Customer Reviews

The Art of Natural Family Planning

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is the "bible" of Natural Family Planning (NFP)---NOT the "rhythm method," but a proven method of monitoring a woman's cycle signs to determine when her "window of fertility" begins and ends. It can be upwards of 95% effective!

This book is used as a textbook for the Couple to Couple League International NFP course. It's the best book for a "beginner" to buy---and it will guide you through your entire reproductive life. There's an extensive section for "beginners" and a chapter on the special charting needs of women just quitting the Pill. It explains how to use your fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy, as well as how to beat marginal infertility. It tells how to know you're pregnant and how to maintain infertility during breast feeding, as well as how to tell when you become fertile again. Finally, it explains how to chart all the way through menopause. There is plenty of info about the effects of nutrition and pharmaceuticals on your cycles too!

While the technical information will help anyone, the book is particularly well-suited for Christians as it has sections which delve deep into the morality of family planning. But non-Christians shouldn't be scared off either---this is simply the best book around for learning how to use your natural body signs to prevent or achieve pregnancy, no matter what your reasons.

My husband and I use this method, and we think our marriage and my health is better for it.

This information-packed book is a must for couples who wish to understand the gift of their fertility. It gives the reader an excellent understanding of Natural Family Planning. This is not the "rhythm method", but a method based on observation of one's own pattern of fertility. As a woman, I particularly was pleased to develop an awareness of my body's natural cycles. This method is exceptionally useful for women, like me, who have irregular menstrual cycles. The authors cite moral, religious, health and environmental reasons to support the use of Natural Family Planning. They also provide ample information demonstrating why the sympto-thermal method of NFP gives a woman all the tools she needs to determine her fertile time, whether she is seeking pregnancy or to avoid a pregnancy. The effectiveness of this method approaches or exceeds that of the Pill, without the health risks for the woman or baby. I highly recommend this book!

I would definitely recommend this book over others on fertility awareness and natural family planning. The review at the end of each chapter is very helpful in learning the basic concepts, and the sample chart exercises are invaluable -- they cover "real-life" cycle irregularities as well as some "textbook-perfect" cycles. There is also a lot of information on the return of fertility following childbirth, which I don't remember seeing in the other books I've read. There also seem to be more rules for chart interpretation than in other books, which allows for a shorter period of abstinence given individual cycle patterns. This is a very well researched book, and includes lots of references to medical journal articles. One section of this book covers Christian teaching on birth control and Catholic teaching in particular, and is very interesting for those who are pursuing NFP for religious reasons. However, this book is not "just" for Catholics, and is a wonderful resource for any couple looking for natural, ecologically-friendly birth regulation.

My wife and I decided to use NFP, in accordance with Catholic teaching. We purchased this book, as well as Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

While we agree with the church's moral teaching, we felt that this book went far beyond Catholic theology. It forces its moral judgements upon its readers on topics such as ecological breastfeeding and working mothers, espouses the virtues of buying a king-sized bed for your whole family to roll around in (what???), and makes its own assumptions regarding the "serious reasons" under which NFP is permissible.

I agree with the other reader who commented that the tone of the book is "smug," as in its vague message to newlyweds about the couple that conceived on their honeymoon, never to conceive again. This story was meant to scare people away from using NFP during the early part of a marriage. This book is chock full of similar first-hand accounts that come off as hearsay, because they are not substantiated by any names, facts, or places.

The book comes of as a sales pitch, and not a very good one at that. The fact of the matter is that the abstainence periods are difficult and can be lengthy. The book dismisses any true frustration or difficulty one may have during those periods, instead talking about "courtship" and "honeymoon" phases. I'm sorry, but not to give serious, realistic attention to these periods, and instead make it sound like fun offered no comfort.

Furthermore, the writing style is unscientific in that it uses terms such as "maritial relations" instead of "coitus" or "intercourse."

The book is difficult to use when looking for answers to specific questions.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility, while written from a secular perspective, is easier to read, less judgemental in tone, and more straightforward.

There is definitely a market for a better NFP book written from a Catholic perspective.

My husband and I have used Natural Family Planning for the past 2 years with perfect success. We learned the method from the Couple to Couple League [who publishes this book]. It changed our lives [MUCH for the Better] and we love using NFP. I tell everyone I can about how great NFP is and I think every single woman in the world has a right to know about it - FREE birth control that is HIGHLY effective without any negative side effects. You just can't beat it.

That having been said, this book in particular is a great place to start if you are looking for information on the science and biology behind NFP and how it works, as well as all the study information on its effectiveness. I must admit my husband and I were VERY skeptical at first, and this book gave us all the scientific evidence we needed to be convinced. No other book I've found is as comprehensive as this one in explaining the science/biology behind NFP.

However, there are some problems with this book. If you are not a Christian you will probably find the religious stuff annoying or useless. The authors are devoutly Catholic, but they are writing to all Christians - so this book should be fairly appealing to anyone with a Christian belief system.

I also found the book organized poorly and the index in the back is totally inadequate. It is frustrating to try to find specific facts in the book when going back to use it as a reference. I think this book might be much harder for a lay person to understand without taking an actual class on NFP [which I would recommend anyway].

The bottom line - you can't beat this book for facts, figures, and scientific data, but you will also get a heavy dose of religion and a confusing layout.

My husband, Tony, and I became acquainted with this marvelous book when we learned Natural Family Planning with the Couple to Couple League while we were engaged. Now in the fourth edition, it serves as the textbook for the course.

It contains an easy to understand discussion of the biology of fertility and the application of the rules to find the fertile and non-fertile times of the woman's cycle. About the time a woman ovulates, her basal body temperature will rise about 4/10'ths of a degree, F. She will also notice a change in the cervical mucus and cervix. By charting these signs, a couple can know the limits of the fertile time in any cycle. They can abstain from intercourse accordingly whether they desire a baby or not that cycle. The method is completely reversible.

Also included in the manual are helps for relatively infertile couples seeking pregnancy, discussion of the ecological breastfeeding which spaces babies, as well as nutrition and medication information that affects the fertility cycle.

We were so pleased with the effectiveness (99+%) of the symptothermal method (NOT the old rhythm method at all!) and the effects on our relationship and communication that we decided to become a teaching couple too. We are happy to share this art and science with other couples seeking to space their children in a healthy way.

Julie and Tony Skokna
http://members.aol.com/ChicagoCCL

My husband and I learned to use NFP (7 years and running) using the last edition of this book, but this one is much better. There is more of everything--more science (this is not hocus-pocus, cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best stuff) and lots of information that is related to the method but not actually part of the method. As someone who has had wildly irregular cycles all of my adult life, NFP has been a huge health bonus--I feel that I understand what is happening with my body. (Note: The method is effective even for those with irregular cycles. We have 2 children, and both were conceived on the first try.) This book explains the method so clearly, anyone can have confidence in its effectiveness. It also explains other things like using breastfeeding for natural child spacing. The book, scientific as it is, is rooted in a Catholic view of marriage and sexuality--I feel that that is one of its strengths, but even if that is not your style, you shouldn't avoid this very comprehensive work on an under-appreciated method of child spacing.

I am not a Catholic and I found this book very helpful and enjoyable. As for the instructional purpose of the book -- wonderful! My husband and I kept it at our bedside as our fertility bible both when we were postponing and attempting pregnancy. Because of this book successfully avoided pregnancy the first year of our marriage and then were able to conceive on the first try -- very impressive! We both learned many things about fertility that doctors had never told us and were able to pass on valuable information to friends. We also found our marriage strengthened through reading this book together and became confident about wanting to have our first baby. Although I'm not Catholic, I enjoyed learning what they believe and why because it challenged me to define what I believe about the creation of man and the meaning of marriage and family. It is comforting to find people with convictions about right and wrong who are not afraid to voice them in relation to common practices of our times. (I would have little respect for them if they said they were Catholic and yet spoke nothing about God in relation to having a family!) My only complaint is that I wish more information about early pregnancy was included. And, for the record, the author gives no "admonition" to say morning prayers while taking temps; they only mention that they found it was good time for doing so.

As a protestant minister I want to highly recommend this book. Written from a Roman Catholic perspective, it is technically proficient and highly effective for the aid in conceiving or spacing children. We not only have used this book, but we now help other couples learn the method. It is interesting to note that until 1930 ALL Christian Churches condemned Birth Control as intristically evil, and that most Christian Denominations held to that position until well into the 1960's. This book gives you much to think about from a Biblical and Historical perspective, not just a Roman Catholic position.

I bought this book because of the glowing recommendations I saw for it, and I was not disappointed! In comparison to other NFP books I've seen, these authors are very teaching-focused. The scientific and moral explanation for the method is well-written and thought-provoking, but it is especially the practical step-by-step "how-tos" that make this book stand out above the others. The book is written to serve as a home study course of the sympto-thermal method of natural family planning and teaches charting all three fertility signs: temperature, muscus, and cervix. There are even workbook activities included which offer a chance to interpret a monthly chart and check answers in the back of the book. There are explanations for many irregular cycle variations, which takes the nervousness out of applying fertility rules to the many things (such as illness or traveling) that can cause an unusual cycle pattern. The authors also publish a bi-montly magazine through the Couple-to-Couple League with provides continual supplements to this textbook. Enjoy the marital blessings of the natural family planning lifestyle!!