CCL of Denver

July 24, 2002

Natural Family Planning: Changing Couples' Lives

Teaching-couple's marriage a testimony to blessings of NFP

By Colleen Conlin

Since Dec. 31, 2000, natural family planning (NFP) has been an integral session of marriage preparation in the Archdiocese of Denver. The method is a morally acceptable way to postpone or achieve pregnancy based on an awareness of a woman's fertility through the interpretation of certain biological signs that indicate fertile and infertile times.

It is not the fabled "Calendar Rhythm Method" that was developed in the 1930s based on biological averages. Rather, NFP is the result of intense scientific study of the intricacies of female fertility, which has led to a technique perfectly suited to each individual woman and her cycle. It has a 99 percent effectiveness rate (the same as birth control pills and Norplant) in postponing pregnancy. It also has helped numerous couples with lower fertility to achieve pregnancy. Today more and more couples are discovering natural family planning and with it a world of positive change and growth in their relationships.

Rob and Sandy Polocz have been married for five years and have been teaching classes on NFP both in English and Spanish since last July.

NFP has been "a priceless experience in preaching the Gospel," Sandy said. The couple's marriage has been a testimony to the blessings that accompany natural family planning in many ways.

"When I was 12, I was put on the birth control pill to regulate my cycle and avoid the possibility of endometriosis," Sandy said. "It wasn't until Rob and I were married that I learned what being on the pill had done to my body." After suffering a miscarriage, a baby they named "Hope," they began to look at natural family planning more closely.

"After the first class of NFP we learned the real truth behind contraceptives and what the pill really does to prevent pregnancy," Rob said. In addition to altering the natural hormonal cycles of a woman, the pill can also act as an abortifacient. When the pill has not successfully stopped ovulation and fertilization occurs, the pill will then prevent the newly conceived life from implanting in the uterine wall and it will be flushed out, thus aborting the pregnancy.

"It was unbelievably painful to learn that we may have caused the miscarriage of our child," Sandy said. "We just did not know; no one had ever told us these things."

After learning natural family planning, the couple hoped to achieve another pregnancy and they soon did. They delivered a beautiful and healthy son, Paul.

"I had grown up thinking that my cycles were irregular and that achieving pregnancy could be difficult for me, but we conceived Paul with absolutely no problems," Sandy said. "It is amazing to see that the same method works for each and every individual woman. It is based on her cycle, her timing. What is seen as the normal 28-day cycle is actually not normal for every woman. Natural family planning is tailor-made to fit each couple."

Rob and Sandy have noticed more than just the physiological benefits of NFP.

"Our communication has grown tremendously since practicing NFP. It has equipped us with a vocabulary to talk about our sexuality that we never had before," Rob said. "It gave us tools to communicate. Sexuality used to be something that we did, not something that we lived."

Sandy said she has noticed a difference in their marital intimacy.

"Now I feel like my husband's equal partner and cherished wife, not a sexual object that should be available all the time," she said. "With contraception involved in our sexual relations, the love factor did not always have to be there."

One of the engaged couples in the Poloczs' class is Michaela Archambault and Michael Montour, who will be getting married this December.

"I went in pretty skeptical, thinking they were going to be teaching the rhythm method," Michaela said. "I was surprised to find out that it wasn't the rhythm method at all; it was scientifically based and I ended up learning a lot about my own body."

NFP has opened communication in their relationship, Michael said, and led him to feel more involved.

Since learning natural family planning, they have decided that it is definitely something they plan on utilizing in their marriage.

Since they have started teaching NFP, the Poloczs have seen class sizes more than double. Their hope, the couple said, is to help renew chastity throughout the world one couple at a time. NFP is both a science and an art, they said, noting that the science is the method and the art is applying it to your marriage.

"The more we teach it, the more we affirm our own faith and see how our faith supports natural family planning," Sandy said.