Parishes with Active Family Planning Instructors
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St. Matthew |
Boyne City |
231.582.7718 |
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Holy Rosary |
Cedar |
231. 228.5429 |
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St. Mary Cathedral |
Gaylord |
989.732.5448 |
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Holy Childhood of Jesus |
Harbor Springs |
231.526.2017 |
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St. Augustine |
Hillman |
989.742.4542 |
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St. Francis Xavier |
Petoskey |
231.347.4133 |
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St. Francis of Assisi |
Traverse City |
231.947.4620 |
Updated 3/20/2024
If there are no instructors within your home parish, you are welcome to contact the parish of your choice.
Interested in becoming a Natural Family Planning instructor?
Contact the Diocese of Gaylord Natural Family Planning coordinator Sarah Denhof at email or call 989.705.3503
Find a Natural Family Planning Medical Consultant
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Dr. Jacqueline Fitzgerald |
Alpena |
989.736.8157 |
About Natural Family Planning
Discerning God’s Will for Marriage
God created marriage as a sacred institution between man and woman, to be blessed with the many fruits of family life, those being primarily children and the future that unfolds from them.
Within this sacred institution, God calls husbands and wives to be stewards over the new lives that are entrusted to their care; to lovingly nurture and lead their children, so that they may grow up knowing God and honoring God’s call to become fruitful themselves.
Family stewardship begins with responsibly planning for children, including the prayerful timing of conception, to ensure that marital relations between husband and wife align with His plan for the family.
Benefits of Natural Family Planning
To promote marriage preparation and responsible family stewardship in alignment with God’s will, the Catholic Church teaches Natural Family Planning (NFP). NFP rejects artificial hormones, contraceptive devices, and sterilization, and instead embraces God’s laws of nature working within the human body. By learning about their fertility cycles through NFP, husbands and wives can enjoy marital relations responsibly, serving to deepen their love and commitment to God, each other, and the family they will create together.
When used correctly, NFP has a success rate of over 99% in deferring pregnancy until a later time. Likewise, the use of NFP can help couples to achieve conception when they desire to receive a new life.
Survey data[1] collected from 10,000 couples during 2016-2022 found that 98% had a better understanding of fertility after taking a Natural Family Planning class. In a 2013 survey[2] of more than 2,500 couples who had been married for more than eight years, 74% of men and 65% of women reported that NFP had benefitted their marriage.
Additional benefits of practicing NFP include a lower divorce rate[3] compared to women who use contraceptives and men who undergo vasectomy. Though not a guarantee against divorce, Natural Family Planning promotes healthy marriages by increasing spiritual intimacy and bonding, bringing couples closer together with more intimate knowledge of how their fertility works.
Additional Natural Family Planning Online Resources
Catholic Women and Couples NFP
[1] Manhart, MD “Teaching NFP to couples as a requirement for marriage prep is effective and can be delivered via different learning modes; evidence from a post-class survey administered 2016-2022.” Submitted. 2024 European Congress on Fertility Awareness Methods.
[2] Unseld, M., Rötzer, E., Weigl, R., Masel, E. K., & Manhart, M. D. (2017). Use of natural family planning (NFP) and its effect on couple relationships and sexual satisfaction: A multi-country survey of NFP users from US and Europe. Front Public Health, 13(42). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00042
[3] Michael D. Manhart & Richard J. Fehring (2023): The Association of Family Planning Methods With the Odds of Divorce Among Women in the 2015–2019 National Survey of Family Growth, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, DOI: 10.1080/10502556.2023.2179837
