What is Natural Family Planning?
What is natural family planning? In the broadest sense, natural family planning refers to methods of avoiding (or achieving) pregnancy that cooperate with a couple’s fertility rather than suppress it through the use of drugs or contraceptive devices. These methods involve determining the woman’s fertile period and abstaining from intercourse during that time to avoid pregnancy, or having intercourse then to achieve pregnancy. Properly applied, these natural methods are in full accord with the teachings of Pope Paul VI and John Paul II on the subject of family planning. Because they take advantage of the body’s natural rhythms of fertility and infertility and place no positive obstacles to the transmission of life, they do not fall under the Catholic Church’s official ban against artificial contraception. The assumption is, of course, that even when couples are using natural methods, they are not using them to avoid conception for selfish motives but for sound reasons like physical or e
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a term for methods used to achieve and avoid pregnancies based on observation of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of a woman’s menstrual cycle. By respecting the love-giving and life-giving nature of marriage, NFP can enrich the bond between husband and wife. As a method of family planning, NFP: • Calls for mutual responsibility and communication by husband and wife • Is based on scientific research • Treats each menstrual cycle as unique and teaches a couple to observe signs of fertility on a day-to-day basis • Has no harmful side effects • Is effective for achieving or avoiding pregnancy • Can be used in special circumstances • Is virtually cost free How does NFP work? NFP instruction helps a couple identify the most opportune time to achieve as well as avoid pregnancy. No artificial methods are used, because they would interfere with observation of fertility signs. NFP is NOT the “Rhythm” method that was based on the theory that time of ovu
