Educational Resource
NFP and the Marital Relationship: The Catholic University of America Study (1977)
NFP and the Marital Relationship: The Catholic University of America Study by M. Peter McCusker in International Review of Natural Family Planning, Volume I, Number 4, Winter 1977
Fertility awareness methods of natural family planning involve systems of observing, recording, and interpreting what is happening in a woman's body during her menstrual cycle by means of Basal Body Temperature, the Ovulation (Billings) Method, or the Sympto-Thermal Method to achieve, avoid, or delay pregnancy without drugs or devices.
An important NFP attitude was pointed out in the Billings (1973) study of premenopausal and menopausal women: The couples were instructed that they were free to depart from the method at any time and that a pregnancy would not be considered a "failure" in the minds of their instructors. While in practice most couples probably use a fertility-awareness method to avoid or delay pregnancy, the philosophical underpinnings of NFP suggest that, while a couple are taught about their fertility and how to recognize it, the responsible decision as to how the information will be used rests with the couple alone (Daly 1973).
Proponents claim the natural methods of family planning meet the criteria of Meeker and Gray (1975) for the ideal contraceptive-one that is effective; completely safe, without side effects, simple enough to require minimal intelligence or education, inexpensive, removed from the act of intercourse, completely reversible, and without a distribution problem.
Sister M. Peter McCusker, S.M., R.N., M.S.N., is an instructor in the School of Nursing, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California.