Like a Natural Woman

I saw this on A Thing Worth Doing and found it very interesting: Like a Natural Woman. A woman who had previously disagreed with the Church's teaching on artificial contraception found herself drawn to the Natural Family Planning methods for health reasons. After she and her husband began to see the benefits of NFP on her body as well as their relationship, she began to wonder if the Church had been right.

But the turning point came for me as I watched, month after month, as my temperature rose and fell and my hormones marched in perfect harmony. I had no idea I was so beautiful. I found myself near tears one day looking at my chart and thinking, "Truly, I am fearfully and wonderfully made." My fertility is not a disease to be treated. It is a wonderful gift. I am a wonderful gift.

I have been fortunate to know couples who have gone through similar realizations, even with irregular cycles. It's typically prompted by education about the birth control pill's effects and the discovery that there are other couples out there who feel similarly. Still, I wonder if the Church could do a better job at engaging this issue. In the face of so much misinformation, I want to be educated. When I was a student at the university, our priests never really addressed the issue publicly -- that is until a handful of us students asked for more information. Our pastor finally invited an Engaged Encounter couple from Santa Monica to come and speak to the parish about NFP. Thanks be to God.

The teaching of the Church on the regulation of birth, which promulgates the divine law, will easily appear to many to be difficult or even impossible of actuation. And indeed, like all great beneficent realities, it demands serious engagement and much effort, individual, family and social effort. More than that, it would not be practicable without the help of God, who upholds and strengthens the good will of men.

Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, paragraph 20

In related news, Siml Systems has produced a PDA application for charting with the natural family planning Billings Ovulation Method. Apparently the company supports desktop operating systems Windows 98, NT, ME, 2000, and XP, and handheld Palm OS 3, 4, and 5 for the ARM processor. No WinCE or Symbian yet.