What is NFP (Natural Family Planning)?

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a term for certain methods used to either become pregnant or to postpone pregnancy. These methods are also referred to as Fertility Appreciation or Fertility Awareness Methods. These methods are based on observing the natural fertility signs of a woman's fertile cycle. In a nutshell, couples either have intercourse during the woman's fertile period (to achieve pregnancy), or avoid intercourse (to avoid pregnancy) during her fertile period.

NFP is NOT the Rhythm method. The Rhythm method was based on assuming that a woman would ovulate at or around the same time each cycle, but that is most often times, in accurate. Every woman's body is different. Some women have very irregular cycles. Some women are very regular, with only being off a day or so each cycle. But that day or two can be the difference in achieving pregnancy or not. But almost all women have a cycle that is unusual in length, from time to time.

A woman's body provides 3 basic signs for identifying fertile and infertile phases of her cycle. Recognizing the pattern for these physical signs forms the basis for all of the above mentioned NFP methods.

1. The primary sign of fertility is the mucus released from a woman's cervix. A woman releases different types of cervical mucus (CM) all throughout her cycle. Certain types of mucus are fertile and certain types are not.

2. The 2nd sign, is a woman's basal body temperature. Hormonal activity will cause a woman's resting temperature to vary throughout her cycle.

3. The 3rd sign of fertility is the change in the shape and texture of the cervix.

I avoided pregnancy for a year using these methods. I didn't do well with hormonal types of birth control so I decided to research and try this and it was wonderful. I then got pregnant my first try, when I was ready again. It is really pretty easy to do and you learn a lot about your body in the process.