Christmas has had a good run at the Antenucci house, where the glistening tree and framed family photos with Santa went on display even before Thanksgiving.
It’s mere coincidence that the red-and-green charts in the bedroom perfectly complemented the home’s festive theme, but an appropriate one, considering that the White Plains couple credits the fertility-tracking diagrams for their greatest gifts: 2-year-old Matteo and 5-month-old Olivia.
“Now, we have our two angels for Christmas,” said Michelle Antenucci, 33, smiling as her baby daughter grabbed at the folded spreadsheets.
The colorful charts illustrate their use of the Creighton Model – one of the Natural Family Planning techniques that are the Catholic Church’s only permitted form of birth control – because it allows a couple to remain open to the possibility of creating new life. In recent years, the Archdiocese of New York and local instructors say these traditionally faith-based methods have started appealing to couples motivated by scientific results, despite skepticism from their doctors.
So nice to see a positive article on Creighton. Those doctors who are devoting their time and energy to natural fertility enhancement are to be commended. It’s just sad that within the wider medical community there is comparatively little interest.
Incidentally, Creighton relies on well-trained laymen (in medical terms) to teach couples how to apply the method. It’s a much more user-friendly system than many medical practices but no less professional (most of the teachers use Creighton themselves). Also, Creighton serves not only to enhance and regulate fertility, but to improve understanding of an individual woman’s cycle and can be a very helpful diagnostic tool for many medical conditions.
My wife and I taught Natural Family Planning for the Couple to Couple League for many years http://www.ccli.org and I am convinced that the Anglican waffle on Birth Control in the 1930’s is the gateway to our other sexual moral problems in and out of the Church today. Trying to willfuly separate the divinely appointed purposes for the marital embrace (unitive and procreative) is akin to trying to justify serial monongamy or calling distorted expressions of human sexuality ‘normal’ or even a ‘blessing’.
Remember that anti-birth control laws in this country were protestant legislation, and when Lambeth opened the door to artificial means of birth regulation in the 1930’s, it was not only Rome (encyclical Costi Cannubi) but the Protestant Churches in the USA that condemned it. The Slippery Slope……
My husband and I practiced NFP (as taught by Couple to Couple League) for most of our married life together. (We are not Roman Catholics.) We have two children, spaced 3.4 years apart. We practiced baby-led weaning, natural child spacing, and most times found ourselves in “the family bed” when our sons were small. We were also open to more children, but after a couple of miscarriages I think one or both of us became less fertile.
I wish more couples would consider natural family planning. It’s healthier in many ways and I would think that those who are so concerned for the environment would discover it . . . but, alas, they are jumping on the “children make more carbons” bandwagon and looking down at folks who are having kids.
Last year, after I found out that the Pill also serves as an abortifacient, I quit taking it immediately. I am disturbed that the university gynecologist who prescribed it for me did not explain how it worked (by not just suppressing ovulation but by keeping a fertilized egg from implanting as well). I realize now I shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m still disturbed. Around the same time I quit the Pill, I heard about NFP for the first time. Hubby agreed that it would be a good idea to try NFP and I also discovered the added bonus of not having unnecessary hormones pumped into my body.
Shortly after we switched to NFP, we also became open to the idea of having children (I think there’s a link there…). We’re expecting a baby boy in about 2 weeks. I’m also happy my OB encourages the use of NFP among other good things he does, we are very blessed to have found him.