Occasionally one reads that “NFP is promoted as an ideal option for couples.” For 50 years I have seen the use of only natural methods of conception regulation treated as an “ideal” with the inference that such an ideal cannot be attained by normal married couples. The reality is that chaste NFP is not an “ideal” in the sense of something nice but necessary, anymore than marital fidelity is such an “ideal.” NFP is the norm when couples have a sufficiently serious reason to postpone or avoid pregnancy.
Also, what is usually not taught is Ecological Breastfeeding both for the tremendous benefits for baby and mother and also for its natural spacing of births. Seminarians, priests and bishops deserve and need to know this reality. They would do themselves a great favor by obtaining a copy of our NFP manual, “Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach.” I recommend the coil-bound edition because it lies flat so easily.
Chapter 1 in this manual is an exercise in evangelization. Chapter 6 is devoted to Ecological Breastfeeding. I regret to say that no other organization teaches this. Every year, researchers publish new benefits of breastfeeding, and Ecological Breastfeeding maximizes these benefits because many of them are dose-related.
When we founded the Couple to Couple League at St. Odilia’s parish in the fall of 1971, we included the teaching of Ecological Breastfeeding as part of our standard instruction. I think that the enthusiasm that many couples had for this contributed greatly to the spread of CCL throughout the 70s. Unfortunately, in its self-styled “Extreme Makeover” of 2007, the CCL management completely dropped that teaching of ecological breastfeeding along with the teaching of the covenant theology of the marriage act.
Couples cannot choose to practice Ecological Breastfeeding unless they are taught about it. That’s the simple reality of the first principle of psychology. That’s why seminarians, priests and bishops need to learn these things so that they can later encourage and teach them. Some couples have learned that they can use ecological breastfeeding alone to space the births of their children. It is God’s plan for families.
John F. Kippley