NFP works for me!

I wanted, in honor of October's Respect Life Month and for NFP awareness, to give a short-list for why my husband and I chose to use natural family planning.

1. First and foremost, we use NFP because it is required of our faith.  Being called to the vocation of marriage in the Catholic Church, we realize and embrace the reasons why our faith does not support artificial means of contraception.  This teaching has never changed (despite what some people will tell you) and as with so many other things, we see the infinite wisdom in this "rule" as helping us on our journey to Heaven, not as a bunch of old men telling us what to do.

2. It's natural...and that is a biggie.  I don't like to take medicine unless I HAVE to...being sick is one thing, but when my body is doing exactly what God intended it to do, I don't like the idea of an artificial hormone interfering.  We have such high rates of cancers in our society...I'm not taking a chance of something artificial upping my risks.  There's also the permanent fixes, but again it alters something that's working fine and some of the research out there (especially with men) is pretty scary.  WHY risk it?

3. It's spicy!  'Nuff said!  Heehee!!!

4. It was a BIG ah-ha moment for me when we found out we were going to be blessed with Ava.  I've said before that I would never have "planned"-a.k.a. using contraception-our family this way.  I almost cry when I think that Ava wouldn't be here if we weren't open to God's plan for our family!  Who am I to say "you know, Lily was a difficult pregnancy...I was overwhelmed, felt awful, had a very low-lying placenta that caused me many nights of no sleep while I was scared to death thinking of my doctor cutting through it and me bleeding out on the table (yes, I can be dramatic), so I think we're done."  Our family would be incomplete.  It's scary-I'll give you that...especially as one gets older, but I just have to trust in God and know that a careful, safe life will be lacking blessings I couldn't take a chance on receiving.  If you hold on so tight to everything that means anything to you, you have a fist...you have to be willing to open that fist and let God give you more.

5. My husband and I work together on this-it's not my responsibility alone.  And that brings me back to point #3.

6. It's FREE!!  Who can complain about that one in this economy???

7. I absolutely love the look on people's faces when I say "probably not!" to their question...Are you done?

8. It's effective...really, it is.  Like 99% effective (which is better than most contraceptives).  A lot of times the reason you see large families that use NFP is because we embrace the idea of being more open to life.  It says nothing for the effectiveness of the method.

I'm not judging anyone, I'm just telling you why it works for US...please keep that in mind if you decide to comment!

PDFs you might be interested in:
Humanae Vitae
Evangelium Vitae
Life Giving Love

Books that helped us with this teaching:
Life Giving Love by Kimberly Hahn
Good News by Christopher West

If you are interested in the method we use, please visit this site: Creighton Model.  It does require education on your part from a qualified instructor that meets with you (a lot at first) so that you know what you are doing, making the method that much more effective.  The beauty of the Creighton Model is the doctor that developed it has made AMAZING strides in helping women become pregnant as well...without typical methods.