Who uses natural family planning?

This study examined the characteristics and attitudes of 132 married couples who had received training in use of the symptothermal method of natural family planning (NFP). 61% of respondents were 20-30 years of age and over 2/3 had completed college; 59% were Catholic. The largest group of subjects (35%) became aware of NFP through friends, neighbors, and relatives. 71% said they were drawn to NFP because it represented a safe and healthy alternative to other methods of birth control; only 17% gave moral or religious reasons for learning about NFP. 42% of the sample were using NFP at the time of the survey, 32% had discontinued use, and 25% were using fertility awareness in conjunction with barrier methods (combination-continuers). There was a significant difference between these 3 groups in church attendance: 48% of combination-continuers and 67% of continuers compared with 41% of discontinuers attended church once a week or more. The combination-continuer group had more Catholics (50%) than the discontinuer group (37%) but less than the continuers (76%). No significant differences were found between the 3 groups in terms of age, education, or regularity of menstrual cycle length. Over 3/4 of continuers had been married for less than 5 years compared with about 1/2 of those in the 2 other groups. 69% of continuers believed that NFP is extremely effective compared to 13% of discontinuers and 40% of combination-continuers. Spouses encouraged each other in the use of NFP in 88% of combination-continuer couples and 86% of continuer couples, but only about half of discontinuers received such encouragement. Although most NFP advocates emphasize a nonsexual form of abstinence during the fertile period, the vast majority of respondents in this study defined abstinence to include the possibility of orgasm. Combination-continuers, positioned between continuers and discontinuers or both dissatisfaction with other methods and with abstinence, warrant more attention in future NFP research.