The national diocesan Natural Family Planning (NFP) Week is the last week of July. It recalls the signing of a letter by Pope Paul VI, titled “On Human Life”. The writing acknowledges concerns about population and birth control, and questions if couples may use artificial methods versus occasional abstinence. It clarifies that when we look at our bodies and sex, we can see “natural laws” which are a glimpse at the “will of God”. Obedience to natural law is a means to get to Heaven.
The document touches on the marital embrace mirroring the generosity and selflessness of the Trinity, and how couples must also keep in communion with the Trinity to see if they can serve God with the gift of another child. Just as it would be wrong to force a spouse to have marital relations, it is also wrong to actively manipulate or cancel or sterilize one or the other’s fertility, their ability to make a baby, with sterilization, artificial birth control or interrupting the marital act. It is the more noble way to master the sexual urge and abstain from relations in the fertile days for family planning as this protects our bodies, health, mutual respect and openness to God.
Society tells us to be responsible, use birth control and limit family size. On the other hand, the Church teaches that responsibility is not getting what we want all the time, but being moderate and thoughtful about sexual pleasure. Contraception has made sexual sin too easy for us; NFP classes help couples live this teaching. It also shows governments that forced birth control is not necessary. Married people, with the graces of matrimony, are able to manage their fertility and safeguard the dignity of marriage from perversion.
See www.nfpandmore.org for free charts and online instruction.
Ann and Steve Craig
NFPI Instructors
Robstown TX
Article written for NFP Awareness Week 2010
Natural Family Planning and “Of Human Life”
August 29th, 2010Thanks to NFP International
August 22nd, 2010More thanks to share!
Thank you for allowing your manual to be downloaded. I plan to make a donation at a later date. I became engaged four months ago, and we are shooting to get married by the end of next year. We are both graduating from college this year, and I want to be comfortable with charting and knowing how NFP works before we marry.
Thank you so much for providing this resource. I am a revert to Catholicism, have recently discontinued ABC and am new to learning NFP and find your no nonsense approach quite refreshing. I will definitely tell all of my friends about this resource. Thank you for providing the charts for free too; that is awesome. It really makes me feel good to help a ministry that is genuinely concerned for others.
The information you offer is such a blessing! And it is such an important subject, I pray that more people will open their hearts to God’s plan. Everything on the website worked wonderfully. And I especially value the free downloads; they provide very good information. Thank you!
I am so excited to email you! I am a convert to Catholicism–I thank God for the many, many blessings and graces that I have received!! Needless to say, I don’t have a Catholic mother, grandmother or auntie to call up about some NPF/cycle related questions. I am 5 months postpartum with my second child. I am ecologically breastfeeding, and have had no return of menstruation. ( I have read the older version of BREAST FEEDING AND NATURAL CHILD SPACING). Anyway, I was literally DIGGING through forums, blogs, etc. on the internet for quite some time when I came across your actual website (nfpandmore). I am soooo thankful for what you and your husband are doing. I was very appreciative that you made available the download version of the manual, etc. I think that your approach is welcoming, educated and balanced. I love that you don’t hide the Catholicism, but also don’t shove it down people’s throats (who may be protestant/secularist). It is a beautiful way of inviting people to practice NFP, ecological breastfeeding and maybe see the beauty of Catholicism.
I have one daughter, 13 months, and hope to have many more. I came across ecological breastfeeding when I was searching to discern God’s holy will when it came to breast-feeding, co-sleeping, etc. with my child. I read Sheila’s books, and am so thankful for deciding to practice natural and ecological mothering. I appreciate your support already and have enjoyed your posts.
Thank you for your excellent books Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing and The Seven Standards. I translated “the seven standard summary” (p. 103 & 104) for my wife and for the nun teaching NFP in the hospital where our children were born. What we found in your books, we found nowhere else! (from France)
I’m so glad that you started NFP and More because Catholics NEED to know the truth about ecological breastfeeding, Catholic parenting, etc. Many of the popular parenting practices we see in the United States today (such as cry it out, scheduled feedings, and general authoritarian or un-attached approaches) are actually based upon Protestant theology. So many well-meaning Catholic parents simply do not have the information to know that gentle parenting of our little ones is more in line with the teaching of the Church.
Sheila Kippley
www.NFPandmore.org
It’s the law in Indonesia to breastfeed!
August 15th, 2010Starting in October, the mothers in Indonesia are required by law to exclusively breastfeed their baby for six months. Babies have this right and the mothers must fulfill this obligation. Those mothers who refuse to breastfeed may go to jail for one year or pay a heavy fine.
Employers are required to help working mothers breastfeed. If they do not support breastfeeding in the workplace, the employer will also be fined.
Promotion of formula, bottles and pacifiers to the general public will not be allowed. Why is this country with the largest Muslim population doing this? Breastfeeding reduces infant mortality rates and protects babies for years to come against various physical, neurological, and behavioral problems.
Another country is interested in passing legislation requiring mothers to breastfeed for two years. The Muslim Rights Concern wants this law for Nigeria because children who have been breastfed for two years have been shown to be less prone to crime when they grow up. (Medications & More, July 2009)
For those who think this concept is crazy, that breastfeeding reduces crime, please read an older blog, dated October 5, 2008. http://nfpandmore.org/wordpress/?m=2008&paged=5
In the U. S. only 14% of the babies were exclusively breastfed for six months in 2006. Canadian mothers had the same rate in 2009, only 14% exclusively breastfed for six months. Obviously, grade schools and high schools need to educate students on the importance of breastfeeding. In the Cincinnati area one often sees a variety of billboards promoting breastfeeding, but one wonders if billboards alone can change a bottle-feeding culture.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood