NFP Class #1

The content of this post is my opinions, observations, etc. As you are reading, regardless of personal belief, please keep an open mind and do not comment anything disrespectful. Also, "learnings" I may mention should be taken considering I have not been trained in NFP and am only a pupil in the current session.

Matt and I are finally taking the diocesan Natural Family Planning class(es). I am extremely excited because I have always wanted to better understand the ideas & science behind it. While I've always personally believed in the theology behind it after hearing many different sides to the issue of family planning. Here are a few things that we have learned thus far from our instructors:

1. The very different charting "results" you can have (i.e. what your graph looks like).
2. That if you are charting your temperature even after you have found you are pregnant you can detect issues that may be caused by a drop in progesterone. If you suspect a drop you can notify your doctor to possibly take supplemental hormones to minimize risk of a miscarriage.
3. Towards the end of your pregnancy you can chart your temperature to help give you another sign that labor is soon to come. A drop in your temperature can signal that labor is going to happen [often within 24 hrs as observed from women in the classes they've taught].

We've learned many other things already, but most of them are more on the biology & basics of the temperature side of the sympto-thermal method.

One observation of NFP that I found extremely useful that I read from Michelle at Musings of a Catholic Lady is about family size. I will try to sum up the point without stealing it:

Families that practice NFP are typically bigger, not because NFP doesn't work but because those who practice NFP tend to be more open to children.

Of course, this is not to say people that use other methods to plan their families aren't just as open, but the tendency of openness is there.