Opinion Articles

SOUL MATTERS: Conceiving can be as natural as riding a cycle
By Marie Owen
Marie Owen is the diocesan natural family planning co-ordinator, Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

There is another easier way for couples to go, says Marie Owen.

A recent report in The Herald (14/10/06) indicated that many couples assume that when they decide that the time is right, they can expect that conceiving a child will be quick and trouble-free. In fact, the report claimed, one in six couples will have an infertility problem. The options offered in this situation are invariably complex and involve difficult decisions made under pressure of an increasingly narrow window of opportunity.

An area not always considered by those advising in this difficult situation is natural fertility awareness and reproductive health through natural family planning.

Did you know that methods of natural family planning help couples not only to space their children, but to conceive? A woman’s chart ‘tells a story’ and a recent Australian study found a pregnancy rate of 60% in couples who had tried to conceive over a twelve month period.

These days it is not unusual for couples to have children through in vitro fertilisation, when there are difficulties conceiving naturally. For most, despite the anticipated happy outcome (or outcomes!), the procedure is intrusive, fraught with stress, expensive and of course, there are no guarantees. Strain can be placed on otherwise happy relationships, and meanwhile, it seems that ‘everyone else’ is conceiving children ‘naturally’.

Natural family planning has no costs, no side effects and promotes the loving co-operation of both partners. It is a private choice which, once a method is learned, need not involve anyone beyond the couple.

Natural family planning also allows a couple to regulate fertility while the mother is breastfeeding, providing a totally natural experience for both mother and baby.

Further ‘down the track’, when issues and concerns change, natural family planning allows a woman to manage menopause naturally, without recourse to doctors or prescriptions. This is an area of women’s experience which is so often ‘medicalised’ but this need not happen.

The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle promotes natural family planning as a way of increasing couples’ knowledge and understanding of fertility and conception. Natural family planning and the Church’s information service are freely available to all. Private consultations can be arranged if preferred.

A postcard being distributed locally depicts “Women cycling naturally” with a gorgeous painting of three smiling women riding whatever you call a bicycle for three – a tri-cycle?  A trendy young thing leads, followed by her pregnant sister with toddler in tow, and an older woman brings up the rear. This rather whimsical image conveys the eternal truth that women do ‘cycle naturally’. Women – and their partners, daughters and sons, and friends have much to gain from recognising this fact and working with it, rather than against it.

Visit http://www.mn.catholic.org.au/diocesan/natural_family_planning.htm  or phone 4979 1196 to learn more.