The Impact of Natural Family Planning on Selected Aspects of the Couple Relationship (1984)

The Impact of Natural Family Planning on Selected Aspects of the Couple Relationship by Thomasina Borkman and Mary Shivanandan in International Review of Natural Family Planning, Volume VIII, Number 1, Spring 1984

In this paper, the impact of natural family planning (NFP) on certain aspects of couple relationships is considered. This paper is based on a secondary analysis of the same data set we had ex­plored in a paper for the International Symposium on NFP in Los Angeles, June 1982. The source of our data was the interviews of teacher-users and NFP users conducted by Mary Shivanandan for her book, Natural Sex. The sample was limited to experienced and satisfied users. 

In the first analysis, we looked at whether or not couples took joint responsibility for method-use and its relation to satisfaction with abstinence. We also explored a new way of conceptualiz­ing "difficulty with abstinence." (Borkman & Shivanandan 1982) 
In today's paper, we look in greater detail at NFP benefits often reported in testimonials, especially fertility awareness, com­munication, the sexual relationship, intimacy, and the religious/ spiritual dimension. 

Thomasina Borkman, Ph.D., is associate professor of sociology at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Mary Shivanandan, M.A., is director of KM Associates, communication and research consultants in NFP. She is also the author of Natural Sex which was first published in 1979 and has been re­published in 1983 under the title Challenge to Love. Their paper is based on one presented at the Second International Symposium on NFP, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 22-25, 1983.

intl-review-nfp-1984-borkman-and-shivanandan-the-impact-of-nfp-on-couple-relationship.pdf