Thursday, 16 February 2012 14:47

Judith Leonard is following up an article published in the Catholic Advance late last year with a video presentation that may help women realize and understand little known dangers of the most common contraceptive used in the United States.
Leonard, director of the diocesan Family Life and Natural Family Planning Office, informed women in November about the cancer risks of taking estrogen-progestagen containing drugs. She is now promoting a two and a half minute video “commercial,” produced by the Catholic Advance that contrasts a young woman’s emphasis on eating healthful food with her unsuspecting ingestion of chemically hazardous contraceptive pills.
The video explains that Natural Family Planning not only avoids the many dangerous side-effects of the pill while very effectively preventing pregnancy, it also enriches the relationship and communication between a husband and wife.
“Many studies have shown that NFP, properly used, is as or more effective than the pill,” Leonard said, “and women don’t have to worry about the physical effects on their body and the spiritual effects on their marriage.”
There are several methods of NFP available with extensive studies indicating a 98 to 99 percent effectiveness when used properly, she said. Its very effectiveness in preventing pregnancy can be used in reverse to overcome fertility problems when seeking pregnancy. “NFP couples know when they are most fertile.”
Leonard said one of the benefits of NFP is that a husband does not see his wife as a sex-object, as can happen with contraception methods.
“Couples who use natural family planning must communicate with each other about their relationship,” Leonard said. “Husbands using NFP are educated about their wife’s fertility cycle and both are motivated to work together to utilize nature’s timing to achieve the couple’s goal.
NFP couples learn what it means to be truly intimate, she said, because they learn to express their love for each other non-sexually when they are abstaining from marital relations. “That intimacy also results in an extremely low – less than 4 percent – divorce rate”, Leonard added. “One reason might be because couples who use natural family planning might have a closer relationship to begin with,” she said, “but the communication they must have with one another to use any of the NFP methods makes their bond much stronger.”
Leonard said, “Interestingly, abstinence seems to carry its own special reward. Many couples report enjoying a ‘honeymoon period’ each month after abstinence.”