Natural Family Planning

Speaking of Earth Day….

“MATERNITY CARE IN THE UNITED STATES IS IN CRISIS.”

“I saw that nowhere does the tension between technology and nature play out more dramatically than birth.”

This excerpt from director Abby Epstein’s statement on the official movie web site of “The Business of  Being Born”, and I think it’s a tremendous understatement. This film doesn’t just tackle the tension between technology and nature; it shines an interrogation lamp on the corporate and political tug of war that takes place in hospital board rooms and plays out on the fertile field of maternity wards.

I wouldn’t have thought twice about having a “traditional” hospital birth when I have my first child, but I found out that choosing a “traditional” hospital birth now means probably a nice volley of Pitosin and epidural that results in a 43% chance of C-Section–which is major surgery! My favorite part–which is also in the trailer–is when Ricki asks some OB nurses how often they see a natural childbirth (i.e., sans drugs), the question is met with an awkward silence and questioning faces rapidly searching their memories. After the…yes…..pregnant pause, the nurses answer with, right–you got it–”Rarely” and “Almost never.” 

By the way, this film isn’t styled as perfect-pitch journalistic piece, so don’t expect the most balanced account ever. This is a film, and it’s meant to question, to prod, to provoke and instigate a conversation about birthing that hasn’t been taking place.

This vignette is honest, raw and authentic. It made me cry because more than anything I’ve seen about birth–even in the Natural Family Planning World–showed maternity is such a visually visceral way. It showed life as it IS–painful, wry, witty, wonderful, passion-filled, surprising, sexual, gorgeous and embracing. It portrayed midwives as compassionate trained medical professionals, rather than  backwoodsy grannys armed only with hot water, a towel and ignorance. Seeing what midwives go through to get trained (I have a friend studying midwifery right now actually), and seeing their level of preparation and experience, this is something I would be prepared to seriously consider and do when it comes to be my time, God willing.

The only creative smudge on the film was a character flaw of the nurse wife Cara. While I totally respect her profession, her credentials, and her passion, I didn’t dig what seemed to be her primary motivation for being a midwife. She spoke from a fundamentally flawed radical feminist perspective. What I perceived from her is that woman needs to “take back” her uterus and all its associative powers, including childbirth, from men and the Man. There seemed to be a dissonant dialectic between the sexes, rather than an equal and complimentary relationship, as taught in the more authentic feminism of Theology of the Body. Despite the proclivity to proletariat maternity politics, Cara was a very real person, and I liked that about the whole film. It just seemed elegantly real. May I strive to be that–elegantly real–in my daily life, and when it comes to my time for welcoming my first child into the world, may I be as natural and authentic as the women in this film.

Here’s a way to celebrate Earth day that isn’t getting much press: learning Natural Family Planning.

A good friend of mine has this brochure on NFP called, “Go Organic,” which totally plugs my blog–thank you, and it suggests that learning the world’s most underrated method of family planning *might* actually be a super-green thing to do. Here’s an excerpt:

Close your eyes and imagine what makes you feel most in love and the most intimate. If you could step into any love story, any romantic landscape, what would you find yourself surrounded by and who would be there? Ask a hundred women that same question, and the answer would be strikingly similar.
No one ever says “I’d like to be alone,” “I like being an object instead of a person,” or “I’d like to be
depressed, gain weight, more irritable and increase my risk for cancer.” No. They imagine being
with someone, feeling loved and being healthy. They imagine candles, lovely music, genuine embraces, honest words and laughter. The love and need for intimacy without barriers is deeply rooted
in us all.

Our bodies are made beautifully. We are living masterpieces, kaleidoscopic perpetual miracles on our own, without anything extra. That’s the way we were made to live and to love—without barriers, without chemicals, or additives. Imagine a wide open landscape of love. Imagine holding nothing back. Natural Family Planning (NFP) is 100% organic, based in fertility awareness and appreciation. Your fertility is a gift, not a disease, and NFP is the all natural way to embrace it. Best of all, NFP is cooperative. Women don’t bear the burden and the side effects alone. No, the only side effects are increased communication, greater mutual self-knowledge and respect, self resolve and poise, healthy body, more romance and greater intimacy. Welcome to NFP.

Doesn’t it seem interesting that we’ll go to great lengths to ensure our meat, dairy and other grocery products are “all natural” and hormone free, but then we’ll turn around and ingest, poke or patch our bodies with all sorts of synthetic hormones, the ramifications of which we’re still discovering?

Check out these articles, both secular and religious, which talk about the grave effects we’re seeing in the environment because of the residual effects of drugs–particularly chemical contraceptives. Now, if the human side effects don’t trip you out, perhaps libidoless intersex fish will grab your attention. No more fish frys, you Midwesterners! Colorado biologist John Woodling, speaking to the Denver Post in 2005 said, It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me.” We’re not talking one freak fish here; it’s a significant problem, a problem so significant that in a couple months, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists Association will begin a major public-awareness campaign regarding contamination that’s resulting from soaps and pharmaceuticals, including birth control. (Reference NC Register article above.)

Am I giving a clarion call to mob the pharmaceutical companies? No, but at least when people jump on the Green Trend Train (and even for those pre-trend greenies), they should consider Natural Family Planning as a way to reduce their environmental impact and increase the intimacy. Give it a try!

Numbers of those in the helping professions and vocations (nursing, teaching, law enforcement, priesthood, missionary work, etc.) has been plummeting for years. Recently, though, some companies, like Johnson & Johnson and Tylenol*, are helping to revitalize some these sacrificial career fields by offering scholarships and programs to encourage, promote and support those wanting to enter the health field.

SO WHY IS THIS ON THE NFP BLOG?

Great question. Well, the good news is that we are experiencing an increase in interest in NFP from Catholics and Non-Catholics alike, but the bad news is that we don’t have enough teachers. The good news is that we’ve had some people (though not quite enough) express interest in teaching, but the bad news is that sometimes we can’t cover the costs of training, particularly for the medical methods of NFP (Marquette & Creighton).

So, are you or somebody you know thinking about teaching NFP but cost is a barrier? Check out the above links, or keep me posted on more opportunities like this.

* (This post in no way is represents or supports the public or private ventures of Tylenol and Johnson & Johnson corporations. We are grateful for their philanthropy, though.)

Science Consciousness blog posted an entry recently on a study published about the Standard Days Method of Natural Family Planning, which is widely promoted by the Georgetown University Medical Center’s Institute for Reproductive Health.

Some of the interesting points to be noted in the study, which will not come as a surprise to those familiar with NFP’s fruits and successes, is that the men were very supportive of this family planning method. This builds consensus in a relationship, which strengthens marriages. Hence,a huge contributing reason for lower divorce rates with NFP couples (and not, as suggested, due to the Catholic moral browbeating).

 All in all, it seems to be an objective and positive review of this particular method of NFP: “These studies were conducted in a wide variety of cultural settings, but in all of them, men found the method easy to use and most stated that they planned to continue using the Standard Days Method and would recommend it to others.”

Of all things causing the most vitriolic comments on this blog has been my use of the phrase “evil incarnate.”

“It’s evil organized and incarnate at worst, and cognitive dissonance at best.”

Another opposition favorite to pick on is,

“I mean really, do these people hate themselves, because it seems to me that unless they were dropped from another planet, they themselves were children once, and oops–thank you to the “fertility idolaters” that were their parents!”

First, I’m going to say something long overdue, knowing full well this doesn’t mean much to those embittered by my words and clinching their own acrimony.  With the utmost sincerity, I’m sorry that my words and stinging criticism of a lifestyle I disagree with caused so much misunderstanding and scorn (and in a couple cases, blasphemy, profanity and death threats for those backing me up). I’m sorry you felt my words to be a verbal sword through your very person, an attack on your very way of life and a sort of moral graffitti on the edifice of your choices.

I never meant for my post to be a personal indictment on the souls of readers. Indeed, as so many of you quoted to me, “Thou shalt not judge.” Although I can never judge a person, the state of their soul and their eternal destiny, I can judge their actions. When the Lord says that we shouldn’t judge, he doesn’t mean that we should be indifferent to evil. No, we entrust people who perform evil actions to the mercy of God, forgive them, but denounce those actions which are contrary not only to the law of God, but the natural law, accessible with reason alone.

I took a walk through the dictionary (insert sarcastic comments about my spelling here, thank you, haha), just to see if the words I said did, in fact, express what I was trying to say.

1 a: morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked <an evil impulse> b: arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct <a person of evil reputation>2 aarchaic : inferior b: causing discomfort or repulsion : offensive <an evil odor> c: disagreeable <woke late and in an evil temper>3 a: causing harm : pernicious <the evil institution of slavery> b: marked by misfortune : unlucky

Yup, that’s what I was trying to say. Rejecting the very principle of life bearing in the act of sex or perhaps referring to children as “flesh terds” or “crotchfruit” is considered sinful. I believe Sigmund Freud–not a friend of religion–observed,

“The abandonment of hte reproductive function is the common feature of all sexual perversion. We actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it.”

Gandhi goes further, saying that contraceptive methods [and by extension the voluntary sterility of the Childfree movement] are

“like putting a premium on vice. They make men and women reckless. Nature is relentless and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws…If [contraceptive] methods become the order of the day, nothing but moreal degradation can be teh result. As it is, man has sufficiently degraded woman for his lust, and [contraception], no matter how well meaning the advocates may be, will still further degrade her.”

I know that I tread on the sacred ground of secular fundamentalism when I criticize the accepted tenets of universal choice, sterility and moral relativity. I don’t intend to back down from my beliefs because someone is “offended” by “my” truth. Was I unkind and imprudent with my choice of words in the past? Absolutely, and for that I am truly sorry. But I am not sorry discerning and saying that an intentially sterile act of sex is what it is–unnatural, immoral and an intrinsically evil act (differentiated from calling someone evil).

A couple more notes: If you don’t agree with me, fine. Feel free to comment in a civil manner. I will stick to the same guideline from now on as well. Don’t write something profane and asinine and then act surprised when I delete it. I will do my best to respond to reasonable comments, but once comments get into the many dozens per day, I may not comment back as rapid-fire as they come.

Happy blogging and commenting. See you on the dance floor.

NFP gets into the mainstream news as an alternative to contraception. Thanks, Salt Lake.

See the video here.

Thank you for all the comments. Several of you have commented about my lack of response to the comments here, so here’s my comment:

Thank you for your sometimes and somewhat indignant concern.

It turns out I’ve been out of town, and much like many of you I’ve got other things on my plate other than writing edgy and controversial blog entries, much less answering each and every of the dozens of comments. I’ve been able to respond to a few, but otherwise have been occupied. Stay tuned for another entry that will attempt to respond to many of the comments posted on the Child-free Post from several weeks ago.

A couple notes for commentors on this blog, particularly for those on the “Childfree: Selfishness Incarnate, etc.” entry below:

 1) Dialogue guidelines. Here I’ll quote from  one of my favorite bloggers: A Note to Visitors:
“Please share your comments! Note, however, that civility is considered a higher good than First Amendment rights here. Incivility will be uncivilly suppressed. Welcome to Our Kingdom! Enjoy your stay. “

Therefore any direct attacks on any one person, usage of f**k or similar words (or their thinly veiled abbreviations) will be deleted. I like and use profanity privately on certain occasions, but not in a civil discussion. If that’s a problem for you or you think it’s prudish or whatever, don’t comment here.

 2) I value your comments. Seriously, and not for any reverse psychology-I-love-you-because-I-hate-you-reasons. I spend my time around a lot of people who agree with me, so how does that stretch me? Hardly at all, which is why I like a place where I can agree to disagree and converse with people.

3) I’ve had a seriously crazy week, so I’ve not gotten a chance to comment and respond to some of the more  pointed questions, comments and rational responses. I really particularly want to comment on breast cancer, Natural Family Planning as being backwards, some of the intolerance and attacks on my God and my Church, and some people who shared some beautiful and very personal stuff, which I totally appreciate. And I will do this.