For many years, research has pointed to substantial differences between couples who practice Natural Family Planning (NFP) and couples who use artificial birth control. Using data collected from a sample of women in the United States of America who practice Natural Family Planning and comparing them to well-known national surveys, this study examined the effects of Natural Family Planning and artificial birth control on several dimensions of marital and family life.
The study found that NFP women have lower rates of abortion and a dramatic low divorce rate (0.2%), than women in the national samples who use artificial birth control. The NFP women are more likely to be married and are more likely to recommend premarital chastity to young women. It was also interesting to note that couples who practice NFP had more marital relations, had more children and enjoyed greater happiness in their life than those using artificial birth control. The study also finds a high level of success in family life among NFP women, as well as a strong religious faith. Results support the hypothesis that Natural Family Planning is associated with positive spousal relationships and family stability. Interpretations of new data are discussed.
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The Ovulation Method
The Ovulation Method is completely safe with no harmful side effects.
The Ovulation Method is simple to learn and to follow. It does not distort the marital act nor involve distasteful procedures. The spouses do nothing to their bodies but simply plan their marital relations according to the fertile and infertile days of the woman’s cycle.
When used to postpone pregnancy, the Ovulation Method is more effective (98-99%) than any artificial method of birth control, but without the physical, psychological and spiritual side effects.
The Ovulation Method costs nothing more than the modest price of simple learning materials.
With the Ovulation Method, the woman is able to know herself, she learns to appreciate the normal processes of her own body.
Using the Ovulation Method enables the woman to accept and respect the gift of her fertility from the beginning to the end of her reproductive years.
The Ovulation Method fosters communication and mutual respect between husband and wife. The two cooperate in planning their family, taking into account the woman’s normal functions of her reproductive cycle.
When the couple must postpone a pregnancy, the very abstinence that the Ovulation Method requires can help strengthen the marriage. The sacrifice involved is proof of the respect that the husband has for his wife. She in turn appreciates his willingness to sacrifice for her good and the good of the marriage, and the love for each other increases.
The love of the couple is renewed after a short period of abstinence with the Ovulation Method. Interest in the marital embrace is enhanced as well as generating a greater mutual love for each other.
The attitude of spouses who practice the Ovulation Method is: “Our fertility is a natural gift and a normal function of the human body.” This helps to bring peace and greater intimacy to their relationship. When couples are required to abstain from marital relations for a few days each cycle (if they need to postpone pregnancy), they find other ways to express their love for each other. Communication increases, their love strengthens and they appreciate the gift of sexuality, experiencing a new honeymoon each month.
The Ovulation Method can be used to achieve as well as to postpone a pregnancy. It is immediately reversible when the couple changes their decision to achieve or postpone pregnancy.
The Ovulation Method is acceptable to people of all cultures, educational and social levels and religions. The spouses can use this natural method with a clear conscience. This method, when used generously and not for selfish or materialistic reasons, respects life and the privilege of transmitting life.
Studies confirm that the divorce rate is dramatically low among couples who practice the Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning.
Artificial Methods
Every artificial birth control method involves medical risk. Therefore, it places a healthy woman at risk.
Artificial birth control involves ingesting dangerous drugs or using intrusive devices.
The more effective the artificial method, the more dangerous it is, e.g., the Pill, the Patch, Nuva-ring, Depo-Provera injection, Implants, Intrauterine Devices, etc.
Artificial birth control involves a continual expense.
Often artificial methods of birth control are used blindly without the woman knowing how they are affecting her body.
The use of artificial methods of birth control suppresses the normal, healthy functions of the human reproductive system.
The use of barrier methods such as condoms, diaphragms, spermicides, etc. do not always prevent conception when they are used in the 100 hours of fertility in the woman’s cycle. It is critical for the couple to understand that while a woman can become pregnant for about 100 hours each cycle, venereal diseases can be transmitted at any time.
The use of artificial birth control often encourages spouses to never communicate with one another about something as important as bringing life into the world or postponing it. Most women are not even aware of when they are fertile or infertile.
Very often artificial birth control frees the man from any responsibility when it comes to planning a family. Most, if not all, of the burden of artificial birth control is placed on the woman.
Artificial birth control places a barrier between husband and wife and limits the most intense physical expression of human love. When the couple is never required to make the sacrifice of abstaining (as is the case while using artificial birth control), marital relations can lose their deeper meaning. It is easy for a husband and a wife to use each other instead of loving each other.
Prolonged use of artificial birth control sometimes results in infertility. For example, the Pill causes 150 chemical changes in the woman’s body.
The level of discontent and the discontinuation rate of most artificial birth control methods is extremely high in many countries, especially in the Third World. Use of artificial birth control is unacceptable to many religious and cultural traditions because it involves a direct attack on the transmission of life. In addition, certain artificial birth control methods such as the Pill, the Patch, Nuva-ring, Depo-Provera injection, Implants, and Intrauterine Devices do not always prevent conception. Instead they can cause a very early abortion a few days later by preventing the newly conceived human person from implanting in the womb. Therefore they act as abortifacients.
The divorce rate among couples who use artificial birth control is much higher.
The love of the couple is renewed after a short period of abstinence with the Ovulation Method. Interest in the marital embrace is enhanced as well as generating a greater mutual love for each other.