What besides NFP is there for married Catholic couples?

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In marriage, we welcome children lovingly from God.

If there are reasons when having a child right now is not a good idea, we can refrain from intercourse. The other option is to monitor the wife’s fertility through various methods and choose to have intercourse on days when she is not fertile.

“NFP” is a umbrella term, there are many methods and modern technological devices for monitoring fertility.
 
You mean what else is there to avoid pregnancy? Abstinence, I suppose.
 
Abstinence.

There are many healthy methods of periodic continence available today. Technology is a plus since we have apps that assist in tracking a woman’s cycle and the infertile and fertile times. Today’s fertility awareness methods aren’t your grandma’s NFP or your great-grandma’s Rhythm method.
 
When talking with others who are perhaps bewildered or find the Church’s teaching on “birth control” crazy if might benefit me to know what methods the Church teaches that husbands and wives can use.

I know there’s staying away from each other.

I’m prolife and I don’t support contraception.
 
 
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Mutually agreed abstinence. Reflection on God’s plan for you and the children it almost assuredly contains. You can and should discuss this with father, outside of confession in a causal setting. I recall daily that the flesh is at war - war! - with the spirit.
 
Guest1 said:
What else is there that’s not against the Church’s teachings?
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If you mean what are moral means of spacing children, there are two:

Complete abstinence
Periodic abstinence through observation of fertility signs (NFP)

Couples are also free to do neither of these and engage in the marital embrace whenever they want to.
 
TheLittleLady said:
If there are reasons when having a child right now is not a good idea, we can refrain from intercourse.
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Does this imply that couples can only abstain if there’s a reason for not having children at the moment?
 
Hi from Spain. Here we have government funded universal healthcare and school from 3 to 16 years old. Also heavily subsidized 0 to 3, over 16 and government owned and funded universities with very low tuition costs and massive student grants programs.
But, fertility rates are lower here than in the USA… 🤷‍♂️
 
Couples can abstain any time they both agree. No law says we must have intercourse on each of the 365 days per year.
 
Could try just making out instead of having sex.
Married couples could have lucid dreams about having sex with each other.
For those who don’t know, lucid dreaming is partly a way to control your dreams.
Basically the married couple control their dreams so they’re dreaming about having sex with each other.
There’s also lots of non-sexual intimate activities for couples to engage in.
 
Emeraldlady said:
Natural fertility monitoring today is so accurate and scientific, I consider it insanity to do something totally unnatural to your bodies to avoid pregnancy.
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Just want to point out however this is only the case if a women is somewhat regular or has no major hormonal imbalances.

I was reading to hit someone with the pro NFP counselors telling me I just wasn’t positive enough/not doing it right/not open to a family etc. We simply could not work put my erratic periods, temperature differences etc.

Turns out I have a medical reason (that is fairly common) which makes NFP too hard to manage.

Just wanted to put that out there for women feeling alone like I did.
 
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D.Erasmus.R said:
Could try just making out instead of having sex.
Married couples could have lucid dreams about having sex with each other.
For those who don’t know, lucid dreaming is partly a way to control your dreams.
Basically the married couple control their dreams so they’re dreaming about having sex with each other.
There’s also lots of non-sexual intimate activities for couples to engage in.
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Without touching the morality of lucid dreaming…
What would be the purpose of a couple trying to dream about each other having sex?
How would it be different than masturbation?
 
Guest1 said:
What would be the purpose of a couple trying to dream about each other having sex?
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Your question was about how married couples can experience sexual intimacy without lots of unexpected pregnancies without out resorting to NFP or contraception. Spouses having dream sex with each other is one idea.
Guest1 said:
How would it be different than masturbation?
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Well, masturbation doesn’t feel the same as having sex with your spouse. Dream sex with your spouse quite possibly will feel the same as having sex with your spouse.
 
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