NFP is actually the method of birth control that the Catholic Church endorses, and we think they certainly got this right. Simply put, it is based on reading the woman's fertility cycle and knowing when she is fertile. Therefore, it can definitely help you either postpone pregnancy or achieve pregnancy. If you use NFP correctly, then it is just as, if not more, effective than the pill or any other contraceptive. With NFP, we got pregnant the first time we tried!
There are so many reasons why we stand by NFP. Here are a few:
- Oral contraceptives can act as abortifacients, killing the week-old life that has been created by the Creator. So if you are using an oral contraceptive (OC) for birth control, there is a chance that you have had several chemical abortions. We are firm pro-life advocates and against ALL abortions, whether surgical or chemical. Which is why when we found out that hormonal birth control may act as an abortifacient, we stopped using it immediately! We actually learned about all this from a book, which we give away for free. We would be more than happy to mail anyone a copy! This was the first step on our path to discovering NFP.
- It is cheap! Cheapest method of birth control there is. Mother Teresa and her nuns taught it to the poorest of the poor in India, and it worked, of course! Teaching people to use NFP is astronomically cheaper than throwing condoms at them.
- We absolutely love the fact that we are no longer shoving artificial hormones into my body. It is so much healthier. It is funny how I use to be so concerned about what I ate and put into my body via diet, yet contradicting myself by using an OC (hormonal birth control). I wanted to be "natural," but how unnatural is taking artificial hormones! Let's avoid chemicals and use "green" cleaners, while dumping chemicals straight into my body with birth control! Just as some people don't eat meat because they don't want to kill an animal's life, but they flippantly take OCs and risk killing a human life.
- We really wanted to get this posted before this month is over, since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Surely enough, there is a definite link between OCs and breast cancer. Ricky worked really hard gathering information and creating a flyer to hand out this month about wearing pink socks. Check it out, and pass it out!
- Last, but certainly not least, are the spiritual benefits of NFP. I could drag this one out for a while, but quickly: our love is better, our sex is better, and our relationship with God is better.
NFP rocks :)
[There are many organizations that teach NFP. We used the Couple-to-Couple League (CCL) and were very pleased. We are still connected with CCL.]