Natural Family Planning (NFP)

[Evets]

Aside from prayer, does anyone have any advice for getting one’s spouse to investigate the goodness of NFP and the immorality of contraception? I’ve tried providing articles and books, but nothing seems to work.

 

[1ke]

Take a class would be an option, but if they won’t read a book I don’t know if they would agree to go to a class.

Also, the book Taking Charge Of Your Fertility (TCOYF) is a great book written from a secular perspective about natural birth control (called Fertility Awareness Method, FAM) and why it’s better for women.

 

[smallcat]

I would second the suggestion to read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Wechsler (not sure about the spelling of her last name). It’s written from a secular perspective so it allows for using condoms and the like during fertile phases (albeit with a warning that these methods are most likely to fail at this time of the cycle!), and won’t mention anything about the immorality of contraception, but it does a very good job of explaining both the anatomy/physiology behind NFP as well as some of the natural health reasons for practicing it. I have found that this book opens the minds of non-religious folks more than the CCL materials.

Incidentally, I find the book much simpler, more readable, and the rules easier to follow than the CCL manual.

If your spouse is an academic type, you could find some of the clinical studies done proving the effectiveness of NFP as a method of child spacing or pregnancy avoidance.

 

[Peacefulwishes]

Perhaps providing evidence that synthetic hormones cause damage to your body? Articles and such.

Also argue the fact that all hormonal methods, as well as IUDs, are essentially abortifacients since they do not prevent fertilization should ovulation occur - they can however prevent implantation. In medical terms a pregnancy does not exist until implantation, therefor medical terminology is deceiving.

 

[kage_ar]

Is this person Catholic?

 

[HouseArrest]

In the past, I have convinced people to take a class because after all, it is information - and who could be afraid of that?

 

[Kit15]

Perhaps providing evidence that synthetic hormones cause damage to your body? Articles and such.

Also argue the fact that all hormonal methods, as well as IUDs, are essentially abortifacients since they do not prevent fertilization should ovulation occur - they can however prevent implantation. In medical terms a pregnancy does not exist until implantation, therefor medical terminology is deceiving.

That’s what sold my husband on it. Fertility isn’t a disease. It’s a sign of a healthy woman. So why should I think I have to “cure” it and make my body function abnormally? (This is why I’d probably be doing NFP anyway even if I was not Catholic).

In an attempt to win him over with secular reason, I added that in this light it wouldn’t be fair of me to ask him to use condoms instead since I really didn’t want to use hormones or chemicals. He liked this idea of either we both do or we both don’t. Neither of us wanted to be the one to do it so…we don’t contracept.