As Natural Family Planning Awareness Week kicked off this week, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee reached out on social media to medical professionals, reminding them some patients want to know about nonmedical ways to control family size.

“Whether you are a nurse, doctor, NP, PA, midwife, pharmacist or any other type of medical provider or student, your patients are looking to you for up to date and accurate information about Natural Family Planning (NFP),” the archdiocese posted on Facebook Monday. 

The Catholic Church espouses the idea of Natural Family Planning (NFP), saying it is built on the foundation of marriage as a gift through which spouses can share in God's procreative love, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said. NFP celebrates fertility as a priceless gift that should not be rejected. Contraception is considered a suppression of the gift of fertility and a rejection of the total union of husband and wife. 

NFP does not mean that married couples must leave the size of their family up to chance, the USCCB said. By engaging in fertility education, married couples can practice sexual intimacy during the times in a woman's cycle during which she is naturally infertile, without violating the purpose of marital intercourse. Contraception is an assertion of one's belief that he or she should have total control over the creation of life, rejecting God's design.

The archdiocese reminded people about FACTS, the Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Sciences, an organization run by medical professionals for medical professionals "that connects providers with the latest research, education, electives, and CMEs/CEUs. Learn about the health benefits of women charting their cycles for medical purposes and family planning. Visit https://www.factsaboutfertility.org/," the Facebook post said.

"Using the natural methods requires and strengthens the harmony of the married couple, it helps and confirms the rediscovery of the marvelous gift of parenthood, it involves respect for nature and demands the responsibility of the individuals," Pope John Paul II said in 1996.

"God is love,” The USCCB said in a Facebook post. "Authentic love, as Pope Francis wrote, 'makes us rise above ourselves' (AL, 95). That is because God wants men and women to share in His love. That is why God created us in His image! God created humanity as male and female. Human sexuality is woven into the fabric of each man and woman. Human sexuality carries within it the two-fold powers of love and life—it has a “nuptial” meaning. Human sexuality is to be safe-guarded. It must not be abused. Human sexuality is lived in its fullest in the marriage between one man and one woman. In order to become good stewards over God’s gifts of love and life, married couples can use the methods of NFP. The methods of NFP are authentic family planning in that they can be used to attempt conception or postpone it. Nothing is done to harm or reject God’s gifts!”