Monday, June 14, 2010

Simple Lifestyle

Before I went on my amazing trip, I went to the doctor because I was experiencing some headaches and fatigue. He informed me that, according to some blood tests, my energy was from lack of B vitamins among other things. So I started taking more and felt better - no problem. I can do that and maybe I'll even try to get back on the healthy eating wagon too. Why is chocolate not included in that anyway? My life would be so much easier....

But back to my point! Apparently, even though many b vitamins could be known as pre-natal necessities, one of the vitamins I was taking might be too big of a dose for a precious new life so I shouldn't use if pregnant or trying to get pregnant. That being said, he knows I practice NFP. My charts have provided me with information needed to stand up for myself and treatment options - like when put on prescription progesterone which I did not like, and neither did my charts! So he asked - are you using your charts to conceive or as birth control. In my head I screamed NEITHER! However, I was there to try to feel healthier so I said that we were postponing for now. Even so, those two words really struck me with the need to explain contraceptive mentality although so many have done better than I.

It all comes down to my idea of a simple lifestyle. Natural Family Planning teaches women to recognize when they are fertile so they can choose month-by-month how to use that time. There are two options - postpone having a child or try to conceive. Once past the initial learning curve and frustration of understanding your unique body, charting these sign are second nature and much more simple that trying to remember to take something at the same time each day, at least for me. I am not very good at taking my vitamins every day, but I don't even have to think about monitoring my mucus. That being said, it is a lifestyle of recognizing my body and its cyclical changes, not of controlling them. There are many stories on both sides that show "birth control" to be a fallacy of sorts. Women can get pregnant on the pill or while using NFP to postpone. The same is true on the other side: some women have difficulty conceiving whether they chose to stop birth control and after a number of months try ART or if they knew NFP from the beginning and look to conceive naturally or through the help of NaPro technology. Trying does not mean guaranteed. It's complicated!

Life is a gift, and I need to treat it as such. I try to do so, knowing nothing is a sure thing in this area. Maybe I talk about the "gift of life" so often that some people expect me to have a baby pop out of me any day. In reality, I am just excited to live out my vows that I will be open to life. The more I live out my vows, the more excited I become about doing so.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful! this ties in to what i wrote about today as well so perfectly!

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  2. yeah...I meant to link to you, maybe I will do that since you mention it!

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  3. I agree with you that we can't really control birth, but I do think that NFP *is* the closest thing to BC that there is. After all, it is all about *planning* either to avoid or to achieve. It is not contraception, but if there is such a thing as birth control...

    That said, I totally know what you mean about being frustrated by the fact that most people just don't get it! I for one am a big fan of the concept of "fertility awareness" since it encompasses more than just "planning."

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  4. NFP may be closest to control, but I think my point was more that the doctor assumed, if I answered yes, this was a long term plan. I think I was upset more because he didn't realize I was trying to find a health plan that did not adversely affect my fertility. And I'm starting to wonder if one of the treatment options does - based on my charts. For someone to be so holistic but not understand that I don't want my fertility affected was just frustrating all around.

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  5. Oh, that makes total sense.

    Also, which B vitamin was it that you may need to take less of? I'm such a huge fan of B vitamins for coping with endo symptoms (I suspect that my exhaustion issues are tied into immune problems right along with endo).

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