Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for certain methods used to achieve and avoid pregnancies.  These methods are based on observation of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

NFP is a holistic approach to family planning.  Both husband and wife understand their fertility, emotions, and family planning intention (whether to have a baby or not).  Its successful use to avoid pregnancy relies upon a couple’s following what they know about the method and one another.  Successful use of NFP requires a couple to communicate.  In the daily charting of their fertility signs, couples quickly appreciate their shared responsibility for family planning.  Husbands are encouraged to “tune into” their wives’ cycles, and both spouses are encouraged to speak openly to each other about their sexual desires and their ideas on family size.

Couples using NFP to avoid pregnancy abstain from intercourse and genital contact when the woman is fertile and can conceive.  The total days of abstinence will vary from woman to woman and even from cycle to cycle.  Whatever the length of the fertile phase, no barriers or chemicals are used at any time to avoid pregnancy. To achieve pregnancy couples have intercourse during the fertile time of the cycle.  NFP is not a contraceptive.  It does nothing to suppress or block conception.  Instead, couples adjust their behavior according to their family planning intention using the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of a woman’s cycle

NFP promotes God’s plan for sexual love and recognizes the value of children.  Sexual relations are understood as love-giving as well as life-giving.  It is true family planning.  Because NFP respects the two-fold nature of sexual intercourse, it can enrich the bond between husband and wife.  Indeed, it can be said that NFP promotes the understanding of “self-donation” between spouses.