DETROIT — Faithful Catholic married couples have available to them a method of spacing the births of their children that not only conforms to Church teaching, but also avoids the sometimes serious side-effects associated with many forms of artificial birth control.
And the information about a woman’s peak fertility times that comes with an understanding of natural family planning can also be used by couples who are eager to conceive a child.
It hasn’t been easy to get the message across — the Church lacks the budget to run primetime television ads promoting it — but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, diocesan marriage and family ministries, and the Couple to Couple League keep offering information about NFP to all who will listen.
This week has been the USCCB’s annual Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, held each year during the week of the anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” (“On Human Life”) in 1968.
“NFP Awareness Week is an opportunity for married couples and Catholics everywhere to better understand and embrace the Church’s uniquely positive and liberating message on the truth of married love,” said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. “The theme for 2012, ‘Faithfully Yours,’ highlights the beauty of how husbands and wives are called to live out their total dedication to one another,” he said.
Within the Archdiocese of Detroit, a number of people serve as NFP instructors, sometimes with both husband and wife participating in the classes.
Orlando and Beatriz Ocampo of Taylor, members of Holy Redeemer Parish in southwest Detroit, have been active in promoting NFP among Spanish-speaking Catholics.
The Ocampos began conducting classes in their home before Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon allowed them to begin using parish facilities.
“It’s not just about how to plan your family, but it’s also about your health,” said Beatriz Ocampo, 28.
|
She said she was pregnant with their second child when she first learned about NFP, and they have since had a third child deliberately conceived using the lessons learned from the method.
And Ocampo said that practicing NFP methods “really helps with communication between husband and wife.”
“You tend to get more involved with Church, and become more passionate about your relationship and about parenthood,” she said.
Laura Jennings, a member of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Milford, said she and her husband, Darrin, used to use artificial birth control.
“We knew it was wrong, but didn’t know why it was wrong. We just figured the Church was being unrealistic, and besides, what were you supposed to do?” said Jennings, 43.
But it was making her sick. “I soon started suffering side-effects — weight gain, apathy, morning sickness, vomiting,” she said.
“I’d had three babies, and never experienced morning sickness from that, and so we knew it couldn’t go on,” she recounted.
Jennings said her doctor wasn’t able to help, but one of her sisters told her about NFP, and she and her husband signed up for a class.
Soon, she had her natural estrogen back, and she began to feel better.
“We were starting to figure out our Church has some wisdom. It started us on our way to a more mature understanding of our faith,” Jennings said.
Dr. Daniel Greene is an obstetrician/gynecologist in Rochester who extols the virtues and benefits of NFP to his patients.
A convert to Catholicism, he acknowledged it was his reading of Church teachings that led him to stop prescribing the Pill and performing tubal ligations.
“You have to either practice what you profess, or profess something else,” he said.
Then he began to learn about the different methods of NFP — how they work and their effectiveness.
“Modern NFP methods, when used properly, are as effective as contemporary contraceptives, and there are medical studies to back that up,” Dr. Greene said.
The four modern NFP methods range in effectiveness from 95 percent to 99 percent, he said. And they are not to be confused with the old “rhythm method,” he continued.
The greater effectiveness of the modern methods is largely due, Dr. Greene explained, to being better able to accommodate women who have irregular cycles, he said.
The Billings Method is the most effective, at 99 percent, but some couples opt for one of the others, with effectiveness rates more in the neighborhood of 95 or 96 percent, because they are easier to follow, Dr. Greene explained.
