Natural Family Planning

Joshua and I both highly recommend NFP to all married couples, for both avoiding and trying for pregnancy. We took a class through a Catholic church’s Couple to Couple League before we got married in October 2006, and we’ve been using it since then. So far it’s helped us to not get pregnant when we felt like it wasn’t time to have a baby and to get pregnant when we felt like God was asking us to try that, but it also gave us great openness to God’s will in His involvement in the entire process of adding to our family. I am so thankful for the way God has created each of us, and it is amazing to pay attention to some of the detail that God has made in our bodies. He’s made everything to work perfectly the way He desires.

Rachel’s Basic Explanation of NFP
You can keep track of your morning oral temperature, vaginal mucus, and cervix to help predict and confirm ovulation. The sites listed below have some more details on how to do this, but I especially found the temperature tracking to be very helpful for me. I know other people who mostly pay attention to their mucus because it’s so reliable for them. To track your temperature, get a digital thermometer and take your temperature every morning at the same time before you get up. It helps if you go to bed and get up around the same time each day, but, after you track it awhile, you should know somewhat how your temperature will be affected if you’re up late or get up early. It is amazing to me how God created our bodies to work through cycles of day and night.
For trying to prevent pregnancy, some people choose not to have sex anytime that they could possibly get pregnant (true NFP doesn't use other backup methods). Some couples use a barrier backup (such as a condom or diaphragm) on days when they probably aren’t going to get pregnant but there’s a chance they could ovulate earlier than usual. And some people use a barrier method during their fertile time, but remember that doing this means you have a good chance of getting pregnant since none of the barriers are 100% and you’re using it when you are very fertile. Many people worry about not being able to have sex all month long, but studies I’ve seen show that people using NFP on average have at least as much sex per month as couples using other forms of contraception because the NFP couples are more likely to have sex during their infertile time (like a little honeymoon time each month). Couples have also commented that they enjoy other forms of intimacy during their period of abstinence.

Here’s an interesting radio program on Family Life Today about NFP that I recommend listening to. It has some interesting things to start thinking about, if you haven’t considered using NFP before.
To listen to the five July 2008 broadcasts, you can go to http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.6467443/k.EAA0/A_Biblical_Approach_to_Family_Planning.htm. The essay mentioned by Randy Alcorn can be found at http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/17/short-condensation-does-birth-control-pill-cause-a/.

Joshua and I love discussing NFP and would be so happy to help teach you or try to answer any questions. So please just let me know if we can do anything for you!