Natural Family Planning Question

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awantz

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How does natural family planning work when a woman doesn’t have a period for a year, due to breast feeding?
 
Your fertility/infertility can be determined by your cervical mucus observations. Your return to fertility can be determined through observations and charting as well as with the instructions of a qualified teacher.
I would suggest contacting a teacher in your area.
You can also look on websites for teacher information.
PopePaulVI.com can direct you toward a Creighton Model Practitioner.
God Bless!
 
awantz said:
How does natural family planning work when a woman doesn’t have a period for a year, due to breast feeding?
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You question is a little vague, so I’m not sure exactly what you are driving at.

NFP works in this situation the way it works in every other situation. You chart and observe your fertility every day and make decisions based upon what you observe.

A woman who is breastfeeding may have a prolonged period of infertility, and therefore her observations would reflect that. She still needs to watch for the signs of returing fertility each day.

Does that answer your question?
 
Find a teacher, learn a method. They all teach what to do when fertility is returning postpartem/breastfeeding.

ccli.org
boma-usa.org
creightonmodel.com

Or contact your parish/Diocese and see what’s offered. Sometimes, the local hospital (esp if it’s Catholic) will offer classes. Taking a class is the best way to learn.

Jennifer
 
1ke said:
You question is a little vague, so I’m not sure exactly what you are driving at.

NFP works in this situation the way it works in every other situation. You chart and observe your fertility every day and make decisions based upon what you observe.

A woman who is breastfeeding may have a prolonged period of infertility, and therefore her observations would reflect that. She still needs to watch for the signs of returing fertility each day.

Does that answer your question?
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When my husband and I took NFP my teacher told us when to avoid intercourse during a normal 28 day cycle, but they didn’t say anything about what to do if you are not having a cycle.
 
Find a different teacher! omsoul.com will help you find teachers in your area. Or look at the individual methods websites (I posted them above) and they also list teachers. Basing your cycles on 28 days is called the rhythm method and there are much better methods out there that use scientific data to help you figure out your cycles.

God bless,
Jennifer
 
I went to the website you mentioned and there were no teachers in my area. The class I went to last time is the closest to me and it was aways away.
 
Couple to Couple League ccli.org has a Home Study Course to learn the sympto-thermal method.

You could also try looking on the websites of CCLI, BOMA and CREIGHTON to see if they list other teachers in your area. I’m from central Indiana and know Goshen is far north, but you could drive to Columbia City, Indy, Fort Wayne, Chicago or even a close MI town (Kalamazoo) that has a teacher. You could email them and see about setting up a meeting time (crash course 🙂 ) to learn a method.

I hope that helps!
Jennifer
 
Jennifer_J said:
Couple to Couple League ccli.org has a Home Study Course to learn the sympto-thermal method.

You could also try looking on the websites of CCLI, BOMA and CREIGHTON to see if they list other teachers in your area. I’m from central Indiana and know Goshen is far north, but you could drive to Columbia City, Indy, Fort Wayne, Chicago or even a close MI town (Kalamazoo) that has a teacher. You could email them and see about setting up a meeting time (crash course 🙂 ) to learn a method.

I hope that helps!
Jennifer
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I do not drive and my husband is not willing to drive that far for several reasons. One being that we are low income and can not afford the gas. However, I will definitly look into the home study course. Thank You
 
When i first learned/started using NFP, I used the sympto-thermal method. I quickly discovered that I liked to see my temps go up and found that to be my most reliable sign to observe.
Now that I am 7 months post partum and still breastfeeding without a return to my cycles, I am lost. Temp means nothing until after ovulation has occured so I can’t do that anymore!
Before a return to fertility, mucus is the most important sign.
So we located a Billings method teacher, explained our situation (that we can’t get to a class because of our daughter’s fussiness and my poor health) and SHE came to see US!
And the fee is only $50 which covers the materials and a donation.
So I highly suggest trying to find a Billing’s teacher. Who knows? She may have to come out your way to visit family or something! It’s worth a try…
Malia
 
Please be aware that sympto-thermal teaches mucous as well. I use this sign when I’m breastfeeding/postpartem and I’ve never had a Billings course. Just an fyi. Mucous and cervix are the first signs and temp is the cross check. I like the crosscheck, personally, then I’m sure what’s happening. 🙂

You have to find a method you are comfortable with that works with your situation.

Jennifer
 
Jennifer_J said:
Please be aware that sympto-thermal teaches mucous as well. I use this sign when I’m breastfeeding/postpartem and I’ve never had a Billings course. Just an fyi. Mucous and cervix are the first signs and temp is the cross check. I like the crosscheck, personally, then I’m sure what’s happening. 🙂

You have to find a method you are comfortable with that works with your situation.

Jennifer
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Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse the issue:o …I’m just very tired.
In my case, I never got very good at interpretting the mucus becuase I had the temp to rely on. So if I had “iffy” mucus then I would just wait until my temp told me what was going on before resuming relations.
I didn’t think ahead to the postpartum period where I would be in pre-ovulation phase for many months!!!
Malia
 
How does natural family planning work when a woman doesn’t have a period for a year, due to breast feeding?
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Without a cycle you don’t know for sure what phase you’re in. The only thing you can do is watch your mucous and cervical position to monitor ovulation. Once you start seeing those signs, you can take your temperature as a cross check to see if you actually ovulated (indicated by a significant temperature rise)…

It IS possible… after both my pregnancies (I BF both boys for over 12 months)… I noticed signs of ovulation prior to my first postpartum period. I was able to detect it through my mucous and cervical signs… and then cross checked with temperature. Then it was confirmed with my first postpartum period. My cycles returned at 5 1/2 months and 7 1/2 months after my two pregnancies…

Please note… usually the first several cycles after having a baby can be VERY irregular. Mine were all over the place… anywhere from 26-56 days in length! But I was able to monitor what phase I was in pretty well…

HTH!.. I highly recommend getting some help from and NFP teacher in your area. Maybe contact your diocese to see if they have any contacts for you?

Good luck!
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse the issue:o …I’m just very tired.
In my case, I never got very good at interpretting the mucus becuase I had the temp to rely on. So if I had “iffy” mucus then I would just wait until my temp told me what was going on before resuming relations.
I didn’t think ahead to the postpartum period where I would be in pre-ovulation phase for many months!!!
Malia
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Malia,
It’s okay, I just wanted to clarify for the OP 🙂 All the methods out there can be confusing and different women find different signs easier than others (whoa, that was confusing!😛 ).

I hope you are able to get some rest tonight!

Jennifer
 
awantz said:
When my husband and I took NFP my teacher told us when to avoid intercourse during a normal 28 day cycle, but they didn’t say anything about what to do if you are not having a cycle.
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What method of NFP did you learn? Sympto-thermal, Creighton, and Billings are not based on a “28 day cycle”.

The observations of mucus, cervix, and/or temperature are the basis of these methods. You can observe these fertility signs at any time-- post partum included. They are not contingent on any specific type of cycle.

Post-partum you will see mucus as your body begins trying to ovulate. That would be a fertile sign.

Please do look into a home study course. Or, get a copy of the book Taking Charge Of Your Fertility.
 
1ke said:
What method of NFP did you learn? Sympto-thermal, Creighton, and Billings are not based on a “28 day cycle”.

The observations of mucus, cervix, and/or temperature are the basis of these methods. You can observe these fertility signs at any time-- post partum included. They are not contingent on any specific type of cycle.

Post-partum you will see mucus as your body begins trying to ovulate. That would be a fertile sign.

Please do look into a home study course. Or, get a copy of the book Taking Charge Of Your Fertility.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure what form of NFP it was. All I know is that it is the only one in my area.
 
From what you said in another thread it sounds like you got some terribly outdated, inaccurate, and ineffective instruction. If you have a serious reason to avoid right now, I would suspend all relations until I got some better advice.

Since you said money is an issue, I’ll mention that you can find The Art of NFP on half.com from ebay for not very much. If you’re willing to read and do the exercises it is very adequate. I read my parents’ 20 year old copy before taking the class and felt like I could have taught it myself (from an academic standpoint, not an experience one).
 
An online Sympto-THermal course is available at www.nwfs.org. I have friends who took it and say it is great, very user friendly and complete. My husband and I are enrolling. Hope this helps with courses.

God bless
 
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