Simply put, Natural Family Planning (NFP) is fertility awareness. NFP helps a couple to know more about its fertility by reading the body's signs of fertility and infertility. With this awareness, a married couple can virtuously choose to open themselves to the possibility of the gift of pregnancy, or, as an exercise of responsibility, regulate procreation by spacing the births of their children (CCC 2368). NFP respects both the love-giving (unitive) and life-giving (procreative) nature of the conjugal act, they support God’s design for married love!
You may be recently engaged, married, or looking to learn about NFP in future anticipation of marriage and family life. NFP is a beautiful way to understand the natural rhythm of our bodies and the shared fertility between a husband and a wife by observing simple, biological markers throughout a woman’s cycle. Unlike artificial means of family planning, known as contraception, NFP methods promote mutual respect, love, openness, and a total giving of self while aligning our actions to God’s will and His design for love, sex and family.
Check out the Archdiocese of Baltimore's Marriage and Family Life Page where you will find information on the various methods of NFP, training guides, and couples who will help you live out NFP in a faithful and fruitful way.