I am in Africa where large families have been quite traditional until lately. It has become very fashionable lately amongst middle aged couples to limit family size to two or at most three children, and this is the idea that young people are up-holding as they grow. Therefore it has become the fashion that "No one has large families anymore anywhere." Those who make those comments are just responding to fashion. They may be influenced by the Culture of Death.

In my opinion one of the ways to handle those comments is for you to be aware of the fact that NFP is not about fashion. Rather, it defies tradition, culture and above all fashion. NFP users go against the current and you don't expect to be popular when you act in defiance.You also need to keep in mind that such comments have no bearing on internal family decisions made after considerable meditation and prayer. They are from outsiders and no amount of explaining can make them understand.

With this in mind, you should expect such comments when you take a family decision to defy Fashion and uphold the Culture of Life. When the comments do come, they should mean nothing absolutely. They can disturb you only when they highlight the truth about the pregnancy being a mistake.About your age, we all expect that pregnancies at that age need more attention to come to term, but it is not uncommon to see women give birth smoothly at 40. We have lots of them in Africa.

Therefore, just move on when hearing such remarks.

— J.A., CM