CHARLOTTE — Natural Family Planning Awareness Week was July 20-26, and workers in the field in the Diocese of Charlotte are actively promoting an approach that focuses on a woman’s overall health to help couples plan their families according to Catholic teaching.
It’s an approach called restorative reproductive medicine which helps women – and men – understand the importance of caring for health and fertility well before couples begin trying to have children. It uses natural methods to help women identify and address problems that affect their fertility.
“Restorative reproductive medicine aims to correct the problem of infertility by finding the root cause and looking for a long-term fix through comprehensive healing,” explained Batrice Adcock, natural family planning program director for the diocesan Office of Family Life. “The approach can help restore and improve a woman’s overall health as well as fertility.”
“Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is an invitation to reflect on the beauty of God’s design for marriage and the gift of fertility. God is the author of marriage and the Creator of our bodies, and His plan, made known to us by the teaching of the Catholic Church, is the best plan for finding happiness, holiness, and fruitfulness in marriage. Natural Family Planning helps a couple cooperate with the design of their bodies while embracing responsible parenthood, and so it is no surprise that this practice also unlocks valuable information that supports women’s health.”
Health care and fertility care professionals from the Diocese of Charlotte were able to learn more about this approach at the 44th annual meeting of the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals held July 16-19 at the Hilton Charlotte University Place.
The conference drew more than 150 fertility care professionals from around the U.S. as well as some who traveled from African nations, Australia and Canada.
A key aspect of the restorative reproductive approach they discussed is early identification and prevention of problems with a woman’s cycle or fertility.
“The natural family planning approach touches on so much more than just helping to plan pregnancy,” Adcock said. “It can be a health and wellness tool for women at all stages.”
One tool Adcock promotes is Cycle Prep, a program for mothers and daughters (9-12) that helps young women transitioning through puberty learn how to achieve healthy menstrual cycles and hormone balance. Another program, TeenFEMM, has similar goals for older teens.
Leah Jacobson led off the 44th annual meeting of the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals was held July 16-19 at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Jacobson is an author and CEO of the Guiding Star Project, a growing family of care centers offering fertility planning, pregnancy and childbirth information and other services for women.
“As girls learn to value their cycles, they often come to value their bodies more and take better care of themselves,” Adcock said. “This translates into improved health and future fertility. As they continue down the body literacy trajectory, they learn to track their cycles, and then later on, Natural Family Planning instructors often can pick up on problematic patterns that may point to hormone imbalance, and a referral to a doctor trained in restorative reproductive medicine can be made.”
Through four days of conference workshops, professionals learned about all facets of natural family planning. Sessions encouraged them to take into account many factors that can affect a couple’s health and fertility, including spiritual and mental health as well as physical health. During the conference’s main session on July 19, for instance, Charlotte area counselor Christine Wisdom led a workshop on helping couples dealing with trauma and the impact it can have on fertility.
The importance of helping women learn about the natural gift of fertility and how to manage it was the focus of a keynote speech by Leah Jacobson, mother of eight, author of the book “Wholistic Feminism” and founder of the Guiding Star Centers. The growing nationwide network of centers offers pregnancy support, breastfeeding help, fertility education, drop-in child care and more to create safe havens that uphold human dignity in all stages of life.
Jacobson told attendees that their work in promoting natural family planning was more important than ever in a cultural landscape that is increasingly hostile to natural approaches to family planning and women’s healthcare, as well as to the gender roles and plans for the family that are part of God’s plan.
“Women’s healthcare should seek to support the natural functions of a female body – its feminine abilities to ovulate, gestate and lactate,” Jacobson said. “We need to help women understand who God made them to be and tell every woman and girl that she is good the way God made her.”
Natural Family Planning Week offers the chance to learn more about the physical and spiritual aspects of family planning according to Church teaching, said Father Peter Ascik, director of the diocese’s Family Life Office.
“This week is an invitation to reflect on the beauty of God’s design for marriage and the gift of fertility,” Father Ascik said. “God is the author of marriage and the Creator of our bodies, and His plan, made known to us by the teaching of the Church, is the best plan for finding happiness, holiness and fruitfulness in marriage. Natural Family Planning helps a couple cooperate with the design of their bodies while embracing responsible parenthood, and so it is no surprise that this practice also unlocks valuable information that supports women’s health.”
For more information on family planning in the Diocese of Charlotte, visit https://charlottediocese.org/faith-life/family-life/natural-family-planning/
— Christina Lee Knauss