NFP

[yessisan]

okay I’ll add again, I HAVE consulted a priest about the ABC, and given HIM all the details, and he agrees it may be the best option for us, for the time being. My concern in coming off of the stupid thing. I keep having people tell me my husband and I** won’t be able to beintimate AT ALL for 3-6 months!!** This is REALLY worrisome…

Whoever told you this was not informing you correctly! When on the STM (Sympto-Thermal Method), you only abstain from the beginning of your period to the time of infertility. Which would be about 20 days, well, at least for me. I came off the pill and started charting right away, but didn’t have to abstain 3-6 months.

You only abstain during the fertile times which would be phase 1 and phase 2 for 3 months. You do this because you are trying to avoid getting pregnant and still have the hormones of the pill in your body, which could be harmful to the baby. Phase 3 is the infertile time and you don’t have to abstain.

You should really contact ccli.org I paid $75 for the class and it’s easy to learn. So far, we haven’t gotten pregnant. You will know for sure when you have to abstain and when you don’t have to abstain. If you don’t abstain in the fertile time, well, there’s a possibility of pregnancy. The method is great, the times it fails is because the couple didn’t interpret the charts correctly, or they didn’t abstain when they had to. It’s a piece of cake.

The hard part for me was coming off the pill. Then my charts were hard to interpret during the first 20 days of my first 3 cycles, during those cycles, when the infertile time came, they were easy to interpret. You are only asked to abstain in phases 1 & 2 for 3 months.

Take a look at this: nfpandmore.org/

It’s the same method ccli.org teaches, but it’s not as informative as ccli’s. nfpandmore has just the basics. Please take time to read it so you can see it’s not as hard as you think. It’s very effective.

 

[KittyKat]

It can be very effective.
I only have one problem with it and that is we know I am fertile and babies are cute.

 

[StratusRose]

How can you say you don’t trust it if you have never taken the class and are believing heresay about the methods?

 

[maryjk]

How can you say you don’t trust it if you have never taken the class and are believing heresay about the methods?

I’ll answer, because I was in her boat a number of years ago.

When you look at people that you know are using NFP and they all have at least 5 children. When you talk to NFP users and they tell you that little Johnny, well he was our gift from God because we didn’t know he was coming. When the instructors have never charted to avoid.

You have a hard time trusting that NFP will work for you.

I know of no children that were born while the Mom was on the pill. None of my friends have every told me that this has happened to them. But a number of NFP friends have told me that they got pregnant while not intending to. Now, I am sure that it was user failure, not method failure. But like I said, no one I know has had user failure with the pill.

Now, I would NEVER tell someone to take the pill to avoid pregnancy. I am totally against anyone using any type of artificial birth control. But I can see the point of feeling a little apprehensive about using NFP.

 

[yessisan]

I just wanted to add one thing… I know people who got pregnant while on the pill. My uncle’s wife (both Catholic) was on the pill when she got pregnant w/both their girls. She didn’t miss any pills, and took them at the same time every day. So, pill-pregnancies are possible. My uncle has 2 gorgeous dd’s to prove it

Remember that 99% effectiveness always has that 1% of failure.

 

[3GirlsRUs]

I’ve read, what seems to be THOUSANDS of pieces of literature on the topic, but NFP, in practice, doesn’t seem to be that good. No offense, but nearly everyone I’ve ever encountered who uses it has had an unplanned pregnancy! Is there anyone who has used it without an unplanned pregnancy for at least a few years? .

We have used NFP to plan our family for 6 years. We have never had an unplanned pregnancy. We have 3 beautiful little girls…all planned and all conceived the first month we tried (yes…we are blessed and thank God for that!) and I tell you that just so that you know that means we have many, many, non-pregnant cycles charted where we did not conceive where we weren’t planning.

 

[kage_ar]

Meet me! I was not Catholic when DS came into the world. I was on the pill and I missed one pill - one. Guess you call that user failuer, right?

I have two other friends who got pregnant on the pill - one of them was a “double whammy” because they were also using a condom

We switched to NFP even before becoming Catholic, due to complex health issues, and have not had one unplanned pregnancy while using NFP. Very conservative rules for many years, less so now.

The only 100% method is to abstain or have a hysterectomy/castration (tubals and vas’s can grow back thus fail).

If the issue is “I am not ready to have kids right now”, then, it would seem wise to delay marriage. Then, learn NFP and get to know your cycles, etc.