A Question about children

[Dani1980]

My DH and I have been struggling with this for awhile now and would like some (name removed by moderator)ut.
We have now four children that we love dearly! Our oldest has a form of autism, our second suffers from severe anxiety, our third pregnancy ended early losing both babies and nearly myself. Our third child is a healthy darling. Our fourth was an unexpected miracle, born early and having spent most of his life thus far in hospital,(we hope and pray to have him home for Christmas).
Throughout the course of these pregnancies we have been bombarded with persecution and criticism for having “too many children”. This coming for strong and devout Catholics.
My DH and I have held our heads high and loved our children, trying to teach them that even though our family and friends are not there for us that we should always be there for others, as hard as it has been for us to believe that.
Now however, after this last child I am afraid that my health could not withstand another, however I do not want to get myself “fixed” as everyone says I should.
Is there an allowance on the church’s part for healths sake for the use of birth control?
Thanks for letting me pick at your brains!
Dani

 

[wifeandmomoftwo]

My DH and I have been struggling with this for awhile now and would like some (name removed by moderator)ut.
We have now four children that we love dearly! Our oldest has a form of autism, our second suffers from severe anxiety, our third pregnancy ended early losing both babies and nearly myself. Our third child is a healthy darling. Our fourth was an unexpected miracle, born early and having spent most of his life thus far in hospital,(we hope and pray to have him home for Christmas).
Throughout the course of these pregnancies we have been bombarded with persecution and criticism for having “too many children”. This coming for strong and devout Catholics.
My DH and I have held our heads high and loved our children, trying to teach them that even though our family and friends are not there for us that we should always be there for others, as hard as it has been for us to believe that.
Now however, after this last child I am afraid that my health could not withstand another, however I do not want to get myself “fixed” as everyone says I should.
Is there an allowance on the church’s part for healths sake for the use of birth control?
Thanks for letting me pick at your brains!
Dani

You can not use artifical birth control but NFP is an option.
May I suggest that you do a search on the forum as there are many threads with good info regarding NFP.

 

[Em_in_FL]

Natural Family Planning is within moral and church guidelines…

From the Catechism…

2370
**Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.**158 These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil:159

 

[BlestOne]

You know… I am not trying to be harsh here… But I never heard of anyone dying from abstinence. I know it can even be done for prolonged periods. I have 3 living, 1st born with apnea and was in hospitals quite a bit… next, lost one of my twins and almost both and myself. I spent almost the entire pregnancy in bed… then my miracle baby a few years later. Between kids and after that, we practiced abstinence, sometimes for years.

Now I would give just about anything for another child. I have had several very early miscarriages and one that wasn’t very early… I don’t care if I had to stay in bed for an entire pregnancy, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Anyway, there is NFP (which I wish I knew more about back then) too. It can be more effective than any ABC… and a whole lot healthier than ingesting, injecting or otherwise consuming hormones.

 

[Teakafrog]

Is there an allowance on the church’s part for healths sake for the use of birth control?

No. It is always immoral. But you can safely use NFP! There are many methods available, so you choose the one that works best for you. If you are using one now that doesn’t seem to be effective, take a class in another method. Maybe it just isn’t a good fit. I’ll try to go look up so some links, but in the mean time, you can google the following: CCLI, Creighton method, Billings method, sympto-thermal, TCOYF.
NFP works, if used correctly. Obviously it won’t work if you don’t follow the rules exactly–that would be like only taking a birth control pill a few days a week. Another good reason to take a class–you’ll have the instructor as a resource if you have questions. You can show them your charts and they can help you interpret them.