The love of my life proposed to me (yesterday!) and we’re hoping to get married this summer.
We have a few questions about NFP, though… And we are in the minority in our location for being committed to natural methods. So:
- What natural methods have couples on here found most effective for achieving or avoiding pregnancy?
My advise to you would be to learn a method well before you get married. Charting when you’re not sexually active I believe is the best route to gain an adequate enough understanding to really use the methods effectively when you need them. Remember, charting is just information. It helps you make informed decisions in regard to your sexual behavior within marriage. Abstinence is still the only legitimate means to prevent pregnancy according to our faith. These methods thus simply give you information on your chances of pregnancy.
Our approach is to chart constantly regardless of our intentions if only for the health record and just in case something drastic happens. If my husband gets laid off while I’m in my lutael phase, I can look at my chart and say “Well, we should probably get our ducks lined up in a row in case we are pregnant” or “Yeah, no need to worry this month. I don’t need to waste money on a pregnancy kit.”
Symptom-based methods are the best. If you have an irregular cycle (shorter than 21 days or longer than 34), than I would recommend the Creighton FertilityCare System. Or, if you like the idea of charting beyond family planning, that’s an excellent one as well.
The
Billing Method doesn’t give enough recognition as it should.
The Marquette Method is the most expensive method it relies on the clear blue easy fertility monitor.
Sympto-thermal is the most popular method. This is the first method I learned from a book in college. I was writing a paper on NFP and just wanted to see if I could make the observations on myself. I never got the basal body temperature to work right for me. My mucus symptoms though became very obvious which is why I like the mucus based approaches the most. I learned it from the book
Natural Birth Control made Simple, which I bought as my secular source on the methods for my paper. It was also cheaper than
Take Charge of Your Fertility. The popularity of the method is such that there are more apps for this method. I hear high praises of
Kindara, and Kindara now sells a basal body thermometer that syncs to your mobile device and thus uploads your temperature into the app automatically. Couple to Couple League is the most popular Catholic Source to learn it from, but my sister was able to take an online course.
There are also expensive products like
Ladycomp which is a completely basal method.
- Do we have to take a course from an instructor? Or can we teach ourselves effectively via a book?
You don’t have to, but I do think you’d be less likely to make errors if you were working with an instructor. I don’t think it’s so much about the class setting that helps, but rather having someone to contact with questions on your chart. I really liked the one on one lessons with our Creighton instructor.
I currently use
MyFertilityMD to chart, but the app does have some glitches. It’s gotten better and better but if I didn’t know how to understand my cycle I wouldn’t be able to identify the glitches at all.
It’s important to remember that the studies (except maybe on Ladycomp) are always based on those who have gone through formal instruction. The effectiveness has never been studied on those who self taught themselves from a book
p.s. Any tips on wedding planning?
catholicweddinghelp.com/
Avoid the wedding industry as much as possible. Buy whatever you can from places that aren’t specifically selling their stuff for weddings. You’ll save money. I’m talking about having your bridesmaid dresses not come from a bridal shop, having your grooms purchase ordinary suits rather than renting a tux that costs pretty much the same price anyway. There are lots of online retailers that can help plus etsy.
Mormon manufacturers are good with modest gowns but it often means buying a dress you haven’t tried on. Granted, unless the dress you’re trying on isn’t your side, you’re not going to have a good idea of what it’ll look like on you anyway. They try to convince you that trying on the dress is key, but I’m convinced it’s all about knowing what cut suits your body type. I mean,
this is what my gown looked like on me and I never tried it on before I bought it. And to calm my mother’s freaking out, I went to David’s bridal to show her how the
same cut of dress with various details looked on me. Of course, she then tried to convince me to just go with that dress.
Of course, do what you’re comfortable.
But I love my little kiddos! - and my wife 
) . We each have large families and wanted to invite most of them. Most of the flowers we used were fake flowers from Hobby Lobby. Fakes are pretty darn good in many cases.
