NFP and Birth Control: Worth Talking About
Elizabeth Timpe is passionate about a few things. Postpartum fertility is one. Helping women understand their charts is another. And then there is the one she recently took to the pages of Denver Catholic: Can we please stop calling Natural Family Planning “contraceptive”?
Elizabeth is not afraid to speak about this topic. After years of teaching NFP with her husband, Seth, coaching women and couples, and working with parishes to spread the word about NFP, she has heard enough conversations to know that this phrase is causing some serious confusion. And Elizabeth has plenty of experience to back up her passion.
A Passion
With a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a minor in theology, Elizabeth brings both science and faith to her work helping couples understand fertility. She and Seth have used the Sympto-Thermal Method since they married in 2012 and began teaching CCL’s STM in 2016. They have taught hundreds of couples. Elizabeth also serves as a CCL coach and Fertility Science Institute coach, and she works with parishes and dioceses across several states.
Her passion is personal, too. Elizabeth and Seth began using NFP when they married. Over the years, Elizabeth has experienced four very different postpartum seasons with their four children. Those experiences have given her a particular interest in helping women navigate postpartum fertility with confidence and support.
NFP has also played an unexpected role in Elizabeth’s own health story. Early in her marriage, she noticed that her charts showed lower temperatures and short luteal phases. When she and Seth decided they were ready to start their family, Elizabeth brought her charts to a healthcare provider familiar with NFP. That provider checked her thyroid and discovered early-stage thyroid cancer. Because it was caught early, Elizabeth was able to receive treatment and eventually begin trying to conceive.
Understanding NFP
That experience reinforced something Elizabeth has seen again and again: learning to understand fertility can give women valuable information about their bodies. It is one reason she is so passionate about teaching NFP. Another is the couples she meets.
In her recent Denver Catholic article, “It’s Time to Stop Calling Natural Family Planning ‘Contraceptive,’” Elizabeth tackles a question she says she is hearing more often from young Catholic couples: Can NFP be used with a “contraceptive mentality”?
Elizabeth has encountered couples who hesitate to use NFP to postpone pregnancy because they fear doing so means they are failing to be open to life. Others may feel overwhelmed after having several children in a row because they believe Catholic teaching permits NFP only in extreme circumstances.
A Important Distinction
Her article offers an important distinction. NFP and contraception may both be used when a couple has discerned a reason to postpone pregnancy, but they do not accomplish that goal in the same way. Elizabeth explains that NFP does not interfere with the marital act – neither the unitive nor the procreative. Instead, couples learn to recognize fertility, consider their circumstances and prayerfully discern how God is calling them to respond.
For Elizabeth, that discernment is part of the beauty of NFP. Couples are called to prayerfully and responsibly consider their circumstances and motives while remaining open to God’s will. She believes the phrase “contraceptive mentality” can confuse and discourage couples who are sincerely trying to live Church teaching.
That is Elizabeth’s soapbox. And perhaps it is one worth standing on.
Read Elizabeth’s full article in Denver Catholic. Read Elizabeth’s full article
Why is NFP so important? Take the Natural Plan course for a quick intro. Learn Natural Family Planning – as an engaged couple or as a married couple.
Written by Martha Haenni, Assistant Editor for Family Foundations magazine, a quarterly benefit to our benefactors and supporters.