Natural Family Planning and Us

After putting it off for about three months, I finally had my yearly appointment with my gynecologist yesterday. I'd been dreading going to this appointment not only for the obvious reasons, but also because this would be the first time I saw my gynecologist since we started using NFP (Natural Family Planning). Our Creighton model practitioner had warned me that many physicians tend to be quite negative and skeptical about NFP methods, and unfortunately I was met with a similar reaction.

I never thought I would get off the birth control pill. I'd been taking it for almost ten years, and it'd worked wonders for me, as far as having regular periods goes. About three months before Sam and I got married I became too old to be under my parents' insurance plan and I couldn't afford a plan of my own, so I stopped taking the pill. This wasn't an issue as far as my relationship with Sam goes.. but I became very afraid of what would happen when I got off it. And what happened was actually quite amazing: I felt alive again. I'm not quite sure how to describe it and I'm aware that this sounds like crazy talk, but I felt as if I'd spent all those years on the pill "mentally sedated"; emotions I hadn't seen in a very long time resurfaced and somehow I felt like my true self again.

A little while before we got married I got on the pill again, but I'd discussed with Sam my desire to find some other method that would help us plan our family and that would be more in tune with my beliefs. This desire went far beyond the Catholic church's stand on birth control; switching to some form of NFP meant being more open to having children and feeling like we are trusting God and His plan. Luckily Sam was incredibly supportive and agreed that if we found a method we could use, we should do it. I'm not going to deny that I struggled for a long time on whether jumping into NFP would be a wise decision, because I did question it. No one in this day and age wants to have 10 children (except for maybe crazy ol' Octomom?), so of course there were doubts and questions. All I could do was pray about it, that God would help us make this important decision in our marriage.

So we found the Creighton model of Natural Family Planning; we've been learning the system for about five months now, and we are both so very happy with this decision! It takes a little time to get used to it, but in five short months we have learned a lot about procreation and this wonderful gift that God has given us. Sam and I both have noticed a number of amazing differences which have helped us become closer as a couple; the system is based on daily observations and "charting" these, and we share the responsibility of following the method. We also learned a lot more about how the pill works, and we were happy that I wasn't taking it anymore.

But of course, the second my gynecologist heard that we were practicing NFP she practically treated me like a child for the rest of the appointment. Somehow she felt she could scold me for getting off the pill and dismiss anything I said about the Creighton model as unimportant and uninteresting (this after she admitted she did not know anything about the system).

So... I almost let it get to me. I almost thought, "maybe I should get back on it..." I talked about it with Sam to see what he thought, and... he was so very supportive of the Creighton model and of us following it! More than anything, there's peace of mind and of heart that we're intending to plan when we'll have children, but that ultimately God has His say and that we will accept it lovingly no matter what. I guess one could technically say the same thing about the birth control pill because no method is absolutely effective except for abstinence, but at least there are no synthetic hormones in me. I feel better, both mentally and physically. And Sam is so very happy to be following this too. We wouldn't trade this sense of peace for anything else in the world.