Today we’re back with Marie-Claire Reer, the President of 1Flesh. Today we pick up where we left off yesterday, and we’ll be discussing Natural Family Planning (NFP) and its effectiveness. Tomorrow we’ll get into the topic of abortifacients and how college students are responding to 1Flesh’s message.
Faye: Thanks for coming back Marie-Claire! I find a lot of people aren’t at all familiar with NFP. I know I wasn’t until about a year ago. In a nutshell, what is it?
Marie-Claire: In one sentence: natural family planning (or fertility awareness, or organic family planning) is a way to work with a woman’s natural fertility to effectively avoid or achieve pregnancy.
Faye: How is it effective in comparison to the pill or barrier methods, such as condoms?
Marie-Claire: Natural family planning is actually more effective than the pill, barrier methods, and condoms so long as it is taught correctly. The Couple to Couple League and the FertilityCare Center of America, among other organization, teach methods of family planning that are over 99% effective.
Faye: Is this our grandmothers’ rhythm method?
Marie-Claire: No. The rhythm method was a “cute” way of guessing when a woman is fertile based off the length of her previous cycles. Natural family planning has NO guessing. It is all science-based.
Faye: So NFP is science-based?
Marie-Claire: Yes, natural family planning is only possible because of strives in science to understand the female body and fertility. Without science, we would not have effective natural family planning.
Faye: Is NFP considered a means of contraception?
Marie-Claire: No, it is not. Contraception is “deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). Natural family planning does not prevent a man’s sperm from reaching a woman’s eggs. It is effective because with natural family planning a couple works with a woman’s body to avoid being intimate during a woman’s periods of fertility when conception is likely to occur. It is a science, which is more accurate and effective than any contraception.
Faye: Why should pro-life couples consider NFP?
Marie-Claire: Being pro-life is about more than wanting life for the unborn. It should be about respecting all human life and all human bodies. Natural family planning respects and honors a woman’s body by increasing our understanding of it and never asking a woman to change her body in order to meet her needs.
Additionally, natural family planning does not stop or hinder what natural occurs in the sexual act, which has the potential to create life. The love between man and woman is the only love strong enough to create life (other than the love between God and Man in Christian belief systems). Natural family planning respects that life giving love but also support a couple’s need to postpone pregnancy if needed.
Faye: What are some of the natural family models that you recommend? Where can people get more information if they’re interested?
Marie-Claire: The three methods of natural family planning that 1Flesh strongly supports are the Sympto-Thermal Method, the Creighton Model, and the Billings Ovulation Method. Everyone has their different preference between the three models based off of their own lifestyles and body. They are all effective. Personally, I use the Sympto-Thermal Method as taught by the Couple to Couple League and I am a huge support of theirs. You can find more information on the three natural methods at the 1Flesh Solutions page.
If you are looking for a teacher in your area, all three of these websites can direct you to their teachers. The 1Flesh website has also put together a map for convenience. This map, right now, only has teachers in the United States and is constantly being updated and revised.
Thanks so much Marie-Claire. I look forward to tomorrow’s conversation.
by 
Leave a Reply