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NFP Success Story #1: Conception at Last

© Kristin Steinmetz

Details. When it comes to Natural Family Planning, I want all the details. How have other women used NFP? What were their experiences like? What can I learn from them? I hope that this series of articles will provide you with that information as I feature different women and the details of how NFP helped them achieve their goals.

For this first success story, I interviewed a most accessible subject – myself! Here, I share how I used NFP techniques to conceive my wonderful daughter. I hope my details will be helpful to you.

When my husband and I decided we were ready to conceive a child, we did what most people have done throughout history to have babies. Nothing! I stopped charting (we had been charting to prevent pregnancy since the beginning of our marriage) and we decided to relax and enjoy the conception process “naturally” and without stress. After 6 months of effort, I was anything but stress-free. If we had a 25% chance of conceiving each cycle, then why wasn’t I pregnant yet? I worried that we were infertile and that we were merely at the beginning of a long and discouraging struggle. I was in between careers and wondered if I should jump into something new or reserve myself for future parenthood. I looked longingly at parents and pregnant women, wondering if they understood how blessed they were. In short, I was a wreck, obsessed with having a baby.

I decided to take action to make myself feel better and to reach my goal. I dusted off my thermometer and charts, bought Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility, did some research and “took charge” of the conception process. I understood that conception was ultimately outside of my control, but I believed there were some steps I could take to help the process along. It’s common advice (usually given by people who conceive easily) that couples trying to conceive should simply “relax.” While this advice may be helpful to some, I honestly believe that we would never have conceived if I hadn’t “stressed out” a bit and taken thermometer and charts in hand.

In addition to charting each month, I also drank half a pitcher of decaffeinated green tea a day (for its antioxidant properties), took Evening Primrose Oil from cycle day 3 to ovulation (to increase the amount and duration of my cervical fluid), took a daily vitamin pill with folic acid, and obsessed as usual. :-)