Natural family planning

From Freepedia

Natural Family Planning (NFP) set of pregnancy avoidance methods permitted by the Catholic Church. When the same methods are used for reasons other than religion, they may be called Fertility awareness. Though many people assume the ineffective Rhythm Method is the only form of NFP, several types of NFP have very high effectiveness rates - above 99% per year.

Description

Catholic doctrine holds that God created sex to be both unitive and procreative. Deliberately shutting out the procreative aspect of sex is considered to be a grave sin. Thus, artifical birth control methods and orgasmic acts outside of full marital intercouse are forbidden. Not having sex at all, however (abstinence) is considered moral. Having sex at an infertile time in a woman's life (such as pregnancy or menopause) is also moral, since the infertile condition is considered to be created by God, rather than by the couple.

Thus, it is considered moral to practice fertility awareness, or related methods such as the Standard Days Method, and abstain during the fertile part of the woman's menstrual cycle. Encouraging the natural period of breastfeeding infertility that occurs after childbirth is also considered a moral way to space a family's children.

The benefits of spacing children are recognized by the Catholic Church, and use of Natural Family Planning for this reason is encouraged. Humanae Vitae cites "physical, economic, psychological and social conditions" as possibly compelling reasons to avoid pregnancy. Couples are warned, however, against using NFP for frivolous, selfish, or materialistic reasons. Many Catholic sources extoll the benefits children bring to their parents, their siblings, and society in general, and couples are encouraged to have as many children as their circumstances make practical.

Proponents of the fertility awareness forms of NFP claim it helps foster communication within a marriage, thus lowering divorce rates. Anecdotal evidence and small studies¹ are put forth in support of this view. To date, however, no convicing socialogical data for this claim has been found.