid pregnancy abstain from intercourse and genital contact during the fertile phase of the woman's cycle. No drugs, devices, or surgical procedures are used to avoid pregnancy. NFP reflects the dignity of the human person within the context of marriage and family life, promotes openness to life, and recognizes the value of the child. By respecting the love-giving and life-giving natures of marriage, NFP can enrich the bond between husband and wife.

The Rhythm (or Calendar) method was in use more than 50 years ago. It was based on the theory that the time of ovulation could be determined by calculating from previous menstrual cycles. This method often proved inaccurate because of the unique nature of each woman's ovulation cycle: some women have very irregular cycles and almost all women have a cycle of unusual length once in a while.

On the other hand, NFP methods are progressive. That is, they are based on progressive, day-to-day observations of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle. NFP methods take advantage of the changes associated with ovulation, treating each cycle as unique.

Couples using NFP to avoid pregnancy abstain from intercourse during the fertile phase of the woman's cycle. Couples who wish to achieve a pregnancy can also take advantage of the fertile time of the cycle. Because it allows couples to adjust their behavior to the naturally occurring cycles of a woman's body, NFP is not a contraceptive--i.e., it does nothing to work against conception.

Any married couple can use NFP! A woman need not have "regular" cycles. NFP education helps couples to fully understand their combined fertility, thereby helping them to either achieve or avoid a pregnancy. The key to the successful use of NFP is cooperation and communication between husband and wife--a shared commitment.

As a method of family planning, NFP: calls for mutual responsibility by husband and wife; requires the couple to communicate; is based on scientific research; treats each menstrual cycle as unique and teaches a couple to observe their signs of fertility on a day-to-day bases; has no harmful side effects; is effective for those wanting to achieve or avoid pregnancy; can be used in special circumstances--such as, post-partum, during breastfeeding, and premenopause; is virtually cost free!

NFP is unique among methods of family planning because it enables its users to work with the body rather than against it. Fertility is viewed as a reality to live, not a problem to be solved. What are the signs of fertility?

NFP instruction helps a couple identify the most opportune time to achieve as well as avoid a pregnancy. Understanding that intercourse or genital contact during the fertile time can result in pregnancy, couples using the natural methods must be clear regarding their family planning intention--that is, do they wish to achieve or avoid a pregnancy?

If a couple wishes to achieve pregnancy, they have intercourse during the fertile time. If a couple wishes to avoid pregnancy, they abstain from intercourse and any genital contact during the fertile time. No artificial methods are used during the fertile time. These would interfere with a women's observation of her fertility signs.

In NFP both spouses are taught to understand the nature of fertility and work with it, either to plan a pregnancy or to avoid a pregnancy. Couples who use NFP soon learn that they have a shared responsibility for family planning. Husbands are encouraged to "tune into" their wives' cycles and both spouses are encouraged to speak openly and frankly about their sexual desires and their ideas on family size.

Other benefits include:

• Low cost.
• No harmful side effects.
• Effectiveness for achieving, spacing, or limiting pregnancy.
• Can be used throughout the reproductive life cycle.
• Marriage enrichment and mutual understanding.
• Appreciation for the value of children.
• Fosters respect for and acceptance of the total person.
• Moral acceptability.

When couples understand the methods and are motivated to follow them, NFP is up to 99% successful in spacing or limiting births.

The effectiveness of NFP depends upon the spouses' following the rules of the method according to their family planning intention (i.e., achieving or limiting births). Those who are strongly motivated to avoid pregnancy and follow the method strictly are very effective in meeting their goal.

Myth #1: NFP is just another name for Rhythm.

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for modern, healthy, scientifically accurate, and reliable methods of family planning which have been in use for only some 25 years.

The natural methods do not depend on having regular menstrual cycles; they treat each woman and each cycle as unique. She does not rely on a standard formula that does not take into account her cycle variations. Instead, by observing her signs of fertility, a woman will know each day if she is in her fertile or infertile phase of her cycle, whether the cycle that month is regular or not.

Anyone who is taught by a certified teacher and motivated to use NFP can do so. NFP has been taught successfully to couples in third-world countries who have had no formal education. NFP is really quite easy to learn!

When couples are taught by competent teachers and carefully follow the rules of their chosen method, NFP is highly successful in both achieving and avoiding pregnancy. Studies by non-biased sources have quoted NFP effectiveness at 96-99% in avoiding pregnancy if that is the couple's intent.

Couples who use NFP value begin to value and appreciate the gift of their fertility and one another. Usually, when something is taken away from us, we tend to realize its importance and value in our lives, especially when it is returned. For example, we tend to take our good health for granted until we are sick but are then filled with joy when we are well again. We suddenly realize anew how fortunate we are to be in good health. In the same way, the period of abstinence prevents couples from taking their sexuality and one another for granted and helps them return to one another full of appreciation and joy. This deeper sense of appreciation for one another often leads to more sex, not less, even when couples must abstain for a short period each month.

The difference between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle is a difference which is much wider an deeper than is usually thought, one which involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. The choice of the natural rhythms involves accepting the cycle of the person, that is the woman, and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility and self-control. This means to recognize both the spiritual and corporal character of conjugal communion, and to live personal love with its requirement of fidelity. In this way, sexuality is respected and promoted in its truly and fully human dimension, and is never "used" as an "object" that, by breaking the personal unity of soul and body, strikes at God's creation itself at the level of the deepest interaction of nature and person.

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no. 32.

NFP methods are different from and better than artificial contraception because they:

• cooperate with, rather than suppress, a couple's fertility;
• can be used both to achieve and avoid pregnancy;
• call for shared responsibility and cooperation by husband and wife;
• require spousal communication;
• foster respect for and acceptance of the total person;
• have no harmful side effects;
• are virtually cost free.

In fact the Church encourages people to be "responsible" stewards over their fertility. Unfortunately, Catholic thought is often misunderstood on this point [about "responsible parenthood], as if the Church supported an ideology of fertility at all costs, urging married couples to procreate indiscriminately and without thought for the future. But one need only study the pronouncements of the Magisterium to know that this is not so.

Sexual intercourse is not only eminently personal, between a man and a woman, but also has a public and even universal dimension.

The Church wants married couples to have the best sex possible! The most pleasurable sex occurs when both the husband and wife hold a deep respect and love for one another.