Five Top Marriage Benefits of Natural Family Planning

Feb. 21, 2010 - PRLog -- Chicago-area couples wondering about which birth control to use would be helped to know that a popular blogger has drawn up five winning reasons how Natural Family Planning (NFP) has benefitted his marriage.

Writing on his blog EngagedMarriage.com, Dustin Riechmann says, “My wife and I have a great deal of peace about our sex life both from an intimacy standpoint and on the moral/religious/spiritual front.  And trust me, that’s saying a lot for a young Catholic couple trying to do the right thing.”

For the first four years of their marriage they used the birth control pill, and when they found NFP, they no longer had any of the “lingering, often back-of-mind” worries about whether they were harming her health, “marginalizing” their intimacy, or reducing their sex life to something less than it should be, Dustin says. He added that “it does require some periods of abstinence and we men aren’t the biggest fans of that idea.”

Five Reasons that Rock

The Riechmanns have worked in the marriage preparation classes for the Catholic diocese of Springfield, IL for five years and have received more than 7,000 web visits in only a few months. Here are their “Five Benefits of NFP for Marriage,” summarized.

1. A Stronger Bond. My wife and I have always been close and shared a special bond.  After all, we got married and have been a happy couple for many years.  However, when we started learning about Natural Family Planning and then started to put it into practice together, we grew closer on a level that I never knew was there previously.

When you can talk about the intricacies of your wife’s fertility signs (because you’ve bothered to learn them) and interpret those signs by her side (because you really care), you have a good bond….  

2. Open Communication.  Listen, I have talked to my wife routinely about basal body temperatures and cervical mucus…. I am confident that I have more knowledge of the female fertility cycle than five generations of my forefathers combined.

Who cares?  My wife.  She knows that I care about her body, her sexuality and her soul because we routinely communicate about it.  You cannot effectively practice Natural Family Planning without improving the level of communication in your marriage….  I simply cannot imagine a more intimate and sacred topic of conversation than that of fertility and the willingness to accept children (or not).  My wife and I have these discussions on a regular basis, and it has made us excellent communicators in all aspects of our marriage.

3. Mutual Decision Making.  When we decide if we are going to have sex during the “transitional” times between fertility phases, it is a complete and total mutual decision.  It really cannot be one-sided and it requires open communication.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of times throughout each month where total spontaneity are possible…and fantastic.  But there are those times where we have to think together and reach important mutual decisions.  For us, this ability to make decisions together has enhanced everything from our finances to our parenting skills.

4. Raises Appreciation of Intimacy.  This one rocks.  We used birth control for the first four years of our marriage, and we thought we were getting all that we could out of our sex life.  We were wrong.

With the introduction of Natural Family Planning, the intimacy in our marriage (both inside and outside of the bedroom) achieved entirely new levels.  It wasn’t that things were all that different physically, but they were worlds better emotionally and spiritually.….

5. Marriage Insurance.  I think this term really sums up the value of all the other benefits in a very real and tangible way.  I’ll let the statistics speak for themselves: The divorce rate for couples practicing Natural Family Planning is less than 5%. For the general population, it is nearly 50%.

NFP Classes in the Chicago Area

Classes in the Sympto-Thermal Method of Natural Family Planning are offered by the Couple to Couple League to married and engaged couples, and can be taken at 15 locations in the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL and surrounding area, including southeast Milwaukee and northwest Indiana. A homestudy course is also available at CCL Central.

The next series of classes in northeast Illinois will begin Sun., Mar. 21, 2010 at 6 pm at St. Irene’s parish in Warrenville, IL, and will be taught by Mike and Denise Kenealy. To register, and for a list of classes throughout the U.S., go to CCL Central at
http://www.ccli.org. Illinois class information is at http://www.naturalfamilyplanningchicago.com.

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The Couple to Couple League (CCL) is an international, interfaith, non-profit organization dedicated to teaching Natural Family Planning (NFP) to married and engaged couples. This news article is sponsored by the Chicago chapter of CCL International.