Natural Family Planning Classes- too expensive!

[sherimarie]

I am in favor of NFP being mandatory for engaged couples. You never know if plans may change. A sudden medical problem may make it nessasary to abstain, it is a lot easier to learn the method before you need to use it.
Also, how can we promote NFP if we are not famular with it ourselves? 80% of american woman are now or were at one point on the pill! We have an obligation to promote the culture of life, introducing people to NFP is much more effective if we can testify to it’s benefits personally.

 

[ac_claire]

I just finished reading this thread and I have to say I am surprised at how many people were skeptical that you can learn how to use NFP without a class. We got an old CCL book from our local Catholic bookstore and did it that way.

I avoided postpartum, avoided while breastfeeding, and then when we decided it was another, used it to conceive the little one we’re expecting now. It’s not rocket science, particularly if you use the other signs your body gives you each day, rather than just relying on temps which can be confusing when you’ve just had a little one. Sure some people have a hard time with it, but for others it’s pretty easy (and I have/ had a totally irregular cycle). A lot of people are totally capable of learning on their own.

As I said, I did, and I’ve found myself teaching health care providers about how my body and cycle work lately!

Actually (and I know this is a old thread) I was also surprised at how uncompassionate some people were. $159 is a lot for some people. It would be almost 20% of what our family squeaks by on each month. Not something that some people can frivolously spend if they don’t need a class. Not everyone goes out and squanders money on frivolous expenses and learning something that you already know would be pretty frivolous in my book.

Great post. I started this thread (we were married at the beginning of November btw, this month) and what ended up happening is, we didn’t go to the traditional NFP classes because we couldn’t afford the cost. Plus I didn’t have a car to get around easily except to work, and a few other reasons. I did find a free certification program online, but it wasn’t really a “course”. We already knew about NFP from our families and from reading about it. I started a bunch of threads about it here on CAF and looked around online and we just figured it out.

Not saying that everyone’s gonna do that, but it’s possible and way easier, and cheaper! lol
And it worked because I have my cycles down for the first time ever, and I think partially as a result of knowing about NFP and my cycles, we ended up conceiving on our honeymoon.

 

[moon1234]

I am in favor of NFP being mandatory for engaged couples. You never know if plans may change. A sudden medical problem may make it nessasary to abstain, it is a lot easier to learn the method before you need to use it.
Also, how can we promote NFP if we are not famular with it ourselves? 80% of american woman are now or were at one point on the pill! We have an obligation to promote the culture of life, introducing people to NFP is much more effective if we can testify to it’s benefits personally.

The Pill and NFP can both be used for the SAME THING! If they are used to avoid pregnancy then they are WRONG! The pill can also be used to treat Dysmenorrhea and other diseases. In this scenerio the primary purpose of the pill is treat disease and not to avoid pregnancy. In this scenerio the pill is acceptable to the church.

Thus it would naturally follow that if a couple is using NFP to AVOID pregnancy then it’s use is no different than the pill. To say anything else is just mental gymnastics. Forcing a couple to learn how to avoid getting pregnant BEFORE getting married stricks me as simply un-catholic. This is the main thrust behind many NFP classes.

How many NFP instructors actually tell couples that specifically using NFP to avoid pregnancy is wrong? Most likely none or the exact opposite. NFP can be used for good as shown above, to help conceive or to find out if medical problems exist. This is a good use of NFP.

 

[FrenchGwen]

I am in favor of NFP being mandatory for engaged couples. You never know if plans may change. A sudden medical problem may make it nessasary to abstain, it is a lot easier to learn the method before you need to use it.
Also, how can we promote NFP if we are not famular with it ourselves? 80% of american woman are now or were at one point on the pill! We have an obligation to promote the culture of life, introducing people to NFP is much more effective if we can testify to it’s benefits personally.

I sooooo have to agree with that. I know of several families where both spouses married thinking there was no need for them to think about NFP because they planned on having children right away and let them come to their own time. Then, with like 4 children in 4 years of marriage, they suddenly came to realize they could not go on like this : the lack of couple time for years, money problems, health problems just forced them to revision their plans for the future.
Sadly, for some of them, not having thought ahead about NFP finally led them to… the Pill, because after a try at NFP, messed up owing to the stresses already existing (little children / marriage problems resulting of the little time available for couple time making abstinence even more difficult / conflictual), and that ended in yet another pregnancy, they just were so desperate to get “some time off”.

So I would just see that as a precaution, in order to not put oneself in a situation where the tentation to yield and get on the Pill may become soooo strong.

 

[smswife]

I’m sure others will chime in here but Moon1234 you are mistaken if you believe (as your post seems to imply) that it’s always a sin to use NFP to avoid pregnancy.

The Church acknowledges that couples may use NFP to avoid pregnancy if they have serious reasons to do so such as spacing of children, health reasons, etc. As far as I know, there is no specific list of reasons that are acceptable, but they should be “serious” (not “grave” as I have seen others post on these forums).

And it is NOT the same as using contraception! Contraception thwarts the body’s natural process and allows the couple to use one another w/o being open to life. With NFP, a couple may choose to abstain during their fertile period (which NFP teaches them to figure out based on natural factors) but they have no obligation to be intimate at that particular time anyway. When they are intimate at other times they are still open to life even if they have reason to believe conception is unlikely to occur. Certainly you would acknowledge that elderly married couples and others known to be infertile are still allowed to be intimate?

One CAN use NFP with a “contraceptive mentality”, i.e. that children are a burden and a nuisance and should be avoided for convenience sake, rather than for serious reasons. I agree that teaching NFP this way is not in keeping with Catholic teaching.

 

[RedSoxWife]

Great post. I started this thread (we were married at the beginning of November btw, this month) and what ended up happening is, we didn’t go to the traditional NFP classes because we couldn’t afford the cost. Plus I didn’t have a car to get around easily except to work, and a few other reasons. I did find a free certification program online, but it wasn’t really a “course”. We already knew about NFP from our families and from reading about it. I started a bunch of threads about it here on CAF and looked around online and we just figured it out.

Not saying that everyone’s gonna do that, but it’s possible and way easier, and cheaper! lol
And it worked because I have my cycles down for the first time ever, and I think partially as a result of knowing about NFP and my cycles, we ended up conceiving on our honeymoon.

Congratulations! I saw one of your posts the other day over on the pregnant or not board and that is so exciting! Our little ones will probably be born right around the same time. When are you due? By my chart my due date should be July 13th. Now I just have to explain that to my doctor since my cycles were so crazy from breastfeeding!

 

[RedSoxWife]

I’m sure others will chime in here but Moon1234 you are mistaken if you believe (as your post seems to imply) that it’s always a sin to use NFP to avoid pregnancy.

The Church acknowledges that couples may use NFP to avoid pregnancy if they have serious reasons to do so such as spacing of children, health reasons, etc. As far as I know, there is no specific list of reasons that are acceptable, but they should be “serious” (not “grave” as I have seen others post on these forums).

And it is NOT the same as using contraception! Contraception thwarts the body’s natural process and allows the couple to use one another w/o being open to life. With NFP, a couple may choose to abstain during their fertile period (which NFP teaches them to figure out based on natural factors) but they have no obligation to be intimate at that particular time anyway. When they are intimate at other times they are still open to life even if they have reason to believe conception is unlikely to occur. Certainly you would acknowledge that elderly married couples and others known to be infertile are still allowed to be intimate?

One CAN use NFP with a “contraceptive mentality”, i.e. that children are a burden and a nuisance and should be avoided for convenience sake, rather than for serious reasons. I agree that teaching NFP this way is not in keeping with Catholic teaching.

This is a great response! It’s always strange to me when people say it’s “un-Catholic” to use NFP when the Church has been so clear on what it teaches. NFP can and is misused by some, but I would say that people lacking a serious reason are probably more likely to break the rules and conceive (I’ve seen if happen more than once) because they don’t have that serious reason motivating them.

Moon 1234, in our case we used NFP to space our children 2 years apart (there birthdays will be just over 24 months from each other). A lot of people would probably say that we have a serious enough reason to use NFP indefinitely at this point. We live in a 10 x 10 foot cabin with no running water while my husband is studying in grad school to become a canon lawyer and with the unemployment rate in our county hovering just below 20% (he has a job, but it isn’t great and any time he gets close to working enough to get benefits his hours get knocked back) his prospects probably aren’t going to improve until he finishes his 2 degrees in another 4 years. We scrape by month to month and are really happy despite and the tough situation and decided to use NFP to conceive because, while it’s not easy, we know we can make it, and we felt called to have another child.

The Church has been very clear that NFP is allowed when there are serious reasons in place. You may want to do a little ore research on the subject before you go around telling people that it’s un-Catholic to use NFP for any reason. In these hard economic times lots of people, unfortunately, have pretty serious reasons to avoid.

 

[RedSoxWife]

I am in favor of NFP being mandatory for engaged couples. You never know if plans may change. A sudden medical problem may make it nessasary to abstain, it is a lot easier to learn the method before you need to use it.
Also, how can we promote NFP if we are not famular with it ourselves? 80% of american woman are now or were at one point on the pill! We have an obligation to promote the culture of life, introducing people to NFP is much more effective if we can testify to it’s benefits personally.

I would be okay with it being mandatory for engaged couple, unless the couple could demonstrate that they already understood how NFP worked. Again, not everyone needs a class to learn how to do things. But that was the case in this thread. The couple already understood NFP so the $300 plus dollar fee would have been a totally unnecessary expense to repeat information they already had.

I’ve never taken the class and I’ve found myself explaining NFP to quite a few people lately (particularly in the health fields) when I go to my doctor appointments. Most are pretty surprised about how much I know about my cycle and it all comes from reading an old, out of print NFP guide I picked up at our local Catholic bookstore.

I just dread going to see my OB next week though, because she made it pretty clear that she thinks NFP is useless. Oh well, maybe I can help her change her way of thinking.

 

[ac_claire]

Congratulations! I saw one of your posts the other day over on the pregnant or not board and that is so exciting! Our little ones will probably be born right around the same time. When are you due? By my chart my due date should be July 13th. Now I just have to explain that to my doctor since my cycles were so crazy from breastfeeding!

Thank you! I think from using the www.babygaga.com calculator that the due date is Aug. 7. So yeah, it will be just within a few weeks of eachother.

 

[graceandglory]

Ok so my fiance and I have to take a NFP course-- with certificates to prove we’ve completed it-- before we can get married. We’re looking to do this online for logistical reasons. All I’ve found so far is the Couple to Couple League which is charging $159 for a home course, complete with thermometers and charting calendars, etc. We don’t need all that and we surely can’t afford $159.

Anyone know of any other online courses or ways we can go about getting these certificates that won’t leave us broke?

Thanks for the help!

Hello!!! The people who need it most are going to be the newlyweds and engaged couples, who are strapped for cash. There must be people who are willing to sponsor couples the money needed. I know if I were in a better position, I would pay for couples to go through the course.

 

[Bluegoat]

Re the posta about not being allowed to charge for a Sacrament.

I am not convinced that an NFP class would fall under this. THe CC requires a marriage liscence from the state, which also has a cost associated with it.

That being said, I would think it would be an excellent ministry to make sure that there was an affordable class available.

I did the billings method, which cost $25 for the materials. I already understood the method, the biggest advantage was that when charting at the beginning, I sent my results off to the doctor who taught me to have a look at, kind of for a second opinion. Had my cycles been unusual that would have been especially helpful.

 

[tobbias88]

Pick up ‘The Billings Method’ for $5 or less in any S/H bookshop and teach yourself. It is not rocket science but very simple once you listen to your body & its monthly cycle.

Catholic women in Bangladesh & India can use it so I don’t see why you can’t. You can easily print off your own charts etc from sites on Net.

 

[ac_claire]

Re the posta about not being allowed to charge for a Sacrament.

I am not convinced that an NFP class would fall under this. THe CC requires a marriage liscence from the state, which also has a cost associated with it.

I do’t actually hold that view anymore, that this amounted to charging for a sacrament. This is a very old thread that someone revived. I was frustrated and feeling overwhelmed when I started the thread. And in the end it turned out ok like it always seems to.

I still think that they shouldn’t make a blanket requirement for couples to take a course; it wouldn’t hurt anything at all IMO to test their knowledge somehow first if the couple claims that they are already educated on the subject.

 

[Bluegoat]

I do’t actually hold that view anymore, that this amounted to charging for a sacrament. This is a very old thread that someone revived. I was frustrated and feeling overwhelmed when I started the thread. And in the end it turned out ok like it always seems to.

I still think that they shouldn’t make a blanket requirement for couples to take a course; it wouldn’t hurt anything at all IMO to test their knowledge somehow first if the couple claims that they are already educated on the subject.

It does seem a bit odd. There seems to be a general disinclination to want to test individuals with regard to personal knowledge in many areas I find. I guess this is probably because it is heavy on the administration, and people to do admin work are not exactly jumping up and down to help out.

 

[Pug]

It does seem a bit odd. There seems to be a general disinclination to want to test individuals with regard to personal knowledge in many areas I find. I guess this is probably because it is heavy on the administration, and people to do admin work are not exactly jumping up and down to help out.

I’ve wondered if maybe they know too few people would “pass” *even if *the person had been recently made to sit through an NFP class.

 

[udoc89]

Great post. I started this thread (we were married at the beginning of November btw, this month) and what ended up happening is, we didn’t go to the traditional NFP classes because we couldn’t afford the cost. Plus I didn’t have a car to get around easily except to work, and a few other reasons. I did find a free certification program online, but it wasn’t really a “course”. We already knew about NFP from our families and from reading about it. I started a bunch of threads about it here on CAF and looked around online and we just figured it out.

Not saying that everyone’s gonna do that, but it’s possible and way easier, and cheaper! lol
And it worked because I have my cycles down for the first time ever, and I think partially as a result of knowing about NFP and my cycles, we ended up conceiving on our honeymoon.

Congratulations, Dear! My darling daughter married in July, and they are expecting their first in May

 

[Jennifer_J]

The Pill and NFP can both be used for the SAME THING! If they are used to avoid pregnancy then they are WRONG! The pill can also be used to treat Dysmenorrhea and other diseases. In this scenerio the primary purpose of the pill is treat disease and not to avoid pregnancy. In this scenerio the pill is acceptable to the church.

Thus it would naturally follow that if a couple is using NFP to AVOID pregnancy then it’s use is no different than the pill. To say anything else is just mental gymnastics. Forcing a couple to learn how to avoid getting pregnant BEFORE getting married stricks me as simply un-catholic. This is the main thrust behind many NFP classes.

How many NFP instructors actually tell couples that specifically using NFP to avoid pregnancy is wrong? Most likely none or the exact opposite. NFP can be used for good as shown above, to help conceive or to find out if medical problems exist. This is a good use of NFP.

This is just wrong. If the intent of avoiding children is wrong, then that means abstaining is wrong. It’s not the intent to need to space children (for serious/just/grave reasons) it’s the method one goes about doing it. Contraceptives are wrong because they seek to separate the unitive and procreative aspect of every act of sex. NFP is licit because each and every act is done as God intended–regardless of the natural state of fertility. NFP keeps the procreative and unitive aspects of each act intact.

 

[Consecrated]

Do all couples have to take an NFP class prior to marriage? If so, why? I am curious. Thanks.

i have the very same question… I understand pre-cana, but not NFP as a requirement.

 

[Brenda_V]

First, I want to congratulate you on your most recent Wedding! May God guide you and be with you throughout.

Thank you!

As far as age, I’m 31 and my fiance is 27. For what it’s worth lol. My issue with this whole thing isn’t really the inherent worthiness (or lack therof) of NFP. It’s more a financial issue…we can’t afford $318 (the $159 is per person) for a certificate proving that we understand what NFP is. We already do understand it.

I know this is a moot point for you ac claire but, I looked it up, it is $159.00 per couple, I just couldn’t believe it was $300.00+ per couple! Truly, think about it, how many manuals do you need and how many thermometers? About 10-15 ago I wanted a refresher so I purchased the “at home study kit” and only needed one kit for the both of us.

So for future reference for others who may need this, it is not that expensive.

Oh, and I saw they now have a book for those of us who were in the first wave of NFP users who are now in that peri-menopausal stage of life!

Brenda V.

 

[ac_claire]

First of all, thank you Brenda V., for the clarification!

Do all couples have to take an NFP class prior to marriage? If so, why? I am curious. Thanks.

i have the very same question… I understand pre-cana, but not NFP as a requirement.

The Church itself doesn’t require engaged couples to take an NFP course as a matter of canon law, but *many *individual diocese in the US do. My diocese (Austin, TX) was one of them. It’s really up to your bishop. You can probably go to your diocean website and find out if your diocese requires it or not.

It does seem a bit odd. There seems to be a general disinclination to want to test individuals with regard to personal knowledge in many areas I find. I guess this is probably because it is heavy on the administration, and people to do admin work are not exactly jumping up and down to help out.

You’re probably right.