When I first heard about NFP and started seriously considering choosing NFP as a method to avoid pregnancy I remember feeling very alone. It was as though everyone around me in my regular daily life whom I talked to looked at me speechless like I was completely nuts for not just taking the pill to avoid pregnancy like a normal person. Even my incredibly supportive mom, who had never heard of NFP either, was extremely concerned that I’d get pregnant instantly and thereby effectively throw away years of hard work earning my engineering degree and then landing a shiny, fancy aerospace engineering job. I recall sitting down with her one time to try and explain why I felt convinced NFP was the right thing to do. But the truth is, I wasn’t absolutely sure and maybe I was really trying to convince myself…which was pretty unsettling territory for a goal-oriented, extreme life-planner personality like mine. That conversation involved uneasily agreeing that if I did end up getting pregnant then it would be all part of God’s plan and that it was a risk I’d just have to take. (To summarize, most people around me didn’t really believe NFP would actually work as described.)
But back to you.
If I had a person with years and years of experience charting fertility signs right by my side telling me that it really is possible to do NFP “legitimately,” that I would NOT be the only person in the world choosing this lifestyle (because, let’s be real – NFP is kind of an overall lifestyle choice, amiright?) and reassuring me that NFP really does work based on first-hand experience, I might have felt a *little* more at ease embracing it at first. Maybe. My NFP class instructor did offer much of that to some extent, and nothing against her or her (intimidatingly large) family…but to be honest, I just felt like somehow she wasn’t truly relatable, like, out there in the real world. [Ha, what even IS the real world, seriously?] The point is, I just didn’t have a warm fuzzy feeling that there was a “normal person” who was excited about having a career and a “regular life” to point to that said, yes, NFP is for real and I promise you won’t regret it and no, it’s not this huge risk or something only ultra-nature-loving hippies do, and yes, you can sleep peacefully at night knowing you won’t get pregnant instantly (unless you want to, that is!!).
So…I guess what I’m trying to say using excessively run-on sentences is this: if there’s any possibility that, based on my 14+ years of personal experience, I could somehow be a voice of reassurance for you as you learn NFP for the first time, sign me up. For real, NFP works AND it’s amazing (notice I didn’t say it’s easy). As someone “on the other side” who took the leap of faith—after carefully reading stacks of books about this, mind you, INCLUDING all the fine print about the research studies behind the effectiveness claims—I am SO thrilled with how things turned out in my life and I just want to say jump IN! Come with me/us! What are you waiting for?! Let’s do it together. I’d love to help you and I know others who would too. You are NOT alone.
And for the record: I can’t promise that I’m normal…but really, who is “normal” anyway? 😉
For more, check out my getting started guide.
Special love note to fertility awareness beginners: Like anything that is new to you, NFP can seem very confusing at first – I encourage you to get the help you need and not to just give up on it! (insert extra exclamation points about that here: __!!!__) We are talking about decoding your very complex and wonderfully made female body, after all. Let’s chat, hit me up here.