The Art of Natural Family Planning

This is the book on learning how to use NFP.

Be prepared - it is a big book.

It's about an inch thick - and in total there are over 500 pages! But please don't be intimidated by the size of the book.

You don't have to read the entire book to start using NFP.

The first half of the book helps you learn NFP. The second half deals more with special circumstances. You will use it to learn NFP, and you will keep it around as a reference.

This combination is what separates this book from the pack.

The Art of Natural Family Planning is organized into several parts...

Part 1: Introduction & Basics

Here are the chapters covered in Part 1 in The Art of Natural Family Planning:

1. Why NFP? The Practical Reasons
2. Getting Started with Temperatures
3. Getting Started with Mucus
4. Charting
5. How to Interpret your Temperature Pattern
6. Shaving Temperatures
7. How to Interpret your Mucus Pattern
8. Internal Observations and Ovulation Pain
9. Basic Fertility Data
10. NFP Rules: Beginners
11. NFP Rules: Phase 1
12. NFP Rules: Phase 3
13. More on Effectiveness
14. It's not 100%
15. Getting Started & Quick Review

Part 2: Practical Applications Workbook

There are 24 charts in all, from basic to advanced. In each exercise, you are given a real chart and asked to determine the fertile and infertile times.

By doing the exercises, you gain the equivalent of two years experience! You have a chance to start applying the rules as you have learned them. And you also are exposed to a variety of 'difficult' chart situations.

After the sample chart exercises - there is a section with the answers (phew!) and more in depth explanations for each chart.

Part 3: Does God Care about Birth Control?

16. Planning, Providence, and Prudence
17. Your Marriage and NFP
18. Bible and Tradition
19. Theology and Ecology

Part 4: Pregnancy and Postpartum

Here are the chapters...

20. Achieving Pregnancy
21. If you Don't Succeed at First
22. Thy Will Be Done
23. The Return of Fertility after Childbirth
24. Ecological Breastfeeding
25. Ecological Breastfeeding: Return of Fertility

Part 5: Beyond the Basics

In this section, the Kippley's discuss irregular patterns in your fertility. When you're having difficulty interpreting your temperature or mucus signs - this is the section of the book you'll be turning to.

They also cover mucus-only and temperature-only methods and the specific rules. Even though the book focuses on the sympto-thermal method (STM) - which uses both mucus and temperature signs, this section offers you the option of using only one.

Why is this helpful? Even if you use STM on a regular basis, you may find times when either your mucus or temperature sign is difficult to read. Or perhaps, you were not able to make observations for both signs.

For example, I have gone on camping trips where I wasn't taking my temperature (I'm from Alaska - and sometimes even in the summer it can be pretty cold outside). I was pretty sure my temperatures would have been 'disturbed' anyways - so I was only making my mucus observations. At these times, I can flip to this section of The Art of Natural Family Planning, and look for a mucus-only rule to determine the end of my fertile time.

Here are the chapters covered in this section:

26. Mucus-only; Temperature-only
27. Irregular Mucus Patterns
28. Irregular Temperature Patterns

Part 6: Special Situations

Also, the section on Cycle Irregularities is a great reference throughout your NFP years.

The chapters covered here are...

29. Coming Off the Pill
30. Breakthrough Bleeding
31. Cycle Irregularities
*Causes
*Help for irregular cycles
*Anovulatory cycles
*Irregular shedding
*Continuous mucus
*Too little mucus
*Delayed ovulation
32. Miscarriages
33. Premenopause and NFP
34. Pre-Menstrual Syndrome and NFP
35. Pharmaceutical Products and NFP

Part 7: Helping Others

Sadly, too many people think of the rhythm method when they hear natural family planning.

When I told my (former) physician that I was using natural family planning - she laughed at me! She said she couldn't believe "people were still using the rhythm method!" I tried to explain to her how modern NFP was different than the rhythm method - but she didn't want to hear it.

98% of most doctors think that natural family planning is the rhythm method. It is not. Modern natural family planning - which is the sympto-thermal method - is based on your actual fertility signs - not on averages or guesses like the old rhythm method.

This section of The Art of Natural Family Planning will help you understand why many people and doctors don't know the truth about modern natural family planning.

The chapters in this section are...

36. Educating Your Doctor and Your Friends
37. Educating Your Clergy
38. Sharing the Gifts

Where To Purchase The Art of Natural Family Planning?

The retail price on the book is $19.95 - but you can often find it for less through online stores like Amazon.com (where it is less than $15).

You can also purchase the book through the Couple to Couple League's web store. You'll pay the retail price - but if you're looking for a good basal thermometer or NFP charts - you can purchase them all in one place.

The Book on Modern Natural Family Planning

This book will serve as your reference guide to NFP - and I promise you - you will be referring to it regularly.

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