When couples first hear of natural family planning, some call to mind their grandparents’ 10-plus children, said Deacon Stephen Bowling, director of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Family and Life Ministries Office.
That’s not the natural family planning the archdiocese promotes, he said in a recent interview. “This is not your grandma’s natural family planning.”
As National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is celebrated July 20-26, Catholics are encouraged to learn more about natural family planning, often called NFP.
NFP is different from artificial contraception, which is opposed by the Catholic Church, said Angela Hobbs, a certified NFP instructor in the archdiocese.
“Natural family planning is a natural means of observing a couple’s fertility and understanding their fertility signs, so that they’re able to identify their fertile window,” Hobbs explained in a recent interview.
She’s hoping couples become aware that there are “solid, scientific methods that are healthy and safe,” while also being effective and accepted by the Catholic Church.
“The Church teaches that there should be respect for marital intimacy, and part of that marital intimacy is that it should be unitive and procreative. Using a natural family planning method, you’re respecting the unitive and procreative aspects of that act,” she said.
NFP engages a husband and wife in the “sacred task” of responsible parenthood, which includes the planning of the family, said Deacon Bowling. Various methods of NFP can be used to help a couple pursue or avoid pregnancy.
Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” states that there can be legitimate reasons for a couple who, with serious reason, discern to avoid the conception of additional children for a “certain or indefinite period of time” due to financial, physiological or medical conditions, Deacon Bowling noted.
“There’s going to be a learning curve to using a natural family planning method, and it will take some work as a couple. But I think the benefits are abundant when a couple learns to trust God and work with him in his plan for their lives.”
— Angela Hobbs, NFP instructor
Hobbs noted that she has assisted couples who have needed to avoid pregnancy for serious medical reasons. In one case, a wife had cancer and was undergoing treatments.
If a couple has discerned in prayer to avoid or pursue a pregnancy, they can use an NFP method to “modify their behavior,” said Hobbs.
NFP looks at a couple’s “combined fertility,” Hobbs explained. “Although a woman is only fertile for 12 to 24 hours each cycle, sperm can live up to five days, so a couple’s combined fertility really, on average, is six days,” she said.
“If they’re trying to achieve a pregnancy, they would know when to focus intimacy so they can achieve a pregnancy, but if they’ve discerned it’s not a good time for them to add on to their family, then they make decisions to abstain in certain times to avoid a pregnancy,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs teaches the Marquette method that uses a fertility monitor to test a woman’s urinary hormones, which can be used to indicate when the woman will ovulate. Other natural family planning methods use other indicators of fertility, such as basal body temperature and a body fluid called cervical mucus, she said.
“Some couples prefer one method over the other for a variety of reasons,” said Hobbs. If a couple has challenges with one method, they can choose to learn another method, she noted.
Hobbs said NFP is not without its challenges — from the effort it takes to discern the fertility markers to abstaining from sexual intimacy if a couple has discerned to avoid conception.
“Anything worth pursuing is going to have its challenges and take work,” she added. “There’s going to be a learning curve to using a natural family planning method, and it will take some work as a couple. But I think the benefits are abundant when a couple learns to trust God and work with him in his plan for their lives,” said Hobbs.
Multiple methods of NFP are taught locally in the Archdiocese of Louisville. For more resources on natural family planning or to get in contact with an NFP instructor, contact the Office of Family and Life Ministries at 636-0296 or email family@archlou.org.
