NFP Strengthened Our Marriage
“Contraception had been distorting their view of each other.”
Matt and Shannon met in college and quickly became serious. A non-practicing Catholic, Matt left the responsibility of managing their fertility to Shannon and the pill. When they became pregnant less than a year later, there were feelings of failure and blame.
They married and after their daughter was born they turned to condoms. Intimacy became artificial and an act of duty. When they became pregnant again, their marriage was struggling.
Then Matt and Shannon read a book that mentioned NFP, and Matt began to look into it seriously. Shannon resisted, believing all NFP families had 10 children and that it wouldn’t work with her irregular cycles. But when Shannon read … predictions that marital and societal problems would occur if contraception became the norm, this struck a chord and they took a CCL (Couple to Couple League) class.
Shannon learned how to improve her cycles through nutrition and stress management. They became a team when it came to their fertility. Communication improved in all aspects of their marriage, strengthening it.
During the next six years, they successfully postponed pregnancy while Shannon finished her degree… Three months after discerning that they no longer had just reasons to avoid pregnancy, their third child was conceived.
NFP Helped Us Postpone Pregnancy, Even With Serious Health Issues
When Angela was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) the doctors told her the best treatment was the pill.
After she and Jason became engaged, they learned NFP as part of their marriage preparation. They worked with a NaproTechnology physician and discovered that Angela had a luteal phase defect and many of her cycles were anovulatory.
Through nutritional changes and progesterone supplementation her cycle improved. For the first time, she was addressing the problems of PCOS, not just masking its symptoms. Their daughter Gianna was born in 2008.
In 2009, Angela required abdominal surgery and her physicians advised her to delay pregnancy for the next two years. They were grateful for CCL’s [Couple to Couple League] method that tracks multiple signs and successfully postponed pregnancy until they were medically cleared to seek pregnancy.
Their son, Joshua, was conceived on the second cycle of trying and was born in 2011. They learned that they could not only trust the method, but each other, and above all, God. The trust and communication they learned through using NFP also helped them navigate long separations during Angela’s residency. Now they are reunited and expecting their third child.
NFP Led to Improved Cycles
Ben and Karina’s journey to using NFP began when Karina was prescribed the pill by her doctor to “fix” the terrible symptoms she experienced every month during her period.
During college, she and Ben kept hearing from trusted sources that being on the pill was okay, so they continued to use it after their marriage. It wasn’t until some new friends told them the pill was wrong and the reasons why, that Karina realize God was asking them to change. She researched using NFP. After watching some of the videos of other couples’ journeys to NFP on CCL’s website [Couple to Couple League] Karina and Ben discussed it and decided to sign up for a class. It was refreshing to hear “yes” instead of “no”; “yes” to living a healthy lifestyle and marriage, “yes” to living free of chemical pollution in her body; “yes” to living as God had designed.
While they had already begun eating healthy, Karina learned natural ways to help improve her cycles, reading CCL’s book ‘Fertility: Cycles & Nutrition’.
Karina has had little to no issues with her cycles since implementing some easy habits. She also discovered an under-active thyroid when she charted.
Ben and Karina are grateful that NFP has not only improved their health, but their openness to life and communication with each other as well.
NFP Helped Our Sexual Healing
Rob and Annie grew up without any knowledge about the beauty of teachings on human sexuality.
Despite this, Annie believed in keeping sex for marriage, but did experience several hurtful sexual advances during her youth.
Rob was exposed to pornography at an early age and became sexually active as a teenager. In his early twenties, however, he began to live a chaste life.
During their marriage preparation, Rob and Annie took an NFP class because Annie liked NFP as a natural way to prevent pregnancy, without chemically polluting her body. Not convinced of its effectiveness, though, they also used barrier methods after they married. This continued even as they started their family.
Both felt that their intimate life lacked something, but didn’t know what until they heaerd about the Theology of the Body.
Armed with knowledge and better understanding of the teaching on marriage and sexuality, they realized that their sexual pasts were affecting their intimate marital acts.
Annie said, “Although at the time I did not completely understand it, I had an instinct that submitting to Church teaching on contraception and practicing NFP would help heal both of us.”
They stopped using barrier methods and began practicing NFP as a team. It has been effective in delaying pregnancy from them and has also opened them to God and the Gift of children. They have since welcomed two more children into their family.
Rob says, “The periods of abstinence have become a time of spiritual growth for both of us, and have helped me to more deeply respect and care for Annie, which in turn has helped her trust that I am caring for her as a person. This whole process has drawn us closer to God and deepened our love for each other.”
NFP Frees My Wife From Ingesting, Injecting, or implanting Strong Hormonal Chemicals That Might Harm Her
“NFP has helped us to practice self-control, grow in generosity, and to love in a deeper way. And something I really love about NFP is that it provides the freedom for Jessica to not have to ingest, inject, or implant potentially harmful hormones into her body. As her husband, I don’t ever want to put Jessica’s health at risk for the sake of convenience.”
When Jessica and Ryan married, Ryan was in his last year of graduate school. They hoped to delay pregnancy until after he graduated the following summer. They wanted their marriage to be rooted in their faith.
As a nurse, Jessica learned about the health risks to women that come with using hormonal birth control. Knowing that NFP would help her become familiar with her body and naturally space births, liberated her.
She began using the Sympto-Thermal Method to track her fertility. Nine months after their wedding they used NFP to achieve pregnancy’ however, at eight weeks, they experienced a miscarriage.
Renewed with an appreciation for the Gift of life, their first living daughter was conceived three months later. They then used NFP to postpone pregnancy until a year after her birth, and had another daughter, and have recently welcomed their first son.
Ryan said, “NFP has helped us to practice self-control, grow in generosity, and to love in a deeper way. And something I really love about NFP is that it provides the freedom for Jessica to not have to ingest, inject, or implant potentially harmful hormones into her body. As her husband, I don’t ever want to put Jessica’s health at risk for the sake of convenience.”
And Jessica commented, “Practicing NFP has helped us develop an attitude of trust and openness to each other and to the will of God, which not only brings us closer to each other but also strengthens our relationship with God.”
“Following NFP brought faith and God into the heart of our relationship.”
RELATED:
NaproTechnology — http://www.naprotechnology.com/
Couple to Couple League — http://www.ccli.org
Natural Family Planning International [NFPI] — http://nfpandmore.org/
[2015 Couple to Couple League ‘Live the Love’ Annual Report, www.ccli.org]