Saturday, January 27, 2007

The Free Market and NFP

I received this article from the Yahoo CCL Community and the closing paragraph allows me to comment on a current interest while still staying on the topic of NFP. The closing paragraph points out that doctors should be knowledgeable about all family planning options to better help their patients and their business. Although, I pray for the day when all OB/GYNs only teach NFP, the incremental approach is a good start. At least we could get respect in a doctor's office instead of more condescension. We could even refer our students to doctors who wouldn't deride their beliefs. In a free market, all of these benefits would allow a doctor to draw more patients and charge more for his visits. Maybe one day, people will really get to choose their doctor, instead of insurance companies.

I also find it interesting that this is a military doctor. We have a local doctor who took advantage of his military service and re-evangelization to learn all about vasectomy reversals. He is so moved by this ministry that he doesn't charge for his time when performing reversals which is very helpful since they are not usually covered by insurance.

Friday, January 26, 2007

She still has time

My wife is brave enough to subscribe to a variety of parenting magazines and even read some of the articles. I personally can not handle most of them as they are so worldly. I don't need another article telling me that one child is enough. For example, the current issue of Parents has the story of a woman trying to conceive:

"She was 36 - still reasonably young in reproductive terms..."

Now, she did have a teenager so at least she had given birth once before, but this kind of thing propagates the notion that women can have children whenever they wish. She's in for a rude shock at the OB when she is classified as a high-risk pregnancy due to age (over 35).

The Big Bad O

A health conscious friend sent me this article about the fertility consequences of trans-fats, the latest bad food fad. The article reports that as little as one big, bad O (donut) could significantly impair fertility. On the plus side, the article points out that simple treatments for infertility like good nutrition and less processed food could be beneficial alternatives to ludicrously expensive "fertility treatments." Of course, no mention is made of learning about how the reproductive system actually works, like in Natural Family Planning. But at least they ratify CCL's approach of good nutrition.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

First round draft for NFL

So I have finally created a blog. I promise to do my best, dear reader, to keep this digital home interesting, unique, and tidy. I hope to blog on many of the things which interest me, however, I plan to focus on Natural Family Planning as the President of the Upper Merion Chapter of the Couple to Couple League Inc.