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Summary: The most complete book about Natural Family Planning.
Review: I read the 4th edition of Natural Family Planning and enjoyed every word I read. I have always practiced natural family planning, but this was the most extensive and well written book on the subject that I have read. Using my natural fertility signs I have been able to get pregnant three times without any intervention. This book will appeal to you if you are looking for more than natural family family as well. It inlcudes chapters on breastfeeding, natural child spacing, scriptures from the Bible, health and nutrition, menopause, pregnancy and marital relationships. The method is Biblically based and is written by two authors who have practiced this method. This book really opens your eyes to what the other Doctor's and experts fail to tell you. I highly recommend reading the Natural Family Planning book even if you haven't even gotten married yet!
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Summary: The Kippleys know more about our bodies than most doctors!
Review: This book provides a clear guide to reproductive cycles and the many things that can affect them. I have found this book to be a fantastic source for information on breastfeeding, avoiding conception, and achieving pregnancy. There are times that my doctors couldn't answer my questions but this book did! This book was our introduction to NFP and helped us to avoid pregnancy for the first 9 months of our marriage, then to achieve pregnancy within 1 cycle. The sympto-thermal method is accurate (when done correctly), moral, and easy to understand. While many women might see the premise of this book (artifical birth control is harmful, both morally and physically) as hard to swallow, I suggest that they give NFP a chance. Since artifical contraception does not require the consent of both involved parties, either partner can make a decision to avoid contraception without the consent of the other person involved. Sexual union, instead of becoming a mutual joining, becomes selfish. Even when both parties agree that contraception is ideal, the burden of implementation falls onto one partner. This is not true of Natural Family Planning, which requires that both partners understand the signs of fertility and work together -- either to avoid pregnancy or to conceive. Women who use NFP understand their bodies and their fertility cycles. Though many claim that the Pill is freeing, women who use NFP are actually more free to make informed decisions about sexual activity and more able to communicate their desires for children or postponement of conception than are those in relationships that rely on artificial means of birth control. This book explains the sympto-thermal method accurately and provides a good basis for women to understand the functioning of their bodies -- both when they wish to become pregnant or when they wish to avoid pregnancy, with no harmful side effects and a few good ones!
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Summary: The Art of Natural Family Planning is an excellent resource!
Review: This book is a must if you are postponing or planning a pregnancy. It provides moral, natural and highly effective information. The Art of Natural Family Planning uses the observable signs of fertility. By using this information, couples can decide monthly to avoid or try to achieve a pregnancy. This book treats a womens fertility as a postive thing, not as something to be controlled. Information on irregular cycles, beginning menopause, and postponing pregnancy while breastfeeding is also included in this book. The Art of Natural Family Planning shows how Natural Family Planning (NFP) is safe, inexpensive, and effective. We first used this method to postpone pregnancy for almost three years. Currently we have achieved a pregnancy on the first try using this method. We will continue to use this method to space the births of other children.
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Summary: Excellent book and an excellent method of birth control.
Review: My husband, Tony, and I became acquainted with this marvelous book when we learned Natural Family Planning with the Couple to Couple League while we were engaged. Now in the fourth edition, it serves as the textbook for the course.
It contains an easy to understand discussion of the biology of fertility and the application of the rules to find the fertile and non-fertile times of the woman's cycle. About the time a woman ovulates, her basal body temperature will rise about 4/10'ths of a degree, F. She will also notice a change in the cervical mucus and cervix. By charting these signs, a couple can know the limits of the fertile time in any cycle. They can abstain from intercourse accordingly whether they desire a baby or not that cycle. The method is completely reversible.
Also included in the manual are helps for relatively infertile couples seeking pregnancy, discussion of the ecological breastfeeding which spaces babies, as well as nutrition and medication information that affects the fertility cycle.
We were so pleased with the effectiveness (99+%) of the symptothermal method (NOT the old rhythm method at all!) and the effects on our relationship and communication that we decided to become a teaching couple too. We are happy to share this art and science with other couples seeking to space their children in a healthy way.
Julie and Tony Skokna
http://members.aol.com/ChicagoCCL
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Summary: Every woman should read this book!
Review: This book is the "bible" of Natural Family Planning (NFP)---NOT the "rhythm method," but a proven method of monitoring a woman's cycle signs to determine when her "window of fertility" begins and ends. It can be upwards of 95% effective! This book is used as a textbook for the Couple to Couple League International NFP course. It's the best book for a "beginner" to buy---and it will guide you through your entire reproductive life. There's an extensive section for "beginners" and a chapter on the special charting needs of women just quitting the Pill. It explains how to use your fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy, as well as how to beat marginal infertility. It tells how to know you're pregnant and how to maintain infertility during breast feeding, as well as how to tell when you become fertile again. Finally, it explains how to chart all the way through menopause. There is plenty of info about the effects of nutrition and pharmaceuticals on your cycles too! While the technical information will help anyone, the book is particularly well-suited for Christians as it has sections which delve deep into the morality of family planning. But non-Christians shouldn't be scared off either---this is simply the best book around for learning how to use your natural body signs to prevent or achieve pregnancy, no matter what your reasons. My husband and I use this method, and we think our marriage and my health is better for it.
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Summary: NFP - Healthy and Effective!
Review: This information-packed book is a must for couples who wish to understand the gift of their fertility. It gives the reader an excellent understanding of Natural Family Planning. This is not the "rhythm method", but a method based on observation of one's own pattern of fertility. As a woman, I particularly was pleased to develop an awareness of my body's natural cycles. This method is exceptionally useful for women, like me, who have irregular menstrual cycles. The authors cite moral, religious, health and environmental reasons to support the use of Natural Family Planning. They also provide ample information demonstrating why the sympto-thermal method of NFP gives a woman all the tools she needs to determine her fertile time, whether she is seeking pregnancy or to avoid a pregnancy. The effectiveness of this method approaches or exceeds that of the Pill, without the health risks for the woman or baby. I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: Most complete book available
Review: Most previous reviewers agree that this book has what they are looking for, possibly mixed with some things they aren't. Don't all reference books include things we're not looking for? With any other text, we happily skim through the information not pertinant to ourselves and weed out the information we already know. It's easy enough to do with this book too. I guess the controversy surrouning the "extras" make it an issue with this book, but like it or not, the "extra" stuff is indeed related to the main topic at hand and not out of place in the text.
This book was written specifically for those of the Catholic faith, and does indeed have the appropriate religious slant that other reviewers mention. It was also written for the "Dr. Sears groopies," as I like to call them, who believe in nursing-on-demand, the family bed, etc. It was ALSO written for anyone looking to understand the female fertility cycle in its entirety. It covers this topic in every possible way, leaving NOTHING out. After all, they're trying to convince a generation of contraceptive users to quit popping pills, and instead believe whole-heartedly that using the current scientific understanding of the female fertility cycle is enough to avoid pregnancy. This is not something that can be attempted with just SOME information. I've seen other books that only include part of what's necesary (apparently the authors think it's enough for you to know) and I've seen people give up on studying this topic as a result. Even if you're not Catholic, and/or not a "Dr. Sears groopie," you will still get more information that you ARE looking for from this book than any other.
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Summary: This NFP book is clear, complete, easy, and VERY effective!
Review: I taught myself the sympto-thermal method (STM) of NFP 5 years ago by using this book. My cycles were so irregular -- varying from 24 to 54 days -- and the "symptoms" of my infertile periods used to be minimally existent (advise from both this book and the organization that serves as "customer support" for this book -- the Couple to Couple League -- helped me figure out how to "straighten out" my cycles and fertility signs), so other methods of NFP didn't work very well for me and I had to rely very heavily on the temperature sign as described by this book. It's been wonderful! My husband & I have used it for 5 years with no "unexpected blessings" (i.e., no "unwanted" pregnancies). I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
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Summary: Wonderful Book - Teaches a Healthy AND Natural method!
Review: This book is an excellent source for any couple wishing to improve their marriage. Not only does it provide methods for responsible planning of family size and the spacing of babies, it also gives couples a theology based on discipline and sacrifice(among other things). Two important concepts that are necessary for the cycle of courtship(abstinence) and honeymoon(conjugal love) that this NFP calls for to avoid pregnancy/space babies without chemicals, etc. It's 99% effective for committed couples and it's mmediately reversible (free, too).
If you don't want the theology, just read the first fifteen chapters so you'll be able to figure out when you are fertile and detect problems early. Also, Joni Wechsler has a book on natural birth control without theology. However, I recommend Natural Family Planning, because its integration of science and Catholic Christian theology has breathed new life into our marriage.
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