Does natural family planning really work?

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Curious11

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Does it? I’m interested because if I become a Catholic one day and start using NFP with my wife, I wouldn’t want to be in a position where I either have to earn a lot to have many kids (don’t want that kind of pressure), I end up having a lot of children but I have to give them in adoption or, use contraception.
 
NFP is information regarding the woman’s cycle. You can use that information to either achieve or avoid pregnancy at any given time— depending on what you do with that information.

NFP is information. What “works” is what you do with it— engage in intercourse during the fertile period if you are trying to achieve and refrain if you are trying to avoid.

Whether or not a couple is successful at avoiding primarily depends on how motivated they are to follow the rules of their method and how motivated they are to track their signs of fertility carefully.

If you know you are in the fertile period window and engage in intercourse anyway, you have abandoned the method and are de facto engaging in achieving behavior.

One’s level of motivation and level of strictness in practicing NFP are usually related to the reason for abstaining— life threatening to “if it happen it happens”.
 
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Yeah but I’m pretty sure there’s a margin of error. And Catholics cannot abort, so there’s a chance you might have unwanted pregnancies that could lead to giving kids in adoption. But then why should you keep your first 2 kids and give the rest in adoption? Doesn’t seem fair to any of the kids or the parents. This is no joke, I’m actually concerned I might have to face these issues one day
 
I gotta say, with all due respect, that I’m a bit skeptical of catholic studies on this, since there might be bias
 
Go to a search engine and type in natural family planning doctor. I can’t give out medical information but he or she sure can. Contact a few. Ask all your questions. Yes, I’ve known a few Catholics who had an unplanned child and life went on.
 
I have. I can’t say I’m too convinced about the margin of error.
 
Curious11 said:
Yeah but I’m pretty sure there’s a margin of error.
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Study and learn.
Curious11 said:
And Catholics cannot abort, so there’s a chance you might have unwanted pregnancies that could lead to giving kids in adoption.
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You aren’t married yet. You need to reframe yourself. You are talking about “unwanted” babies. That is repulsive.

Marriage is for forming a family. Sex makes babies. Yes we can avoid when needed through periodic or complete abstinence for a time or indefinitely.
Curious11 said:
But then why should you keep your first 2 kids and give the rest in adoption?
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Now you are being ridiculous.
 
We have seven children and spaced the last 4 using NFP.Then we decided we had enough and for 18 years using NFPto avoid pregnancy. It worked for us. It does depend on your motivation.
 
I know, irl, dozens and dozens of Catholic married folks. Of those, I know maybe 3 who say they doubted the Church and used a sinful method. I know a couple who use nothing and simply accept children as they come.

All of the rest use some form of NFP. There are families like mine with one child and others with 11 kids. I’ve never met any of them who will tell you they had an unwanted child.
 
edwest211 said:
Yes, I’ve known a few Catholics who had an unplanned child and life went on.
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Its not just Catholics who sometimes have unplanned children, you know.

As far as natural family planning being an imperfect method- there has never been a perfect method of family planning and never will be, outside of permanent abstinence.
 
Better to use condoms than abortion or adopotion,adoption is almost worse than abortion. One is 9 months old when born, 9 months of developing a motherbond of mothers heartbeat, voice, walk, warmth, spiritual being, one’s sense of security that one needs to live with once born, broken, gone. Christians need to work on fixing our nation to value families first instead of tax cuts for lovers of money who already have too much.
 
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It is a noble act of charity to place a child with a loving family for adoption. Please, do not perpetuate the anti-life idea that it is better to kill your child than to allow someone else to raise them.
 
Not saying abort, never abort, that is totally wrong, but having raised adopted youth, adoption is abortion of the soul, for one’s soul is still connected to their natural birth mother and dependent on those 9 months of signals from their mother…Adoption should only happen on death of parents…The least sinful way is to use conceptions to avoid more children and ask for forgiveness, the sinless way is to de-sexualize from over-sexualized society creating more sexual desires in peoples minds. Most sinful is abortion and 2nd most is adoption.
Remember, adoption is abortion of the soul,breaking that is sinful and also selfish sin too.
 
We’ve been doing NFP to avoid pregnancy successfully for 5 years. We started doing NFP to avoid 7 years ago and had a “surprise” baby (who turned out to be The Best Surprise Ever, which just goes to show that God knows best 😊) But then we got more conservative in our application of NFP and so, no babies for 5 years now. It’s just about how determined you are to avoid and how educated about the fertility cycle you are.

Please don’t worry about having money enough for a big family. It’s really not a concern except in your head, because God always provides. We have 7 kiddos and we are what most people in the US would call “poor.” There’s a lot of normal stuff that we can’t afford to do, like going to the movies more than once a year, or going on vacations, or eating out unless it’s from the dollar menus at fast food joints… we drive old cars, wear hand-me-down or clearance rack clothing, and just make do with a lot less stuff and a much smaller house than most families we know… BUT it doesn’t matter to us because with our big family there’s so much love!! Have you heard the saying “Love is all you need” or “Love conquers all?” It’s true ❤️❤️❤️

I wouldn’t have life any other way. We have so much joy because of our big family even though we’re like constantly broke LOL Please don’t sell yourself short before you’ve even begun.
 
The margin of error depends of the method of NFP and of the sexual practice of the couples.

A couple who use NFP in the post fertile period have lower chances to “unplanned” pregnacies.
It depend alos of the age of the couple, the fertility, the frequency of the intercourse…

What you have to know the effectiveness depend of the motivation and the faithfullness of the observation of fertiliy on a daily basis and the free decision of the couple to have intercourse or to abstain.

-there is a perfect rare : usaually up to 98 or 99% (per couple and per year) for symptothermal method and temperature only method.
-there is a “typical” rate which is lower because the couple have not follow all the rule, have not observe careffully, have misinterpred signs of fertility or have decide to “take a chance”…

And for the decision to leave the child to adoption if a sacramental married couple have had more children than they wished, excuse me but I’m shocked.
I understand very much the decision of give a child for adoption if you are unmarried, have a very difficult situaion and want the better for the child. It could be a love action.

But when you are in a catholic married you have woved to accept and raised the children God what to give you. So It’s normal to sacrifice you a little to raise children that Go give you, even if it is an inconvenance for you. Chlidren are a joy and bring joy.
And if it is really really difficult after havinf one more child, I believe that a responsible couple would refrain a liitle from sex In order to find an acceptable way for sex and procreation.

Perhaps you would see things different when and if you would have a child…
 
It’s important to have an very good formation for competent people and accurate materials /books/sites to have an NFP works.
 
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