Avoiding pregnancy is only half of what NFP does!
NFP also lets couple know when they are fertile and will most likely will be able to conceive.
Couples that use NFP use it not only to use it to HELP AVOID pregnancy but they use it HELP ACHIEVE Pregnancy. ABC, be it the pill, condoms, other barriers, shots, etc cannot help a couple Achieve Pregnancy.
I have heard that for couples that have a hard time conceiving the Dr’s will tell them: to abstain from sex during the two weeks around a woman’s period (to increase the man’s sperm count at a time when conception is not possible), and to have sex on alternate nights during the remaining two weeks.
NFP is about it about abstaining! It can be used to either abstain to HELP avoid pregnancy or it can be used to HELP aid in achieving pregnancy. Are condoms used to help achieve pregnancy? Are pills used to help achieve pregnancy?
NFP ONLY works when both husband and wife are working TOGETHER. They together with God have to decide what is best for their family. Both Husband and Wife know that each act has the most likely hood to achieve pregnancy or avoid pregnancy.
Lets say a couple has a baby that is 2 months old. Most couples I know, especially the women, is not going to want a NEW baby in the near future. So the options are
- For the last 2 months or more they have been abstain from sex, because of the women’s health. So they can continue to abstain until they are ready to have another child, which could be another year, 2 years or more or
- they can have relations when they are most likely they will not achieve pregnancy.
Seeing couple married each other to be with each other, they are most likely going to choose option 2 over option 1.
Or lets say the husband just lost his job and the family may be loosing their home. Therefore they would not want a child right now. So the best thing would be either to TOTALLY abstain or have relations when they are most likely not going to achieve pregnancy.
When a couple looses their job and have NO income how are they going to pay for ABC? Those couples are going to be left with just the option of TOTAL abstinence: this is because they wouldn’t have a clue if they were fertile or infertile.
In order for NFP to work at achieving pregnancy or avoiding pregnancy it need both husband and wife to work together. They together know if they are fertile or infertile and they together decide to have relations based on that information. Where if the wife is taking an oral ABC she is doing it on her own, there is nothing for the husband to do. Also if the oral ABC fails and she does get pregnant, who gets the blame? She does! The husband right away will say “Didn’t you take your pill?”
Where with NFP if they do end up getting pregnant, no one get’s blamed! Both husband and wife know that there is always the chance that they will end up pregnant and they together decided to have sex. The NFP couple that ends up with a “surprise pregnancy” will turn to God and either ask Him for help or thank Him for this gift.
Couples that use NFP DO NOT start turning on each other and putting blame on each other they do not say things like you didn’t take your pill or you purposely have not been taking it? Or you poked hole in the condom, you didn’t use it right…. etc, etc, etc. They know that they are equally responsible and that they both did this…. There was nothing “extra” added to the sex. The wife was NOT doing something extra like taking an Oral ABC. The husband was NOT doing something extra like using a condom. There was nothing added to the relation, so there was nothing that could “fail”.
When ABC “fails” ONE of the partners gets blamed for the “surprise pregnancy”. The partner that used the extra (the ABC) is the one that gets blamed. I think that it reason enough for couples NOT to use ABC!
