Natural Family Planning (NFP) for the Unmarried

I am writing about Natural Family Planning (NFP,) right? Yes! Over the past few months, I’ve joined a new wave of Catholic women who are exploring NFP for their own personal knowledge, health, and well-being without a fiancee or spouse by our side. Why should single, unmarried Catholic women learn NFP? Because, designed by God, our female bodies are amazing and intricate while our natural cycles should be monitored and understood.

1.) Types of NFP:
There are multiple NFP methods researched, studied, and accepted by the Catholic Church. Each method charts fertility bio-markers. I learned the Creighton Method. Why? Because the Creighton Method is the MOST comprehensive and scientific system for diagnosing and treating Women’s Reproductive Health issues, i.e., Naprotechnology.

2.) Creighton NFP: No Chemicals Added
Creighton uses the most comprehensive bio-markers to chart fertility and infertility while tracking changes in a woman’s cycle that could indicate reproductive health or fertility issues. With the knowledge gleaned from charting, I could consult a Naprotechnology specialist and potentially treat and heal concerns. Another benefit of NFP is that there are no harmful side effects, chemicals, or synthetic hormones. Charting is inexpensive too, especially once the system is learned

3.) Learning NFP Lingo
Welcome to NFP, where women and men’s natural bodily function is not a bad, dirty phenomenon. But, yes, you, your trainer, and your significant other must learn to discuss and identity the amazing phenomena of mucus (it's pretty amazing,) and how it plays into fertility, infertility, and health issues. Yep. I turned red a few times, but I felt an immense sense of peace knowing that God designed my body and called it “good.”

4.) Owning my Cycles
During the course of a women’s cycle, she is mostly INFERTILE; whereas, a man is considered FERTILE. Women can’t conceive any day of the month. Nothing prepared me for the day, I placed the white baby sticker on my Peak day and counted 3 Days Post Peak. For the first time, it hit me. I’m woman. If I was sexually active, I could have a baby. The realization excited and frightened me, but then I realized how few women experience that moment. And how even fewer women experience that moment with their spouse.

5.) Learning Another Love Language
NFP teaches the “multidimensional nature of sexual interaction.” NFP encourages couples to S.P. I.C.E. things up and develop equally important expressions of love. NFP challenges me to be a more loving person.

• S = Spiritual expressed through praying together or meditation.
• P = Physical closeness without genital contact.
• I = Intellectual expressed though sharing a project, book, etc.
• C = Communicative/Creative expressed through increased written or verbal communication or shared activities.
• E = Emotional expressed though shared feelings, desires, humor, etc.

6.) Doesn’t Mean . . .
My future spouse is off-the-hook from learning NFP. Having the mutual knowledge, support, and discipline of NFP allows a couple to respect their God-given dignity as man and woman, appreciate their natural reproductive differences, and make prayerful decisions together about family planning. If not, NFP turns into another form of non-hormonal contraception.

7.) Joining a Greater Conversation
I’m no longer a woman on the sidelines waiting for NFP to apply to me, I’m in the middle of the greater conversation about NFP. I have a voice.

To all my single ladies, please, consider exploring NFP for your own knowledge, health, and wellbeing. You are a Daughter of the King!