July 14, 2010
Natural Family Planning embraces beauty, complexity of marriage
By Tracy Murphy
Most people are aware of the Catholic Church’s position against artificial contraception.
Yet few understand natural family planning, the alternative family planning method approved and encouraged by the Church.
Natural family planning, or NFP, is an umbrella term for certain methods of achieving or postponing pregnancy. These methods are based on observations of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms throughout the fertile and infertile phases of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Together, these changes naturally indicate her fertility.
Couples using natural family planning will chart these various changes on a daily basis, in order to determine days of fertility, or infertility. Depending on the couple’s prayerfully determined family planning goals—to either postpone or to achieve pregnancy—they will choose to either abstain or engage in the marital act during those designated days of fertility (USCCB website, www.usccb.org).
In recent years, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. This national educational campaign, scheduled this year for July 25-31, seeks to focus attention on these various modern-day methods of NFP, as well as the Church teachings which support their use in marriage.
The Catholic Church, in its official teaching, considers the sexual act to be both holy and beautifully complex. In short, she teaches that the nature of sexual intercourse is both life-giving (pro-creative) and love-giving (unitive), ultimately reflecting the nature of God himself.
The Catholic Church insists that these two aspects should never be willfully separated from each other; to do so not only deeply disrespects this great gift from the Father, but also risks our own physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Why, then, does the Catholic Church condone natural family planning?
Because NFP “allows a couple to adjust their behavior to the naturally occurring cycles of a woman’s body, it is not considered a contraceptive,” the bishops write on their NFP webpage.
“In other words,” the site notes, “it does not actively work against conception during the sexual act; it cooperates with, rather than suppresses, a couple’s fertility.”
Despite these continued efforts to build public awareness, Natural Family Planning’s existence as an equally effective (on average, 97-99 percent) and distinctively beautiful alternative to artificial contraceptives, remains a mystery to many.
Blogger Dustin Riechmann of Springfield, Ill., a young Catholic husband and father of three, speaks of the difficulty that he and his wife experienced early on in their marriage, in finding reliable, Church-approved information on the topic of contraception and family planning.
“When we got married ... we were ‘uncomfortable’ using ... birth control because we knew that the Church didn’t approve,” he said. “However, we didn’t understand the reasons why and everyone we knew used contraceptives. We were honestly unaware of any alternatives for planning our family.”
A fateful homily, combined with increasing uneasiness with artificial contraceptives, finally led Reichmann and his wife to their own research into the alternatives and ultimately, to the embrace of the Sympto-Thermal method of natural family planning.
The benefits, he said, have been incredible.
“There are many relational benefits of (using) NFP, but from a purely spiritual standpoint my wife and I see NFP as a very real way to invite God to be an integral part of our marriage,” he said. “We see it as a holy trinity of sorts—me, my wife and God—as we fulfill our marriage covenant with each other and God. The sexual act is a renewal of our wedding vows, and we want God to be part of that in a real and whole way.”
Reichmann readily admits, however, that there are very real challenges associated with NFP.
“For one, NFP is widely misunderstood—it’s NOT the Rhythm Method! And most doctors don’t encourage it because they don’t understand it,” he said.
The solution, he asserts, is better education.
“When we reach out and teach people the truth about the effectiveness of NFP, its major benefits outside of religious reasons and … (provide) training to see how it really works, these obstacles are quickly broken down.”
In August of 2009, Riechmann became part of the solution, launching a blog titled “Engaged Marriage.” The online marriage ministry is specifically geared toward other young, busy couples like Riechmann and his wife. Since the launch, Riechmann has built a readership of approximately 8,000 visitors a month, with more than 100,000 clicks onto his various articles.
As for the relational challenges, Reichmann continues.
“It requires a daily commitment from the couple and of course, there are those pesky periods of abstinence!”
Yet, Reichmann insists that each challenge has its silver lining, and that many practicing couples find that they are rewarded “ten-fold” for their perseverance.
“The benefits of NFP go well beyond purely spiritual and moral reasons,” he notes.
“The direct benefits to marriage are open communication, a deeper bond between spouses, an improved appreciation of intimacy, and a need to make important decisions together on a regular basis, just to name a few.
“It’s one of the best things that has happened to our marriage.”
Natural Family Planning Resources
Local
To learn more about natural family planning resources within the Archdiocese of Denver, click here or call 303-715-3259.
Online
For Your Marriage Initiative www.foryourmarriage.org
U.S. bishops’ NFP website www.usccb.org/nfp
Engaged Marriage Blog www.engagedmarriage.com
NFP Works Blog www.NFPWorksBlog.com
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