Natural Family Planning - Zanesville,OH

Hazel,

I have a couple of friends that gor pregnant with that method.
The copper IUD is great for it doesn't have hormones. I had mine put in at planned parenthood and don't recommend them, I got pregnant after 4 months and now I will have 3 children under 3 years of age.

There are many methods of birth control and I do recommend the IUD bc I know it is a very small change that you will get pregnant, I did my research. I think mine wasn't put in properly or it moved somehow...

My mom had 5 pregnancies, one ended in miscarriage, no unplanned pregnancies at all and used this method. My aunt has had 7 pregnancies, has 4 kids with one on the way, two miscarriages, one of those being unplanned, and this last baby being unplanned (unplanned & got pregnant at an "odd time"). The other 4 she planned. Never of them ever used birth control.
I have one child got pregnant during an "infertile" time period.
So out of 13 pregnancies using family planning for a total of approx. 28 years with the three of us combined, 3 pregnancies occured during an "infertile" time period, the other 10 during fertile. And who knows, maybe with those 3 we just cut it too close to the fertile window. I know my one, I do not have completely regular periods...they tend to be 27 days one month and 32 the next. So that could make a huge difference also.
Both my mom and Aunt would tell you to go for it! They are very regular. :)

My husband and I have used natural family planning in order to get pregnant. After trying for over a year, we got pregnant after only three months of practicing NFP.

There is a lot more involved than just being told that from day 1-7=infertile, 8-19=fertile and 20-32=infertile. It doesn't really work that way for most. Women are really only 'fertile' for approximately 24 hours. There are several resources you can find online to help you learn more about the process of Natural Family Planning. There is also a course you can take from the Couple to Couple League International. It is a Catholic organization and they offer courses all over the country and also have a correspondence course that you can take. There is a cost, but if you are financially unable to pay, they will still give you the course to take at home. It is very interesting stuff. I am not Catholic, so I don't necessarily agree with everything they say (though I'm not sure, I didn't read the entire book). So, what I did was just take the nuts and bolts of information and use that. Like, it doesn't matter what religion you are, a woman is still going to have a period and ovulate (unless there is something medically wrong, of course). The course teaches you how to chart your fertility and read the results of the charts in order to avoid or achieve pregnancy.

No method of birth control is 100% though, so this definitely isn't the 'golden ticket' to not getting pregnant. It's still a great resource though. What better way to achieve (if possible) what we want than to know how our bodies work. :)

I hope you find what you need. If you want more info on charting and what it's all about, let me know.

God bless,
A.

Hi Hazel:
Here's the best family planning advice I got from this site: Go to fertilityfriend.com. I've never been good at keeping track of my cycle and this really helped. All you do is put your period dates in the calendar and it will tell you when you're ovulating. Every month in 2007, I blocked out a whole five days around that time (no sex days!), just to be safe. Then, my husband and I decided to try to get pregnant in January and, using the calendar as a guide, it worked! My friends call me "fertile Myrtle," but I really contribute most of our luck to this website. One thing to note -- I've always had a really regular cycle so I could count on the calendar to be somewhat accurate. If you don't, you may want to try some other options like an IUD or something. Good luck!

I have several girlfriends who believe in a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility- should be available at your library or bookstore.

True NFP is not quite that simple. If you are interested, you should probably take a class about it for it to be effective. Otherwise, I would look at other options. NFP involves a lot of looking at your fertile signs and recording your temperatures, etc.

Good luck!
K.

I have one friend that got pregnant using this method and know others that it worked perfectly for...not getting pregnant until they wanted to.

However, I believe there is a lot more to the method than which days you are fertile. You have to chart your cycle every day to understand your particular cycle and to find out when your fertile times are. There are classes that you can take where the instructor will help you to understand the method fully and get started. If you choose this method, I would highly recommend taking a class!

Have you tried a pill with less hormones? I was on OrthoTriCyclinLO and I didn't gain any weight with it. Sometimes you have to take the pill for a few months before your body adjusts to it. I know lots of people that do the natural family planning and they all do it correctly and so far, no unplanned pregnancies. For me, all that charting is just too much work! With every type of birth control there is a chance you'll get pregnant, you just have to decide what works best for you. Talk to your GYN and see what his/her recommendations are. Maybe they have natural family planning seminars in your area. I know several churches and hospitals offer them around here.

it's worked for us ... we have a two year old and don't want another yet... we just use condoms days 10-18 or so. i keep track of cervical mucus too.

I am with you on the not wanting to use pills, so my husband and I have always used condoms for protection and havent had any problems or un planned pregnancies. I am currently pregnant and due in 3 weeks, but we were trying and tried often from the time my last period stopped till I thought I should start again, because I was very irregular. But I do have a friend that had a regular period and got pregnant and when they did an ultrasound to tell her how far along she was, and she did the math, she figured out that she concieved about 3 days after her last period stopped. So I'm basically saying...if you don't want to get pregnant right away again and you don't want to use pills, don't go without protection, because you never know when your actually ovulation is, so use condoms!

I would not recommend this method of birth control. After my second son was born we decided to use this form of birth control, along with condoms and breastfeeding. My daughter is 16 months younger than my son. I would resommend the IUD-the original one without any hormones, it lasts 5-10 years and doesn't have any hormones, which is the reason I got it after my daughter was born. I did have more cramping during menstruation, and heavier periods but I figured that was better tha being pregnant again. When we decided we wanted another baby, I had the IUD removed in December, and got pregnant in February. I always figured that I have enough hormones on my own, and I see no reason to add to those hormones artificially.

I hated having to take the pill everyday and usually missed them. After my second child I used the NuvaRing with no ill effects. It was nice because I only had to worry about it once a month. If you're nervous about natural planning, look into that!