Tide of Emotions

A couple who practices natural family planning (NFP) may experience a tide of emotions with regard to a pregnancy test.

Let's say a couple is practicing NFP to avoid pregnancy. In a moment, a very specific point in time, their interaction with each other is more deep and meaningful than any other: real sacramental supernatural stuff.

But the chart shows a white baby sticker after day 3 green baby sticker.  Hmmm..."That peak day came way earlier than any other...perhaps this is a double peak situation." For readers not familiar with the Creighton Method of NFP that day is interpreted as a day of fertility. The couple took a chance to achieve pregnancy.  Yet the days leading up to it were signs of ovulation come and gone.

From NaPro Instruction Manual depicting different fertility situations

As beings made to live in the present their hearts are open to where the Holy Spirit leads them.  And in that moment it was to each other.  They have a sense of peace about their time spent together as opposed to feeling unsettled about abstaining for the sake of avoiding pregnancy.  (As a side note here:  NFP couples should not feel unsettled for abstaining but I only say that to emphasize the clarity of their experience.  And let's be honest, they're not all created equal.)  They reflect on what the possible outcome may be.  Yet, beyond that moment, this couple talks about how confident they are that God is still not calling them to try co-creating during these months of their lives.

Many couples do not realize the possibility a woman is pregnant until she misses her period.  Oppositely, NFP couples have to wait until they know they are at a point that finally the early pregnancy tests could detect pregnancy hormones.  During that wait there may be conversations of what an additional family member would mean for them, baby names, and the like.  One or the other may get distracted envisioning a child and the new family dynamic.   



And then...

  
..."OH. Um...whew...I guess. We really dodged a bullet??"

The result above elicits a mixed reaction.  The couple doesn't celebrate with relief.  The ideas they had about the future are dismissed.  They are not necessarily disappointed.  They weren't trying to get pregnant in the first place.  An outcome they did experience is a strengthening and growth of their relationship by having trust in each other and in God.  This is the beauty of Natural Family Planning.