NFP Awareness

Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is a national educational campaign that highlights the anniversary of the papal encyclical "Humanae Vitae," (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, love and responsible parenthood. 

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a banner term for family planning methods that adhere to the Catholic Church's teachings on the meaning of marital relations. NFP methods not only offer Catholic couples the option of spacing births and avoiding pregnancy when needed but these methods can also help couples conceive and help women better understand their health and fertility. 

There are multiple scientifically effective methods that rely on different biological (physical and hormonal) signs of fertility. All share the same basic premise of avoiding a woman’s fertile days to avoid pregnancy, and utilizing fertile days to achieve pregnancy.  


As different methods of NFP rely on different signs of fertility, couples may learn multiple methods over the course of their lives – if one method is challenging for a couple, another may be more straightforward. An instructor is always recommended to learn NFP, and we are blessed to have several within the Archdiocese.   More information about the different methods of NFP and instructors are in the links below.