Irked on a Monday Morning

You know, before I re-embraced my Catholic faith in college (after I had shed my following of Independent Fundamental Baptists), I thought that Catholicism was hokey pokey. This stems from the lack of proper education/information I received while growing up and attending CCD (Religious Education). While IFB, I fully believed that Catholics were evil, the Pope was the Anti-Christ, and all Catholics were damned. I also believed a lot of other heretical thoughts, but have since seen "the light" and come to understand, and love, my Catholic faith even more, and have embraced this true, and holy, faith. Anyways, since then, it has also become my personal crusade to understand more wholly the tenets of the Catholic faith that so many do not understand: the Saints, the Words of Institution spoken by the priest which is the time at which transubstantiation occurs (when the bread and wine become the actual Sacred Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus), the Rites of the Church, Natural Family Planning, and so forth.

Anyways, now that I am married, my husband and I practice Natural Family Planning, seeing as this is the only approved method, asides from abstinence, of preventing pregnancy in the Church. There are so many different kinds of NFP (Sympto-Thermal, Creighton Model, Billings Method, SDM, and more) out there, but it seems that it is not allowed to have its voice, even though scientific data can back up NFP in its claims that it extremely effective when used correctly. And doesn't the FDA require all forms of birth control - be it condoms, the pill, IUDs, rings, etc. - to say they are XX% effective when used correctly?!?! Need I say more? Does anyone else remember the commercial for Yaz, and how it later needed to be, publicly, amended in a another commercial saying the FDA required them to also say "X, Y, and Z about using Yaz?"

NFP is effective, people!

Just because my husband and I chose to try, and God did indeed bless us, with a pregnancy that resulted in our son Collin, and that we chose to try after only a few months of being married does not mean that NFP is ineffective. On the contrary, this proves another valid argument in NFP - that it can also help you to attain pregnancy, by knowing your cycles and phases and when you are fertile and how to accurately predict ovulation. I can still point it out on my chart the exact day my son was conceived. I mean, secular society is producing all sorts of ovulation prediction tests and more to help families achieve pregnancy. NFP obviously knows its thing! My husband and I chose this child, he is NO "oops baby." I had been told by multiple OB/GYNs and our CCL coaching teachers that I was not ovulating, and therefore had fertility issues, and may never be able to have a child. Until.... I saw an NFP-only doctor in St. Charles, Ill. who helped me. It is because of his knowledge of fertility cycles (and NFP made this possible) that my pregnancy was achieved.

Why are all these facts ignored? Why do so many atheists and agnostics, and even Evangelical Christians, nay-say these arguments, especially on top of ample scientific data. Has anyone heard of Creighton University? Or the Pope Paul VI Institute? It is because of the research done there that my doctors knew to test, after confirming my pregnancy, my progesterone levels. And I sincerely believe that because I received progesterone shots throughout my first trimester (because my own levels were so very low) that my pregnancy progressed, and did not result in a miscarriage. Before receiving the shots, I had a significant chance of miscarriage. It is very frustrating for me, as a scientist (I have a B.S. in Chemistry) to see when data, that can be backed up by thorough research, is ignored. And this has been ignored, and for so long!!!

I will never forget how one of my old co-worker's girlfriends became pregnant with their firstborn while she was on the ring. And one of my old OB/GYNs, he and his wife had 10 children. Of those 10, only one was unplanned, and this unplanned pregnancy occurred while his wife was on the pill - they were practicing NFP when they achieved their other 9 pregnancies. Ironic, no? So to those who doubt, who think they are lucky for not becoming pregnant while on artificial birth control - consuming damaging hormones that alter the way our bodies are supposed to work naturally - guess what? You are. Are you taking your birth control correctly? What if you're not?

I took a course on NFP to learn how to use my "birth control." I can, for the most part, claim that I am using this method correctly. The difference is, if I do have an unplanned pregnancy, I will not fear it nor be dismayed, but overjoyed knowing that God has chosen to bless, and increase, our family.

I would challenge those of you who do use birth control to read all the information you can about what you use. For example, did you know that pill eventually leads to infertility? Now, consider why this information is generally smothered. I mean, why isn't this obvious side effect listed??? Why doesn't the FDA require that? Or heck, why isn't pregnancy listed as a side effect as well? I challenge you to think critically and do your research. This is an important thing - it is about LIFE. Didn't you do research before you chose what college to attend? Or in the case of the organic movement, what produce, meats, etc. to buy organically and why? So why not here? Why continue follow the Culture of Death?

God gave us this most wonderful ability to procreate,

to bear children we can love unconditionally,

for whom we would do anything.