Ep. 140: Isn't Natural Family Planning a Catholic thing?

Caitlin:

Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master of divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started.

Caitlin:

Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. I've been in the field of natural fertility education for quite a few years. I've heard just about every joke or assumption or misconception about it. Thankfully, they really have gone down significantly over the years since I first got started back in 2017. But every once in a while I'll still hear someone say something like, "Natural family planning, isn't that just something Catholics do now?" Unlike some of the other misconceptions I've heard, this one I actually get, there is a strong tie between the Catholic Church and natural fertility education and research. It's honestly not surprising at all to me that even the broader cultural context realizes the connection. But is natural family planning or maybe what you've heard of more commonly fertility awareness? Is it really just for Catholics? And if not, why? Why should all Christians be interested in fertility awareness methods or their natural fertility options?

Caitlin:

Why should all women be interested in these things? Is it really just the Catholic women who benefit or is there something for everyone? Here at the Woven Well podcast, we talk a lot about natural fertility. We intentionally produce short episodes that make learning about healthy cycles, family planning and restorative medical treatment, realistic and easy to fit into your life. But we do this with a faith-filled motivation right there in the intro, I talk about finding reproductive options that honor your faith. We actively look for how God is involved in things like our menstrual cycles and fertility journeys. We teach fertility education and provide resources to restorative reproductive physicians who get to the root cause of your issues. Because we believe that God cares about these things. I believe wholeheartedly that God designed you as a woman with beauty and purpose. I believe that even your body and how it works can point you back to God and provide an even deeper relationship with him.

Caitlin:

All Catholics believe this too, and when we get down to it, I really think all Christians believe this. The difference is Christians who aren't Catholic may not have heard this message before or as frequently or from as early on in life. The Catholic Church intentionally talks about the importance of womanhood, a defining reverence for Mary. The mother of God requires this kind of basic respect for all women. But the Catholic church has also long held to the sacrament of marriage, the true purpose of sexual unity, the gift of children that come from that unity, and of course, the belief that all life begins at conception. So Catholics have heard these things. They've heard these messages from the very beginning, and they've heard it over and over and over again. The reality is believing that God has a purpose for marriage and sex, and even womanhood.

Caitlin:

Feeling confident that our design as women, our very bodies were designed with goodness and purpose and love. It changes things. It inspires us to share with others. It pushes us to provide outlets for this truth so that all women can experience it. Because I believe that God created you as a woman with inherent worth and dignity. I want you to understand that worth and receive, that kind of dignified reproductive healthcare. That's the motivation for why we share natural fertility education on this podcast. Well, it was a similar motivation for Catholic physicians and researchers over the years. So the birth control pill came out in the late fifties and early sixties, and by 1968, the Pope at the time, now known as St. Paul VI, released a bombshell document Humanae Vitae on the regulation of birth. And I highly recommend reading it. Yes, it's a long document, but it's so good.

Caitlin:

It has so much good stuff in there. But the very short sort of clinical summary of it is that it cautioned against the use of any type of artificial contraception that may sever that meaningful connection between husband and wife, sex and babies, embryos and pregnancy. It predicted a lot of the short and long-term impact of any such severing. You know what could happen? And it's not been wrong, so it really is worth reading. But it was this teaching that inspired many Catholic physicians to actually do something about the beliefs that they held instead of simply knowing that the female reproductive system is good and that couples can use it to naturally avoid or conceive pregnancy. Instead of simply believing that women deserve restorative, dignified reproductive healthcare and answers to their reproductive health questions, they sought out to provide proof of those things to everyone and resources for every woman and couple to utilize.

Caitlin:

So this is when Catholics picked up the banner, so to speak, of what was then natural family planning and what is now more commonly referred to as fertility awareness methods culturally at least. Some would consider some differences between them in the focus or the intention of their use. But when it comes down to how they function, they're the same. So there was a lot of trial and error back in the beginning. I mean, this research was brand new, but methods like Billings, Couple to Couple League, and of course the Creighton model system were all created or formalized in response. This makes it feel like a Catholic thing, but it wasn't just for Catholics, and it's not something that is somehow inappropriate for those who aren't Catholic. It really is for all of us today. I can't say that the majority of women using fertility awareness methods are Catholic, but many, many, many are Christian, and there are researchers and doctors doing the work of continuing to improve the methods in reproductive health treatment.

Caitlin:

And not all of them are Catholic, but many of them are because they continue to believe that this matters. It's just that more and more women and doctors and families who aren't Catholic are starting to realize it as well. They're coming to believe that all women deserve to have these basic things like the ability to identify a window of fertility, the simple joy of knowing when your next period is going to begin, right? That's super practical. We all need to know that a method of family planning devoid of side effects, more options for fertility awareness methods, increased effectiveness in those methods and information that reveals health indicators for reproductive cycles through fields like fem or NaPro technology. And now with advancements in debate in critical issues like IVF, more and more of us are appreciating the ethical or moral benefits of these natural alternatives. I mean, think about the pro-life movement and their concern over the number of embryos created or destroyed in the process of in vitro fertilization or the renewed focus even in Congress with the promotion of the Resolve Act to offer quality women's healthcare that treats the reproductive cycle as a good thing and helps to get to the root cause of issues like infertility.

Caitlin:

Natural fertility options may feel Catholic because this entire field was pioneered and fueled by Catholics who deeply cared about women and families. Their mark is all over modern evidence-based methods of fertility awareness available today. But this is in no way something that excludes it from the use of others or somehow restricts the benefits from applying to all the world of reproductive health can be grateful for the contribution of these men and women of faith who believed that women were designed with intention and purpose, and that they deserve reproductive healthcare that honors that design without them. I wonder what it would be like now. Would we have any alternatives at all? I wonder if our only option for family planning would be synthetic hormones or physical implants. I wonder if we'd have any understanding or respect for our natural reproductive cycles. I wonder if infertility would feel more hopeless or persistent reproductive issues more overwhelming.

Caitlin:

Would we have restorative reproductive medicine? Would we have effective fertility awareness methods? Would we have alternatives to IVF? I don't know, but we don't have to know, because thankfully, that's not the world we live in. We do have these pioneers to thank for all of their research and work that creates the current world that we live in now with alternatives available to us. So if you ever hear someone say that Fertility Awareness Methods or natural family planning, or for Catholics only, I hope you'll share this different perspective that it's not for Catholics, but much of it is from Catholics. For everyone. Thanks so much for listening today. If the faith side of understanding your fertility is really interesting to you that I invite you to join me over on Substack, where we talk each week about matters of faith and fertility, you can subscribe for free and receive a short email each week with the topics that matter most. All of those who are Christian, Catholic, or curious are welcome. Click the link in the show notes to join. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.