pregnancy Archives - Natural Family Planning | Fertility Awareness

When Pregnancy is Complicated

From the Family Foundations archives **** The Braxton-Hicks contractions began three or four months into the pregnancy, compounding Lydia Bardua’s exhaustion, dizziness and nausea. Her doctor couldn’t find anything wrong, so he told her to relax and hydrate, relax and hydrate. Lydia heard her doctor repeat that advice often, but it was hard for the 34-year-old to…

NFP Uncensored: Self-discipline

NFP Uncensored is a series of candid accounts of the way NFP informs every aspect of life. You can follow the posts by searching for “NFP Uncensored” here in the Living the Love blog (use the search bar on the right-hand side of this page), or by searching #NFPUncensored on social media. After six short months of…

Double Standards

From the Family Foundations archives **** We had a scare last summer. It had been a stressful run-up to a road trip that was doing triple duty: travel writing, professional conference and family vacation. My cycle started just as we left, and — of course! — we forgot the thermometer. We figured we’d be home by the…

Pregnancy and Preeclampsia

An excerpt from Marilyn M. Shannon’s book, Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition. **** You may have wondered why prenatal care includes blood pressure monitoring and urine checking more and more frequently as you approach your due date. These are done in order to detect early signs of a potentially serious problem, preeclampsia, or metabolic toxemia of late…

23 Postpartum Hacks for Dads

There are lots of articles to guide new moms through the challenging world of postpartum life. Turns out, every marriage has a built-in postpartum hack: ask your husband to help! But dad, a little overwhelmed with a temporarily-dependent wife and now a very dependent brand-new, tiny human, might not stay on top of things as…

NFP Uncensored: Growing a Better Marriage

NFP Uncensored is a series of candid accounts of the way NFP informs every aspect of life. You can follow the posts by searching for “NFP Uncensored” here in the Living the Love blog (use the search bar on the righthand side of this page), or by searching #NFPUncensored on social media. When I was…

Mom’s Hilariously Relatable Pregnancy Posts go Viral

Pregnancy is an exciting time! But in the throes of morning sickness, insatiable hunger and feeling like a beluga whale, all of those “Yay! Pregnancy is so great!” posts on social media can be more than a little annoying. Meet Maya Vorderstrasse, Instagram celebrity, Brazilian mom of Irish twins and optimistic realist of all things…

10 Pieces of Advice to Prepare for Labor & Delivery

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Hillary Frost Photography‘s blog, to extend advice to a new mom and friend of the authors. 1. Pick a good nail paint color. Hillary told me when I went to get my nails done before having Lo, “You better pick a good color, you’re going to be staring…

What We’ve Learned: It’s About More Than the Kids

Humanae Vitae Giving Day * * * by Tommy Tighe My wife and I have been on a crazy journey. From thinking the Church should stay out of our bedroom, to reading and embracing Humanae Vitae, to teaching engaged couples all about NFP in the comfort of our living room; it’s a story I barely…

CDC Warning, Divide for Women Not on Birth Control

Recently the CDC released a statement encouraging women who are not taking birth control to stop drinking alcohol in order to avoid the potential danger of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders should they become pregnant. This article points to research that exposes the potential risk of a woman drinking early in her pregnancy. Why does it seem as…