Natural Family Planning (NFP)
Included with the online Pre-Cana, Living Our Faith in Love
For some couples, having children is the last thing on their minds as they plan for their marriage. Other couples may be planning to start a family right away. Some might even look to artificial contraception methods to prevent or avoid pregnancy. When couples opt in for artificial methods, they often overlook the harmful impact that those methods can have on their relationship and especially the impact on their spirituality.
In any case, it is important to talk about parenthood at this stage. By learning one another’s expectations for having children, couples will grow in their understanding of each other as potential parents.
This segment explores the following:
- The Catholic Church’s teaching of marriage and procreation
- Why artificial methods of contraception are harmful to marriage and the family spirituality
- The overview and witness to the beauty that is Natural Family Planning
We also understand that not all individuals are able to have children, and how devastating that can be. The procreative aspect of marriage also includes an openness to life — something often referred to as “spiritual fertility.” This means that there are other ways to allow the love that a husband and wife share together, to be fruitful in other methods: volunteering, adoption, edifying the community, serving the Church, for example.
Presented By:
Kyle and Danielle Koestner have been married since 2005 and have six children. They both serve on the Boards for both BOMA USA and FEMM Health.
Kyle is an engineer with over 25 years experience in the automotive industry.
Dr. Danielle Koestner is a Family Medicine OB physician who did full-scope family medicine with deliveries for 10 years in an underserved community. She works with the FEMM Health Medical Education Team, along with the Billings Ovulation Team.
Guiding Principles and Areas of Discussion:
Part 1: What is Natural Family Planning? (NFP)
- Natural Family Planning is the general title for the scientific, natural, and moral methods of family planning.
- NFP can be used to achieve or postpone pregnancy by using the fertile and infertile windows of a woman’s cycle.
- There are no drugs or devices, and no surgical procedures used to postpone or avoid pregnancy. It’s also free!
- The methods of NFP respect the love-giving (unitive) and life-giving (procreative) nature of the conjugal act. In short, Natural Family Planning supports God’s design for married love!
- Being open to life allows you and your spouse to let God work through you to help plan your family. Sterilization completely cuts off the ability to remain open to life.
Part 2: Benefits of Natural Family Planning
- The divorce rate among couples who practice NFP is remarkably low. Some recent studies have indicated divorce rates as low as 3%.
- By its very nature, practicing NFP promotes healthy communication and respect for each other within your marriage.
- Natural Family Planning allows couples to completely avoid sterilization. Sterilization has several negative impacts to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
- The times of abstinence opens up the opportunity to develop deeper levels of emotional intimacy.
Part 3: What to Expect & The Next Steps
- Practicing NFP allows women to closely monitor their overall health.
- Cycle charting can help physicians better understand symptoms that may be occurring in a woman’s mind and body.
- Husbands should be willing and excited to begin charting with their wife. This is a team effort!