The Top 5 Challenges Of Natural Family Planning

By Dustin Riechmann posted Sep 9th 2010 10:31AM

Natural Family Planning has its challenges. I've shared the story of our journey to Natural Family Planning (NFP) and made a really big deal about the benefits of NFP for marriage. I've shared an informational video, explained what Natural Family Planning is in my own words, and talked about how technology can work with such a natural method of planning a family. I've even encouraged an artsy-fartsy Protestant woman to share her own thoughts on NFP.

Do I love Natural Family Planning? Yep, guilty as charged. But I also understand why NFP is practiced by less than 5% of couples in their child-bearing years. If Natural Family Planning were the easy choice, everyone would use it, right? Well, probably not, but I recognize the challenges of using NFP because we live with them every day. Engaged Marriage is a place for no-B.S. information on topics that effect your marriage, and your family planning choices are certainly a big issue. And so, in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I present to you the top five challenges of using Natural Family Planning.

1. NFP is Misunderstood by Others Trust me when I tell you that this is a big one. It can be very frustrating to be pigeonholed as some mindless, Pope-worshiping, chauvinist, old-fashioned father of 20 children whenever someone hears that you practice Natural Family Planning. Fortunately, with so much good information being spread online and through new communities, some of the die-hard myths about NFP are finally starting to be broken down and replaced by the truth. Here are a few examples in case you were curious:

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Dustin Riechmann

Marriage Educator

Dustin Riechmann provides practical advice for busy couples looking to get more from life at Engaged Marriage.

He also helps busy couples improve their physical health and rock their marriages in the process at Fit Marriage and through his podcast at The Fit Marriage Show. Check it out and get access to the growing library of free training programs and motivational tools in the Ready, Set, Go! Blueprints.

Location: Glen Carbon, IL

Credentials: MS

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