Of Human Life

I've written and re-written this blog post multiple times.  There is so much I want to say, yet I want to keep it short enough that it is read.  I've gone different routes, typed and erased many lines, and have finally decided to try to simply share my heart.  So here goes...

Typically when I find something beautiful, rich and moving, I want to share it with everyone I come in contact with.  I want to shout it from the rooftops, sing its praises to anyone who will listen and live in its joy completely.  But for some reason, this time, I haven't.  Until now.  So bear with me, this might be a bit longer than most.  But, it's been one in the making for years, actually.  I just finally have to courage to share the beauty behind our way of life without holding back, without intending to burden or offend, and with complete joy.  Because this is us.  This is the beauty in what we believe.  And to hold back would be to keep something from you that I have no right to keep to myself.

Humanae Vitae.  Of Human Life.  An encyclical written fifty years ago by Pope Paul VI.  Its inception came at a time when social pressures were challenging the Church's opposition to contraception...a position, which until 1930, all Christian communities unanimously held.  In essence, Humanae Vitae is the beautifully written teaching of God's plan for married love and the transmission of life.  In the midst of the opening of Margaret Sanger's free birth control clinics, introduction of the pill and beginning of the sexual revolution, Blessed Pope Paul VI, in this encyclical, reiterated the Church's position on married love: that it was to remain free, total, faithful and fruitful...always.


Why did the other Christian communities cave to the pressures of society?  Why don't we all teach still that the sacrament of marriage mirrors the Holy Trinity, with each being giving of themselves completely, holding nothing back?

I don't know.

But I do know that it bears repeating.

Fifty years ago, Blessed Pope Paul VI foresaw and foretold what could come of our society if we bought into the lies of contraception.  He envisioned a society in which women were objectified.  A society which made women always available because of the separation of sex and babies.  One which was littered with pornography, adultery and fornication .  And, one in which babies would come to be seen as choices or mistakes rather than the gifts they are.

Was the world free from these things before?  No.  Yet, look where we are today.

Here is what some do not realize: the Church doesn't teach that we have to have as many children as we can.  It does not even teach that we have to have any.  She simply asks that we always remain open to life...that no barrier or sterilization ever comes between the unitive and procreative pieces that make up each marital act.

Is being open to life difficult?  It can be.  But really, any form of self-mastery and sacrifice will always involve pain.  That pain may come in the form of a constant struggle to do the right thing.  It may come in choosing to say no when we really want to say yes.  It may come in knowing that as much as you want something, it may never happen.  It may be in the form of a daily cross that only you know and carry.  As written in this beautiful study, "When we gave our lives to Christ, we didn't sign up for easy.  We signed up to be conformed to Jesus -- to live like Him, love like Him, and die like Him.  And we did that because we knew in doing so, we would find not death, but life.

The death we experience in any form of self-denial - sexual or otherwise - is real.  But, so is the life we find through it."

I love my faith.  I love the difficulty to which it sometimes calls me.  I even love knowing that whatever pain I may be feeling can in some tiny way be joined to His on the cross, as if I may shoulder just a splinter of His cross.  

I love being open to life.  Am I excited about this seventh baby?  Thrilled!  Am I sad about the early losses we experienced before this little miracle?  Of course.  I would also be lying if I said in being open to life I didn't at times worry about having the means to help them through college, making sure they have what they "need" and doing/having the things that sometimes are made to appear like childhood necessities.  Therein lies part of the journey though.  With each new baby, I become a bit more dependent on Him and a little less concerned with those wants I somehow made needs.  

I also used to think that I would have all of my babies before I was thirty.  That did not happen.  Then it moved to forty.  And, while I never know if the one I'm carrying will be the last, somehow I realize that my plan to just be very strict about NFP once I reached "advanced maternal age" solely for the reason of being at that age wasn't really being open at all.

So again, I learn to trust.  I learn that seven children doesn't necessarily mean lots of rest.  I learn that my body won't necessarily look and feel like I always want it to.  I learn that sometimes people will not understand the choices my husband and I have made.  

Some of those lessons are harder than others, and I'm embarrassed to say how many I have to learn over and over.

But in the last eight years, as we have welcomed six, lost two, and anxiously await the arrival of our seventh, what I have learned most is that He has loved me enough to create me in a way that mirrors Him, while giving me the gift of being a vehicle to bring a unique soul into this world.  Isn't that beautiful?!  Isn't His love for us and for His children amazing?  Better than anything I can imagine...just as He planned it.

In His truth in this encyclical, His truth about marital love, simply put...God loves you.  He loves who He created you to be.  He loves who you are.  He loves when you follow His will and He loves you when He has to call you back into His arms, enveloping with a mercy bigger than any of your sins.  He didn't design you and me with a plan to make our lives miserable.  Instead, He gave us the tools to choose Him over and over again in order to be at peace.  He has loved you and me enough to guide us back to Him...in every area of our lives, from our decisions about daily life to those made in the bedroom.   He is in complete control.  All, we have to do is continue to say yes to His will.  And, I cannot think of anything that gives me more peace.

(yes, it's a girl).

I was sent this study by the women at Endow and it has so moved me and reignited my love for our Church and its teachings.  I can not recommend it more.

If you are Catholic and looking to reignite your commitment to this truth...if you are not and would like to know why your faith community may no longer teach the same message...if you simply want to understand God's plan for married love, read this.  Delve in.  Cover to cover.  And, ask yourself the hard questions.  You can handle it.  You can live it!

I Use NFP...

It's National NFP Awareness Week.

I think it's apparent from some previous posts that Jeremy and I use Natural Family Planning.  Specifically, I use the Billings Ovulation Method.  And, I teach it too!

For some, that may seem obvious.   Sure, she's Catholic.  Of course, she had three kids in less than 2.5 years.  Believe it or not, NFP has "worked" for us.  Some may think that three kids that close in age means that we failed at NFP...that it was just too difficult to abstain.  Would it be too hard to believe that each of those babies was "planned" - would it seem that we had lost our minds?

Maybe we have.

Though, this is what we have gained:

A love unlike any other.  When we were married, we knew that we would always be open to life.  The Church has forever taught that marital love is a total, self-giving love...a love which includes one's fertility.  NFP demands discipline, responsibility and communication.  In return, it offers a closeness to one's spouse built upon a foundation of selflessness and faith.


A deep love for children.  I have always loved babies.  But, I never knew I could love them as much as I do now.  It's a love so vulnerable and so deep that it hurts as much as it fills my heart with joy.  I cannot deliver a baby without immediately desiring another.

A trust in His will.  Will three be the most kids we will have?  Will we have ten?  Only He knows.  However, we're open to whatever is in store, knowing He knows us so much better than we know ourselves.  In fact, our family's "completeness" will always be led by Him.

This (and two more like him).  The Church's call to complete, total, full and faithful love has resulted in me being called Mom and Jeremy, Dad.  Miracles, they are.  Gifts that only an openness to life allows.

So, for the days in which it might seem we've lost our minds, we know that beyond NFP being natural, free, healthy and effective, it is also life-changing...life-giving.

A burden?  Actually, a blessing in every sense imaginable!

Natural Family Planning: FAQs

Since starting the NFP series of posts, I have received some great questions.  I thought I would answer a few here, via a brochure from an OBGYN.  Feel free to email or comment if you have any others.

 

(the following questions/answers are taken from a brochure written by Dr. Mary Martin, M.D., F.A.C.O.G of Oklahoma City, OK)

 

Is there ever a medical reason for using the Birth Control Pill?

There is always a reason why women don't ovulate normally, have intermenstrual bleeding, have pain or infertility.  To prescribe OCPs for these symptoms may delay or prevent a diagnosis.  Alternatives are available which may uncover the gynecological problem for which the Pill is prescribed.

 

Is is true that the Birth Control Pill's third action is to abort if a baby is conceived?

Oral contraceptive pill (OCP) package inserts and the Physicians Desk Reference are two widely available sources which say explicitly that one of the mechanisms of action is to prevent implantation.  When the potential abortifacient effect is agrued, it is the definition of when life begins which is in dispute.  Physicians who consider themselves prolife may continue to prescribe OCPs with the argument that ovulation is prevented or that life does not begin until implantation, but scientific studies have shown that ovulation occurs far more often now on low does pills than the ones first introduced in 1960.  And the incorrect definition of life beginning at implantation allows the manufacturers of IUDs, emergency contraceptives, and progesterone-only shots and pills to say that these products do not cause an abortion.

 

Are all Birth Control Pills designed that way?

Yes.

 

What if a woman has a serious medical reason for avoiding pregnancy?  What would you advise her?

God only gives us roughly 96 hours of shared fertility per month.  Couples who should avoid pregnancy for medical reasons should be taught Natural Family Planning.  There is no additional benefit to chemical contraceptives or sterilization.  On the contrary, there are many additional risks.  NFP is as effective or more effective than chemical contraceptives, is inexpensive, side-effect free and does not rely on remembering to do something to prevent pregnancy.  Rather, it relies on a couple choosing each and every cycle whether to use the gift of their fertility.

 

Why do physicians give the Birth Control Pill to regulate cycles?

It is because they don't truly understand the endocrinology of the menstrual cycle.  Some reproductive endocrinologists (fertility specialists) recite the same data that was published in the 1940s and 50s.  Fortunately, research has revealed much about the cycle since then, but it seems to be the domain of only Natural Family Planning researchers.  Common knowledge says that women can't tell when they are fertile, which is untrue and has been since the "red flow" and the "white flow" was described by Aristotle centuries ago.  A major medical journal published an article in January of 2003 claiming that women can ovulate more than once in a cycle.  This is simply not true.  While waves of follicles (egg cells) are recruited every month, not all ovulate.  Ovulation can occur only once in a cycle.  How long it takes a follicle to ripen determines how long the menstrual cycle is.  When OCPs where introduced in 1960 the statement that the average menstrual cycle is 28 days was introduced into the vernacular leading women to believe that anything more or less is "irregular" and needs to be "regulated."

 

What about using the Pill to help women who are not experiencing a regular bleed?

Physicians really ought to be investigating why the woman's hormones are not working the way they should.  Maybe the woman is too thin or too heavy and that is the reason for the infrequent bleeds.  Women who are under a great deal of physical or emotional stress can often experience a delayed ovulation which would cause a delayed menstrual bleed.  Regardless of the reason, there is never a medical reason to use the Pill.

 

What is the rationale for giving the Birth Control Pill for irregular bleeding?

See the above statement.  Many pharmaceutical companies sponsor much of the medical research, medical education, and the cost of writing textbooks and they are a tremendously powerful lobby.  Promoting NFP and the research behind it is not only out of the mainstream but counter-productive for them.  Since the medical field is taught by the same professors whose research is funded and published by pharmaceutical companies, we are not exposed to NFP or NFP research in training.  Not all research is good research. 

 

What kinds of side effects are common with using the Birth Control Pill?

Erik Odeblad, M.D., PhD. of Sweden has done extensive research on the Birth Control Pill and how it affects fertility in women.  He has determined that for every year a woman takes the Pill, her cervix ages an additional year.  In addition, it can take up to two years for the chemicals of the Pill to completely leave a woman's body.  If you want to see a long list of side effects, check the Physicians Desk Reference.  Here are some common problems we see:

• High blood pressure
• Increased risk of stroke, especially in women who have migraine or familial risk of blood clotting disorders
• Increased risk of deep venous thrombosis which may result in fatal pulmonary embolus
• Intermenstrual bleeding
• Pap smear abnormalities
• Worsening of insulin resistance, which is a prediabetic disorder
• Depression
• Decreased sex drive
• Breast and cervical cancer, to name a few

 

I've heard that our drinking water is affected by the Pill.  Can you explain that?

Research by Dr. Jayne Brian and Professor John Sumpter at Brunel University's Institute for the Environment, showed estrogenic chemicals are affecting the reproduction and gender of aquatic life and warned of the effect on the reproductive ability of humans.  In 2007, University of Colorado scientists, sponsored by the Environmental Production Agency, found that of 123 fish caught in Boulder Creek downstream from the Boulder sewage treatment plant, 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 had both male and female characteristics.  John Woodling, a biologist at the University of Colorado was quoted by the Denver Post as saying that the strange case of the trans-gendered fish is "the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me."  I definitely share his concerns.  We just cannot ignore the fact that women are excreting estrogen from Birth Control Pills they are taking and it is potentially affecting all of us, male and female.

 

Why don't more physicians know about Natural Family Planning?  Isn't it taught in medical schools or are they ignoring it because it takes more time than writing a prescription?

More text books have a simple line or two about "periodic abstinence" of "the Rhythm Method" and nothing about NFP and the exhaustive and currently ongoing research behind NFP.  But remember it is the pharmaceutical industry who educates us.  They have a vested interest in making sure we buy their products rather than use a safe and healthy natural method.  And don't forget, our culture teaches us that we should provide contraception as an essential human right.

 

 

Need help finding an NFP-only doctor?  Look here.

 

Interested in learning NFP?  Contact me.

 

 

Natural Family Planning: Why We Practice It...

Not many people ask us why we practice NFP.  It's not something we shout on the streets or something that others can 'just tell' by looking at us.  Rarely is it a topic of discussion many like to entertain either. 

So let me answer that question for you here.

First, do we practice this because our faith demands it?  Yes and no.  As with so many, the commitment to live according to God's will in all areas of life is a struggle for us at times, bringing crosses that we neither expect nor ask for.  However, along with those crosses come amazing grace and mercy.  God calls us to step up to the plate in so many areas, never claiming that His road will be easy but promising He will give us strength.  Because we are Catholic, there is no doubt in what the Church teaches about life issues.  The Church is 100% PRO-life, not just anti-abortion but anti-contraception, too.  These teachings come down to us from Christ, for over 2000 years, and having them right in front of us, who am I to say I choose another route?  I firmly believe the more we know, the more we are held accountable for.  So, Natural Family Planning is, and always will be, the only way for us.

Beyond, and in a way because of, our faith, Jeremy and I have developed a deep respect for God's will and design.  With each new life He entrusts to us, we realize how miraculous these gifts truly are and, in turn, how we are simply vehicles for His creation.  We never want to close that door.

Some questions I have received (as have many others on this journey)...

Are you going to have a zoo of children?  A zoo, no.  Will we be open to the blessing of another child always, yes.  Whether that means two or ten, God will only give us what we can handle.

Do you know what causes that (in reference to being pregnant, again, soon - Carter and Peter are 16 months apart)?  I do.  And it is more important to me that my husband and I value every part of the other, including our fertility.  Thus, I may be pregnant more often and sooner than you think is "right."

How will you afford a large family?  We do not make a salary that is large, according to typical American standards.  Will our children have everything they want?  No, but want is a relative term.  Will we take nice, annual vacations?  Maybe not. 

Our life will be simpler, but hopefully more enriched.  Will there always be food on the table?  Yes.  Will we have shelter, God and each other?  Yes.  Will we have everything we need?  Yes.  If people in other countries, with tiny homes, lack of top-notch medical care, barely-get-by salaries and large families can thrive, by gosh, we can too!

Do you have to have 12 kids to comply with the Church?  No.  There are grave reasons to prevent having another child while using Natural Family Planning that the Church allows for...yet with Natural Family Planning, you never actually close off the possibility of life with each act of marital love.

Will you always be pregnant?  No.  However, personally, we would like to have our children close together. My brother and I are 17 months apart.  My sister and I are 14.  I would love to have it the same way.  We also married a bit later in life.  If we want a large family, closeness in age is the way to go!

We practice Natural Family Planning because we love and respect every part of each other.  We practice Natural Family Planning because we want to follow His way. We practice Natural Family Planning because each new child we're blessed with blesses us more. We practice Natural Family Planning because we love life.  We practice Natural Family Planning because our life is not our own. 

 It is His. 

And His will be done.

Natural Family Planning: What the Church Teaches...

Is Natural Family Planning or the belief that contraception is wrong only a Catholic teaching?  Actually, no.  And, not long ago, every Christian church was against contraception.

Every Christian community prohibited contraception, until 1930.  At that point, the Anglicans/Episcopalians bowed to the pressure to accept it, and all Protestant communities followed their lead.  The Orthodox Churches continue to teach, along with Catholics, that contraception is prohibited and sinful.

Martin Luther (writing on Onan in Genesis 38): "This is a most disgraceful sin.  It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery...surely at such a time the order or nature established by God in procreation should be followed.

John Wesley: "Those sins that dishonor the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile affections.  Observe, the thing which he [Onan] did displeased the Lord - and it is to be feared; thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displease the Lord, and destroy their own souls."

Pope Paul VI predicted, in 1968, that contraception would:

•  Greatly increase marital infidelity and promiscuity.
•  Usher in a general lowering of moral standards.
•  Greatly diminish respect of men for women, reducing her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

It doesn't seem too "off the mark" today, does it?

What the Church teaches...

There are two inseparable goods of marriage:
1) the good of the spouses, and
2) the procreation of children.

Artificial birth control seeks to frustrate God's natural design for marriage -- the acceptance of each other, wholly and entirely, with an openness to life.

The blessing of children:
 Gen 22:17
 Gen 33:5
 Sirach 25:7
 Psalm 127:3-5
 Psalm 128:1-3

Papal Teachings

•   In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his landmark encyclical letter, Humanae Vitae (Human Life), which reemphasized the Church's constant teaching that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human life from coming into existence.

• "Marriage and conjugal love are, by their nature, ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents' welfare." (HV 9)

• "[Spouses] are not free to act as they choose in the service of transmitting life, as if it were wholly up to them to decide what is the right course to follow.  On the contrary, they are bound to ensure that what they do corresponds to the will of God the Creator." (HV 10) 

• "an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life.  Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will." (HV 13)

The Bottom Line...

"We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children...(HV 14)

...Equally to be condemned, as the Magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary...(HV 15)

...Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation - whether as an end or means." (HV 16)

Pope John Paul II: "Contraception is to be judged objectively so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified.  To think or to say they contrary is equal to maintaining that, in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God."

Blessed Mother Teresa: "In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception...This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her.  In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception...I also know that there are great problems in the world - that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice natural family planning...let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love.  And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion."

Why is contraception sinful?
According to Father John Harding, "[Contraception] tries to separate the two built-in qualities of marital intercourse, claiming that one (children) can be deliberately prevented while the other (mutual love) is being retained.  Not so, says the Church.  Either you admit both or you lose both.  You cannot successfully divide, in practice, what God has placed together in principle."

Finally, Pope Paul VI stated, "We have no wish at all to pass over in silence the difficulties, at times very great, which beset the loves of Christian married couples.  For them, as indeed for every one of us, 'the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life.'" (HV 25)

Yes, NFP requires effort, self-control, and even short-term self-denial, but the benefits far outweigh any disadvantages. 

Natural Family Planning: Statistics & Sites...

Often, NFP is misconstrued as a lazy, ineffective way to avoid pregnancy.  Statistics prove that notion wrong.  Regardless of how you choose to plan a family, I think these statistics are not only informative, but a bit shocking. 

NFP Statistics:

• Every child a woman bears reduces her risk of breast cancer, sume uterine cancers, and ovarian cancer (Kahlenborn & Moell, 2009).

• When trying to conceive...76% pregnancy rate at 1 cycle for healthy NFP users (Journal of Obstetrical, Gynecological, and Neonatal Nursing, 1994).

• When trying to avoid pregnancy...97-99% perfect use effectiveness (Contraceptive Technology, 2004).

Birth Control Statistics:

In 2005, the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Group 1 carcinogen, causing breast, liver and cervical cancer.  Other compounds in this group include arsenic, asbestos, formaldehyde, mustard gas, and radium to name a few.

·         Women who start the use of oral contraceptives before age 18 multiply their risk of breast cancer by 3.7 times (www.abortionbreastcancer.com)

·         Women who have taken oral contraceptives for at least one year experience a 50% greater chance of developing breast cancer than women who took oral contraceptives for less time or not at all (Case Control Surveillance Study, Birth Control Pill Cancer Link Debated, www.onemoresoul.com)

“The Pill”

·         Estimated that a sexually active woman will experience at least one very early abortion every year she is on the Pill (Faust JM. Image change for condoms. ABC News Report. [Internet E-mail]. 6/8/97).

·         The birth control pill increases the risk of breast cancer by over 40% if it is taken before a woman delivers her first baby (Kahlenborn C, et al. “Oral Contraceptive Use as a Risk Factor for Premenopausal Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis” Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2006: 81(10):1290-1302).

·         The risk of breast cancer increases by 70% if the Pill is used for four or more years before the woman’s first child is born (Romieu I, Berlin J, et al. Oral contraceptives and breast cancer. Review and meta-Analysis. Cancer. 1990; 66: 2253-2263).

“The Shot” and Norplant

·         By changing the lining of the uterus, both contraceptives can cause an early abortion when conception does occur. 

·         Women on Depo-Provera for two or more years before they turn 25 have a 190% increased risk of developing breast cancer (Skegg DCG, Noonan EA, et al. Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate and breast cancer [A pooled analysis of the World Health Organization and New Zealand studies]. 1995; JAMA: 799-804).

·         Women who have used Depo-Provera for at least 5 years have a 430% increased risk of developing cervical cancer (Herrero et al. Injectable contraceptives and risk of invasive cervical cancer: evidence of an association. Int. J. of Cancer. 1990; 46: 5-7).

IUD

·         When conception occurs with an IUD in place, the IUD can prevent implantation, or destroy the new embryo by copper poisoning or by attack from the body’s immune system, thus causing an early abortion (Ortho Pharmaceutical. Description of Paraguard. Physician Desk Reference. 1997: 1936-193).

·         Women who use an IUD for three or more years are more than twice as likely to have a tubal pregnancy as women who never have used an IUD (the leading cause of death in pregnant women) (Kahlenborn & Moell, 2009).

Permanent Sterilization (Tubal Litigation or Vasectomy)

Tubal Litigation

·         High risk of tubal pregnancy if conception does occur.

·         Intermittent vaginal bleeding.

·         Reduced intimacy

·         Lower Libido

·         Greater risk for hysterectomy

 

Vasectomy

·         Higher risk of autoimmune disease

·         Higher incidence of prostate cancer.

 Helpful Sites for More Information:

One More Soul : a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the truth about the blessings of children and the harms of contraception.

NFP Outreach: a comprehensive clearinghouse for accurate, practical, up-to-date information on Natural Family Planning, its practice, its effectiveness, its benefits and its underlying moral principles.

Billings Life: official site for the Billings Ovulation Method

BOMA-USA: United States site for Billings Ovulation Method

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Church teachings regarding NFP

Natural Family Planning: What it Is...

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an important aspect of our livesand something both Jeremy and I wholeheartedly believe in, so I've decided to write a series on it.  I will touch on what it is, what the Church teaches, statistics and research, and why we practice it.

So for the first installment...What Natural Family Planning is (and what it is not):

(most of this information can be found in Father Frank Pavone's Brochure - Birth Control and NFP - What is the Difference?)

NFP is a natural way to recognize when ovulation occurs, based on direct observations of various signs that occur in a woman's cycle.  The observations take a matter of seconds to make and work for even irregular cycles.  NFP is not only basically cost-free, it is practical and extremely effective for both preventing and achieving pregnancy.

According to Standards for Diocesan Natural Family Planning, "NFP reflects the dignity of the human person within the context of marriage and family life, promotes openness to life, and recognizes the value of a child.  By respecting the love-giving and life-giving natures of marriage, NFP can enrich the bond between husband and wife."

Because it does nothing to work against conception, NFP is not a contraceptive.

A few other things about NFP:

1.  NFP does not separate the love-giving and life-giving aspects of God's design for marriage.  While not every marital act must/will result in a child, it must nevertheless be open to the possibility of life.  An act remains open to life as long as the couple does nothing to close that openness.  Therein lies the difference between contraception and NFP: with contraception, one does something (takes a pill, uses a condom, etc) to deliberately close the live-giving power of the marital act.  In NFP, no such step is taken.

2.  Using NFP requires abstinence during a woman's natural cycle of fertility if a pregnancy is to be avoided.  When spouses know that they can abstain for good reasons (just like one would abstain if the other was sick, travelling, fatigued, etc), they also come to avoid the risk of treating each other primarily as objects of pleasure rather than persons. 

3.  NFP puts the responsibility for family planning squarely on the shoulders of both husband and wife, requiring cooperation and communication. 

Is it the rhythm method?  No.  Is it the Catholic form of birth control?  No.  NFP is a natural practice acknowledging God's place in love and marriage, resting upon self-control, inner freedom, respect, trust and unconditional love...all the while encouraging openness to life.

For great talks and materials, visit One More Soul.

And for an incredible article, check out: Janet Smith