July 19-25, 2020, is Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, an annual campaign designed to educate couples about an effective way to be responsible stewards of their fertility, one that respects our dignity, reverences our sexuality, and reflects the total self-giving of marital love. This year marks the 52nd anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s beautiful letter, “Humanae Vitae.”

Natural Family Planning (NFP for short) is a term for methods of fertility awareness that can be used by couples seeking to achieve or avoid pregnancy. These scientific methods are 98% effective when practiced faithfully, and are based on the fact that a woman’s fertility during each cycle can be determined via the observation of physical symptoms.
Here is one couple’s testimony of how Natural Family Planning has blessed their marriage:
Why We Are Glad That We Chose Natural Family Planning
By Tom and Lynda Mills (Good Shepherd parish, Whitley City, KY)

When we became engaged in 2001, we had little knowledge of Natural Family Planning, beyond the myths we’d heard. Yet, we wanted to start our marriage out on the right foot and live out our vocation of matrimony in harmony with Catholic teaching. So, at our pre-Cana class, we asked the priest about NFP and what we could do to learn more. In his wisdom, he was pleased to hear that we were interested and referred us to a married couple whom he knew practiced NFP. We contacted them and they graciously agreed to mentor us. They were a very loving and devout married couple, and we knew we wanted a marriage like theirs. They attributed much of their closeness to the fact that they used NFP and so we became even more intrigued.

Soon after, Lynda began meeting weekly with the wife of this couple and learned the Billings Method of NFP. By the time we were married five months later, Lynda had a good understanding of how the method worked and we felt confident in our ability to plan our family. Using NFP helped us improve our communication skills and put the responsibility of planning our family in both of our hands, not just Lynda’s. It was and is truly a two-person deal when using NFP. We also had the peace-of-mind that came from knowing that we were in full communion with the Church when it came to how we managed our fertility. And with that came the grace that we would need later when facing years of infertility.
After miscarrying our first child, we began to suspect that some underlying health issues were interfering with our fertility. Because we were using NFP, we knew that we needed to seek out someone to help us who understood our approach and shared our values. Some quick research online led us to a Fertility Care Practitioner who taught the Creighton Model of NFP. She worked with us for a few months and then referred us to a doctor who practiced Naprotechnology. He looked at our NFP charts and quickly diagnosed, just by looking at our NFP charts, some health concerns that, thankfully, could be treated. Long story short, after working with this NFP-trained physician, our son was born.

We are now married nearly 19 years. We have never used anything but NFP. Had we not been using NFP all this time, we may have chosen a very different path for how we treated our fertility and later, our infertility. We are not a perfect couple by any means, but we know that sticking with NFP and being open to life throughout our marriage is one thing we have done right. Using NFP has led us to other NFP-practicing couples whom we have been blessed to know, and to doctors who don’t treat fertility like a disease. But more than anything, it has helped us grow closer as a couple ever since that first day of married life, and now, into the end of our child-bearing years. While other methods often looked more attractive and more reliable, we are so glad that we can look back upon our child-bearing years and know that we made it through them by staying completely open to life and trusting in God’s providence and plan for our family. In turn, God answered our prayers in ways that we never would have imagined, and built our family in a way more beautiful than we could have ever planned ourselves.

Del 19 al 25 de julio es la semana de la conciencia de Planificación Natural de la Familia, una campaña anual diseñada para educar a las parejas sobre una manera efectiva de ser administradores responsables de su fertilidad, una que respete la dignidad humana, reverencia la sexualidad humana y refleje la entrega total del amor matrimonial. Este año se cumple el 52 aniversario de la hermosa carta del Beato Pablo VI, “Humanae Vitae”.
Planificación Natural de la Familia (PNF para abreviar) es un término para los métodos de concientización sobre la fertilidad que pueden usar las parejas que buscan lograr o evitar el embarazo. Estos métodos científicos son 98% efectivos cuando se practican fielmente y se basan en el hecho de que la fertilidad de una mujer durante cada ciclo se puede determinar mediante la observación de síntomas físicos.

Aquí está el testimonio de una pareja de cómo la Planificación Familiar Natural ha bendecido su matrimonio.
“Un saludo cordial a todos, que la Paz esté con ustedes donde quiera que se encuentren. Somos Omar y Silvia Mendoza Marin; tenemos cinco hijos-tres mujeres y dos hombres. Tenemos mas o menos unos doce años sirviendo en la parroquia de Mary Queen. ¿Cuál fue la razón por la cual decidimos aprender y usar el método de Planificación Natural de la Familia? Primero que nada en algo que mi esposa y yo coincidimos todo el tiempo es, de tratar lo mejor que podamos, en mantenernos en paz con Dios, haciendo lo que tengamos que hacer, de acuerdo a la ley de Dios. Del tiempo que llevamos unidos siempre hemos tenido en mente que nada que no pertenece a nuestro cuerpo debe estar en nuestro cuerpo. Una razón más es el respeto y amor a Dios y el temor a fallarle. En que nos a beneficiado, bueno, en tener más comunión íntima entre nosotros, en tener la seguridad de poder estar juntos íntimamente sin la preocupación de un embarazo. Queremos exportarlos en aprender y practicar este
método. Dios bendice su hogar.”