Rating: Summary: NFP user Review: I cannot say enough good things about this book! I would highly recommend it to anyone who is considering going off artifical birth control. Several reviews mention the tone of the book is preachy, and although the authors do spend a large amount of time on morals and ethics, they are asking people to completely change their thought process from our anti-child, sexually obsessed society, so it does seem necessary. Great book! I would also recommend "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" as a compliment to this.
Rating: Summary: Extremely Good -- Easy to Understand, Complete! Review: This book changed my life! I read it several years ago and have been using NFP without a hitch since then to avoid pregnancy. I find that the sympto-thermal method advocated in this book is just the right method for me because my temperature sign is so clear an indicator of where I am in my cycle. No wonder the method is as effective as the pill! (This method is the only NFP method I know of that incorporates the basal body temperature sign along with other signs of fertility/infertility, and for this reason, I think this method is the best.) This books explains everything so incredibly well and gives helpful suggestions for all kinds of problems that might come up. If you use this book to teach yourself NFP, I would strongly suggest joining the Couple-to-Couple league for a year because they give you free telephone counseling and chart review and are very helpful for learning this method...While this book was written by (and for the most part, for) Catholics who want to be faithful to the teachings of the Church about contraception, it certainly is not useful ONLY for Catholics! And this book is helpful, too, for couples who are trying to conceive rather than to avoid (or delay) conceiving. An all-around excellent resource!
Rating: Summary: Wonderful for women! Review: The Couple to Couple League and the Kippley's truly respect women! Plus NFP costs only a thermometer, some charts, the book and love. It's wonderful to have such respect from my cooperating husband. Anyone who is searching for a boost to their marriage should learn NFP! I love the information in this book, and especially the faithfulness to the Magisterium.
Rating: Summary: Give Yourself and Your Marriage a Boost Review: Practicing NFP has allowed us to understand the gift of my body better, as well as improved intimacy and communication in our marriage. My husband and I have been using NFP for over 6 years to successfully avoid, and then to achieve pregnancy. We learned the method from reading the easy to read book, always knowing we had backup support either from a local NFP teaching couple, via telephone or online. To me, the cross referencing of temperature and bodily signs makes this the most accurate form of NFP. Don't be fooled by other methods!
Rating: Summary: NFP with ease Review: The Art of Natural Family Planning gives wonderful instructions on how to use the sympto-thermal method to deterimine when a woman is in the fertile or non-fertile stage of her cycle. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is concerned with using chemical or barrier contraceptive methods and wants a natural alternative. My husband and I have been practicing NFP for 2 years now and feel blessed by the openess it has brought to our marriage!
Rating: Summary: Highly recommended Review: This is an excellent book and a wonderful resource for couples who currently use NFP or want to learn more. I have used this book and the previous edition for all 10 1/2 years of my marriage. I recommend this book to all. NFP tends to be snubbed by the media, perhaps because it is so straight-forward. I like NFP because it is natural, reversible, logical, effective, and doesn't cause abortions like the pill and other unnatural methods. It is completely compatible with my religious values too.
Rating: Summary: Husbands, please read Review: Like a good chunk of newlywed American Catholics, my wife and practiced artificial birth control at the start of our marriage. However, through what can only be the intervention of God, we soon realized that this was simply not the right thing to be doing. First, the moral aspects of artificial birth control and second, the dangerous side-effects [witnessed firsthand through a family members' medical problems] from long-term pill use was all we needed to start NFP.Though I shouldn't have to qualify this to anyone, the past couple years and even now is simply not the right time to have children. This is only between my wife and I and God, despite well-intentioned but bothersome family, church members and friends who try to prove to us otherwise. On a side note, if I can provide anyone advice on what not to say to couples yet to have children, keep your mouth shut and mind your own business! If I had a dollar for every person who asked "when you having children" I'd be a rich man. Anyway, I digress. Though I firmly believe that artificial birth control is wrong, NFP has not provided the panacea it is claimed to be. First, since starting NFP, my wife and I rarely, if ever, are intimate. After reading through the instructions on NFP, and some calculations done by myself [I'm a math geek], if one does not wish to conceive NFP pretty much gives you 5 or so days a month in which to be intimate. Now, any sensible person would think this is a normal sex life. Well, add in illness, fatigue, work, travel..life and these five days quickly whittles down to none. Now I can already hear the cries of how I'm selfish, hormone-crazed, and generally a bad husband. This becomes pretty apparent when one reads the NFP book from a male point of view. But the reality is, I'm married, I chose not to become a priest or religious, therefore being intimate with my wife is a very normal, healthy part of being a husband. Unfortunately, I really don't see NFP as accommodating this need. Lable me selfish, God-less, unspiritual, whatever, even though I know I'm none of these. However, NFP is having a serious and detrimental effect on my marriage. Is it worth it? I guess it's a cross I have to bear as I refuse to ever use artificial birth control and am not in a position to have children. So I suppose this husband will make do with his "chaste" marriage with the full realization that this simply isn't the way marriage should be.
Rating: Summary: informative, but... Review: This book has a lot of good information, but isn't the right medium for preaching the gospel; God has his own book written for him. The Kippley's should let the Bible do the preaching. The authors should have concentrated on teaching the method (like Dr. Evelyn Billings, for example). The issue here is providing an alternative to current birth contol methods. I am not interested in reading that I sin by having oral sex, or that women who think about abortion should repent. Please, give me a break. I will discuss my sins personally with God, without mediation from the church. (...) Sexuality and the church should be discussed under another title. This book teaches the ovalation method and taking your temparature-a little overdone. In 'The Billings Method: Controlling fertility without drugs or devices', by Dr Evelyn Billings, you and your partner are instructed how to interpret the mucus of your partner. Dr. Evelyn Billings' book is easy to understand and to use, down to earth and simple. Need I say more?
Rating: Summary: Great book for getting to know your body Review: I bought this book when my husband and I were trying to conceive. I learned so much about my body and my cycles that I can't believe I never knew. Thanks to this book, I knew exactly when I was fertile and we got pregnant the first month we tried. Everything I thought I knew about conceiving a child was so wrong. It's amazing how little most of us know about our monthly cycles! I haven't used the NFP method as a means of birth control, but I know people who have and had a very good success rate. The bottom line is, even if you don't plan on using this method for birth control, you can still benefit from this book because it helps you get so in tune with your cycles. Even if you only use it to get pregnant, it's worth the read! I also agree with some of the other reviewers that the religious stuff is a bit heavy. I am Catholic and still rolled my eyes at some of the preachy stuff. But if you can just focus on the biological data, you'll find it so helpful.
Rating: Summary: Don't Miss This Book Review: My husband and I ordered the home study course from the Couple to Couple League and have been practicing NFP for one year. It is great, it works and our marriage has benefited. If you are still skeptical or want more information on a variety of related topics including the legacy of Margaret Sanger, Foundress of Planned Parenthood, go to the Couple to Couple League website at ccli.org. The truth is out there you just have to look for it. Also, med students out there, we desperately need more NFP only doctors!
|