welcome to fabm base...
the fertility awareness database where science and real life intersect! Here, you won’t just discover what fertility awareness is, what your options are, and the practical benefits it offers to every woman between puberty and menopause – you’ll actually find out what it looks like when real people use it.
Cofounders Mary Bruno and Emily Frase have had their own personal ups and downs with fertility awareness and it is because of this that they have become so passionate – not just about sharing this information, but doing so in an honest and accessible way.
They have met and talked with hundreds of women and couples through their platforms and take what they’ve learned to the heart of this organization. Whether it’s difficulty finding support, deciding which method would be best, choosing a good instructor or doctor, or navigating all the curve balls life can throw at us, Mary and Emily know that the needs women and men have to understand their fertility are vast!
THE FOUNDERS
Mary and Emily could not have more different fertility stories.
Mary suffers from infertility. Emily had two surprise babies before her third wedding anniversary. Mary is a Creighton practitioner, and Emily is a dyed-in-the-wool Marquette method user.
Despite all their differences [And click here to see just how much], they have loads in common!
As they collaborated on projects and got to know each other, they realized that the core of their experiences had a lot of similarities.
Though they find themselves on opposite ends of the fertility spectrum…
they ended up asking similar questions about their purpose as women and how the problems they faced could have been better addressed. Those experiences ignited a passion in them to make a concrete impact in the fertility awareness conversation, to make it more accessible to every woman between puberty and menopause, and above all, to be honest about what this lifestyle means.
And to top it all off, they’re both from south Louisiana! Laissez les bon temps roller! #geauxtigers #whodat.
Emily and Mary have learned and grown so much from understanding each other’s experiences, and they quickly realized that their different backgrounds would lend something unique and powerful to the fertility awareness conversation and community.
It was with this drive that they founded FAbM Base. Above all, they envision their organization to be a space where those who visit can listen, learn, be heard, and know they are not alone.
Guess Who?
Adult drink preference
Scotch neat, porters and South American reds
Emily!
Sweet mixed drinks
Mary!
Sports team
LSU by birth, Green Bay Packers by marriage
Emily!
New Orleans Saints Season Ticket holder
Mary!
Summertime meal
Crawfish
Both!
Crawfish
Both!
Style
Athletic, casual chic
Mary!
Casual chic
Emily!
Method choice
Creighton
Mary!
Marquette
Emily!
Favorite Music genre
50s swing/ Rat Pack
Emily!
Rap/hip hop
Mary!
Favorite movie
LOTR: Return of the King
Emily!
Bridesmaids
Mary!
Temperament
Melancholic/phlegmatic
Mary!
Sanguine/choleric
Emily!
Emily Frase.
president of fabm base
She was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After receiving her bachelors in architectural studies from Louisiana Tech University, she moved to Washington, DC where she worked in the non-profit world for five years. There she met her husband, Wisconsin-born Nicholas, and they settled down in northern Virginia. Emily embraced SAHM (stay at home mom) life with their two darling toddlers, where she finally took time to develop her life-long love of writing by starting the blog, Total W(h)ine.
It didn’t take long before Emily discovered her voice and passion for speaking the truth about fertility awareness and NFP when she began sharing her own experiences and hang ups following some questionable marriage prep and two surprise pregnancies. She likes to describe the reaction to her gloves-off approach as starting the “NFP #metoo movement.”
Emily engages regularly one-on-one with women all over the world, and has discovered the need for an intimate space where these women can ask gritty questions and find practical and holistic solutions related to sex, fertility awareness and Catholic Church teaching – free of judgement. It was with this understanding that she began her NFP and fertility awareness coaching business in April 2021.
Emily keeps busy at home with her sweet toddlers, trying out simple recipes, and laughing at RiffTrax movies with her husband Nick. She can be found pouring herself an adult beverage promptly at 5pm. Don’t ask her opinion on the ideological framework of contemporary architecture unless you really want her to tell you.
Emily has been a guest on several podcasts including Letters to Women, Engage with Eagle Forum, Charting Toward Intimacy and Managing Your Fertility, and has been a guest writer for FemCatholic and Surprised by Marriage. She has been interviewed by the St. Philip Institute “Life Beyond the Chariot” series, and the EWTN-affiliate network WNGL Archangel Radio. She has also been interviewed for the Superior Catholic Herald and the quarterly journal, Vigil. Her Total W(h)ine blog posts have been regularly featured in the Theology of Home daily collections.
For more from Emily on Total W(h)ine, click on the icons below!
Mary Bruno.
executive director of fabm base
She is from New Orleans, Louisiana, where she grew up loving sports and helping people. This motivated her to acquire her Bachelors of Science in Human Performance and Health Promotion from the University of New Orleans and an Associates in Applied Science as a Physical Therapist Assistant from Delgado. She practiced in outpatient and home health physical therapy for a total of 6 years. Throughout her teen and young adult life, Mary suffered with debilitating physical pain due to a 12-year-late endometriosis diagnosis and has had 12 surgeries. She and her husband, Chris, a Southern Louisiana boy, were married in 2013 and are infertile. This has been incredibly challenging, but has also led them to their beautiful adopted daughter, Bella. Now they are in the process of adopting again!
Mary is presently a stay at home mom whose experiences have given her a heart for the infertile and all women of reproductive age in hopes of educating, motivating, and inspiring an appreciation for God’s holistic design of woman through fertility awareness. These desires inspired her Taking Back the Terms (now @whitelotusblooming) outreach in 2016 and to become a Creighton Practitioner in 2018. She is the author of the bestselling book, Twelve Stripes Deep: How Infertility & Other Suffering Delivered My Greatest Joys.
Mary and her husband were trained as a marriage prep mentor couple in 2018 and she has spoken about women’s health, fertility awareness, and Theology of the Body at various local high schools and parishes for years. She started a personal blog in 2014 and was a columnist for the “Nola Catholic Parenting” section of the Clarion Herald, the Official Newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans for about 2 years. She has been featured as one of Aleteia’s 7 Catholic women who share about infertility on Instagram, as noted in this article and in the Theology of Home’s Daily Collection. Mary was featured as a speaker at the first virtual Unexplained Infertility Summit, the Living Through Infertility Summit, and presented two different talks at the Catholic Link Latin America Summit. She has been a guest on the Letters to Women, Mary Kate‘s, Managing Your Fertility, Charting Towards Intimacy, & Engage with Eagle Forum podcasts.
For more from Mary @whitelotusblooming (formerly @takingbacktheterms), click the icons below!