Natural Family Planning Question

[HomeTeamFamily]

Ok pham, natural family planning question time. Its been a while since Ive posted on here and since then have become engaged to my wonderful, beautiful fiance!!!! Yay weddings.

Anyway, in conversations with several other young, recently married/pregnant, practicing Catholic copules, the issue of whether or not we will use NFP has come up. We both are firmly against contraception and believe that NFP is an acceptable method of spacing pregnancy for grave reasons.

The question we are facing is whether or not we are still obligated to use NFP even though we have no desire/intention to not get pregnant right away. In other words, are we obligated to use NFP [b]to achieve[/b] pregnancy?

I know all of the arguments about its good for the woman to know her cycle, etc etc etc blah blah blah, so theres no need to go over all that again. We would rather not introduce something that could subtly/subconsciously play into our marital intentions if there is no need to.

Any honest input is very warmly accepted. If you would like, please feel free to PM me as well.

God bless you all!

Adam

[Lil Red]

honestly, my hubby and i don't want to practice NFP. yes, we too, know all about the pros. and we think it's wonderful - just not for us. (we took a class about the creighton method.)

we are happy in receiving children whenever we receive them from God. no matter the circumstances of our life. we want children, and we feel (right now) that whenever God chooses to help us conceive, He will, and we will welcome that child (or children, since twins run in both sides of the families ).

as far as i know, you do not have to use NFP to achieve pregnancy. just don't do anything to actively avoid it like contraception or condoms (which i know you won't).

God bless, and congratulations on the upcoming nuptials.

[kateri05]

twins?!? : i'm jealous!


and of course you don't have to use NFP to achieve, although i really do feel that there is a real, invaluable lesson of love and sacrifice for your marriage in using the fertile phase as a time of abstinence in preparation for times in your life when you will have to abstain (illness, after childbirth, etc). you know, the kind of abstinence "for a time" that st. paul refers to. so i would recommend some how incorporating that into your marriage in a different way, to achieve the same result. (red, i think you and your hubby's travels already have THAT down pat! )

Edited November 22, 2007 by kateri05

[Justin86]

I think its great that there are Catholic couples out there who get that its best to just let kids come when they come. Why use NFP when there's no reason to not have kids except it inconveniences us? All these people like Christopher West, I think, advocate NFP way to strongly. I think even most third world countries would have problems justifying using it for economic reasons, much less us Americans.

[HomeTeamFamily]

kateri, i totally agree with that and we would definitely incorporate some period of sacrifice for the sake of our marriage into our lives.

justin, its good to hear someone else say that, because that is kind of what we were both thinking....

[kateri05]

[quote]Why use NFP when there's no reason to not have kids except it inconveniences us? All these people like Christopher West, I think, advocate NFP way to strongly. I think even most third world countries would have problems justifying using it for economic reasons, much less us Americans.[/quote]


its not just economic reasons, its also health of mother and family. in fact, its "serious reasons." that covers a lot of bases.

i agree that in our country, we have a selfish attitude about children, but comments like this bother me, because it seems way too blanket-judgey about people's personal familial circumstances.

Why use NFP? to help HAVE kids is also a good reason. in addition, JPII talked about the positives of NFP in and out itself, not just for child spacing purposes

in an article about JPII's teachings on NFP from CCL magazine:
[quote]"NFP reveals the profound mystery of the human person. in studying their sexual powers, men and women will see the mystery which is expressed in and through these faculties. men and women will perceive the dignity of the body and the sacramental value as a physical image of GOd.... JPII believed that fertility awareness is the means to teach the world the incomparable dignity o the human body as the expression of the human person."[/quote]

Article 33 of Familiaris Consortia, JPII advocated knowledge of the fertility cycle:
[quote]THe necessary conditions (for marriage) also include knowledge of the bodily aspect and the body's rhythms of fertility.[/quote]


i think the point is not that NFP must be used for child spacing/conception, but that simply learning about and understanding the amazing way that God has made the male and female bodies and fertility cycles complimentary brings with it a true appreciation of the Gift of our bodies, their sacramental purpose, and the way in which we image God in and through our bodies.

[Hirsap]

Here's a link to a worthy sermon preached on the topic: [url="http://www.audiosancto.org/"]http://www.audiosancto.org/[/url]

Scroll down to the topic : " Series on Marriage, Part 4: Periodic Abstinence and NFP" - I think around the 7th one down.

God bless.

[Justin86]

[quote name='kateri05' post='1423542' date='Nov 22 2007, 04:32 PM']its not just economic reasons, its also health of mother and family. in fact, its "serious reasons." that covers a lot of bases.

i agree that in our country, we have a selfish attitude about children, but comments like this bother me, because it seems way too blanket-judgey about people's personal familial circumstances.

Why use NFP? to help HAVE kids is also a good reason. in addition, JPII talked about the positives of NFP in and out itself, not just for child spacing purposes

in an article about JPII's teachings on NFP from CCL magazine:
Article 33 of Familiaris Consortia, JPII advocated knowledge of the fertility cycle:
i think the point is not that NFP must be used for child spacing/conception, but that simply learning about and understanding the amazing way that God has made the male and female bodies and fertility cycles complimentary brings with it a true appreciation of the Gift of our bodies, their sacramental purpose, and the way in which we image God in and through our bodies.[/quote]
I never said the only justifiable reason to use NFP is economic reasons. I also am fully aware that it can be used to conceive(duh).

That there are other reasons, however, does not mean that we can over look that way too many people who claim to represent the Church on this issue like Christopher West get it terribly wrong when they make it seem like [i]everyone[/i] is justified in using NFP for economic reasons. That's what I was referring to and I think everyone else got it.

[Maggyie]

NFP is such a wonderful blessing for the Church! In college I used to tell my contracepting roommates about it, and they were impressed by how accurate it is in its scientific understanding of the human body.

At the same time, I am also glad to hear that I am not the only one who is sometimes a little put off by how much of a "fad" it's become. I often hear of faithful young Catholics who are getting married and who intend to start Natural Family Planning right away! Why on earth would you get married if you are not prepared to welcome at least your first child? I worry that many Catholics can slip into an anti-life attitude without even realizing it.

[allis-challmers]

My wife and I are married for about a year and a half. We have a beatiful 4 month old baby boy and we use NFP. We started our marrage using NFP to Postpone pregnancy untill after we got used to living with each other and were confortable in the idea of bringing a life into the world that wold. We decided after about three months that we were ready to have a baby and used NFP to concieve. It took us a little while but now we have a baby boy. I am glad that we used NFP and no you don't have to use NFP to achieve pregnancy. NFP is only understanding your body and knowing if you are fertile or not. NFP does not tell you that you have to have sex on this day and not on this day . YOu still have the choice to have sex or not. You don't have to use it if you don;t want to. IF you are married for a while and you and your spouse have not gotten pregnant yet you can use it to get pregnant.



[quote]and of course you don't have to use NFP to achieve, although i really do feel that there is a real, invaluable lesson of love and sacrifice for your marriage in using the fertile phase as a time of abstinence in preparation for times in your life when you will have to abstain (illness, after childbirth, etc). you know, the kind of abstinence "for a time" that st. paul refers to. so i would recommend some how incorporating that into your marriage in a different way, to achieve the same result. (red, i think you and your hubby's travels already have THAT down pat! )[/quote]


MY wife and I have found that the times when you are Using Nfp to postpone pregnancy(notice I said postpone) the times that you are on the fertile time, abstanance can really make you have to show your feelings for each other in ways other than sex.