If you have been following our blog for a while it may be no surprise we talk A LOT about cervical mucus. It is literally the foundation...

It’s no secret that there are a lot of particular and personal questions a Fertility Care Practitioner asks a client during a follow-up. And it’s not because practitioners are nosey or don’t understand personal boundaries; on the contrary, a good practitioner is able to professionally inquire about personal topics in a thorough manner.  This intense attention-to-detail during a follow-up allows a practitioner to properly assess how well a woman or couple is learning the meth

Many women and couples come to the Creighton Model Fertility Care System to achieve a pregnancy, to find answers to why they haven't...

Picture this: six women walk into a room, each at a different stage of life's journey. One is a single gal, another just got engaged,...

The Holiday Season is in full force which means things can be crazy. All the school programs. The cooking and baking. Parties and family...

"Can we have sex" on such-and-such day? This question pops up in follow ups all the time. Spoiler alert: if you're married and you're both interested in intercourse on a particular day YES you are perfectly capable and you don't have to ask my permission. (Phew!) Our role as Fertility Care Practitioners is not to tell you when you are or are not "allowed" to have sex with your spouse. Our role is to help you gain a full understanding of your fertility so that you know which

The holidays can be a very beautiful time of the year with all the traditions, time with family and delightful meals. The holidays also...

Happy Halloween! I hope that you have fun spending time with your children, handing out, eating candy, etc. or wherever you find yourself this Halloween. Much like Halloween, the Sunday Scaries can be....well...scary. You know the feeling: Sunday afternoon rolls around and you've got a knot in your stomach thinking of all of the things that need to get done throughout the week. Maybe it's the project you've been procreating at work, that difficult conversation with your frien

If you're looking for the right "fit" Natural Family Planning method... here's a bunch of information all in one place about Creighton Model System to help you make the best decision for YOU! What does the term "Creighton Model System" (CrMS) or "Creighton Model Fertility Care " mean? CrMS is a method of Natural Family Planning. Different methods use different signs, symptoms and/or devices to help you track and understand your times of fertility and infertility. At a very ba

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, to the time of my first follow-up after attending the Creighton Model Introductory Session. This is when Introductory Sessions and Follow-up Sessions were conducted strictly in-person, in that wild time of life known as “pre-Covid”. My husband and I showed up at our FertilityCare Practitioner’s home with our two weeks’ worth of hard-charting effort. He was as annoyingly calm and confident as he always is while I had butterflies in my sto

This is a question I get all so often, most especially in the Catholic world. In case you aren’t familiar, normally when people ask me if Natural Family Planning can be used with a ‘ contraceptive mindset ’ or ‘contraceptively,’ what they’re really asking is if NFP can be used with bad intentions. Or, if NFP can be used faithfully by a Catholic to avoid a pregnancy. Sometimes I get asked by people with a half raised skeptical eyebrow, others with a curiosity of how NFP actual

In the world of reproductive health and family planning, the landscape is constantly evolving with new developments. One such development...

It’s Spring, which means wedding season is upon us! And when it comes to a wedding, most women can probably tell you exactly what they...

So you're finally ready to learn a method to learn more about your fertility. You're excited and also nervous. You finally receive all of...

On this cold rainy spring Tuesday (at least if you’re reading this in real time in mid-Michigan), I have a little history lesson for you....

I hate using NFP. It's true. I also hate eating an alternative diet , exercising, cleaning my house, and giving birth. I could pretty much live very contently without ever doing one of these things ever again. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Clearly each of these things, while difficult, painful, and simply un-fun (exercise and eating well are not fun for me, no), are important and dare I say, essential. The benefit of going through the birthing process and holding

As we enter in Holy Week, I want to share some reflections on suffering. Suffering is present in many stages of the fertility journey,...

When it comes to waiting, there are very few things that compare to what can be the agony and anxiety induced by waiting. Having some end...

As a practitioner I have been asked many times, "is this a good reason to avoid?" And for a long time I did not know if I could really give a great answer. I know for myself it took me discerning and praying with my husband to make our decision to avoid, but that process may not be as clear cut for everyone. Fo awhile my simple answer was "that is between you (the couple) and God". Honestly I did not feel this was a good enough answer nor was I qualified enough to answer it.

I am someone who unfortunately struggles with anxiety. It is been something I've dealt with since I was 15 years old. It comes and goes,...