NATURAL Family Planning - Page 2

[Palmetto210]

A friendly reminder :)

Hi all,

I have enjoyed this thread immensely. While the motivations for using one method of family planning over another and our level of committment to any of them varies immensely, I think our conversations will be enriched if we agree on the same definitions for family planning. I am not pointing any fingers, rather I am trying to clarify what has become a murky definition:

NFP - Natural Family Planning: charting one's fertility signs through oberservations of cervical fluid and may include basal temperature and cervical position observations; promotes *abstinence* during the fertile times to postone pregnancy (discourages any artifical methods including creams, jellies, barriers, hormones, IUDs, etc); immediately reversible.

FAM - Fertility Awareness Method: charting one's fertility signs through oberservations of cervical fluid and may include basal temperature and cervical position observations; promotes *artificial birth control use* during fertile times to postone pregnancy; immediately reversible.

Thanks! palmetto

[ztagrl]

I had the same thoughts as you! Isn't this a NATURAL board. Oh, well...

Anyway, if you want to talk with like-minded people about NFP, there's a great board on Delphi: http://forums.delphiforums.com/nfptalk/start.

[AdinaL]

Welcome ztagrl! You will notice that the forum title is "Family Planning". We welcome all types of planning, from artificial birth control to NFP to quiverfull. Everyone has a different path with their fertility.

[Mavournin]

I just want to chime in and say that I practice FAM, and I don't think that it *promotes* the use of artificial birth control as a means of preventing pregnancy. I think it's clearly stated in TCOYF that you can *choose* to use ABC during your fertile times, or that you can take a risk, or that you can abstain. It's all about choices. I choose to not use condoms or jellies or surgical birth control and its a choice *I* make - not because a book told me to do it this way.

[Mama25]

I have never used any articial birth control, it just seemed not right. I go to a protestant church and it bothers me so much that they use bc and comments about 'so many children' . I love that the Catholic church hasn't changed their position on this even though I am sure they have had so much pressure to change it. For me I would hope that God gives me more time before I am pregnant again just because of how much a young one needs me and nursing and I have a real hard time doing tandem. So the main reason I would not want to be pregnant is all the endless comments and looks, it's just so depressing. Here you have this life in you and is supposed to be joy and everyone around you feeling sorry for you and making 'comments'. Just at church on Sunday someone said they heard I was pg again and was like they hope I wasn't. I try to let people know why we don't use anything and they look at you like you are nuts and how it's ok to use bc. I feel like God as perfectly planned our family according to His plans. Just wish others in my church could see that for us and that God could do that for them too.

Kim Ann

[Zipporah]

Another NFPer here. We do it for religious reasons (we are Ebionites, not Catholics, but we admire the Catholic church's social teachings greatly) and also, as mentioned by a PP, because it just seemed natural. There are just too many risks and negative consequences to using ABC (have any of you actually read the insert in an ABC pill box? Scary!)
I wanted to mention, for those of you who have a Palm PDA, that there is an excellent NFP program available for free download at http://www.geocities.com/palmNFP/

This is the program i use to keep track of everything, and it is really a Godsend. I highly recommend it. I would even venture so far as to say it is worth purchasing a PalmOne Zire 31 just for this program!!!

Nice to know there are other NFPers here at MDC, let's get a subforum going!

[Mama25]

Zipporah, for sharing the nfp pda link. It looks great, I can't wait to try it out.

Kim Ann