Mucus-Only Method: Creighton Model
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- Tell us a little about yourself.I am a family medicine physician and NaPro MC. Love learning about this field and practicing medicine in this way and combining it with my interests in integrative medicine and nutrition. Also love to exercise, read, be outside, travel and try new things. As a physician that is in the same boat as many of my patients (Charting, breastfeeding, going through pregnancy, and now postpartum changes), I find that this helps me relate to them on a deeper level as I feel some of the same anxieties they do.
- What effects has fertility awareness had on your relationship?I can’t imagine what things would be like if I was not charting because that’s how it’s always been for us. As a woman, it is affirming to know that my husband understands how my fertility works- he went to the initial Creighton classes with me. I think it has been a test that has strengthens us and it still a work in progress for us- we have just been married for 3 years. Every time we have intercourse, we face the reality and gift of our fertility because it hasn’t been turned off by contraception. At the same time, once you have charted for a while it becomes routine and simply part of the pattern of your life.
- How did you find your instructor?Instructor was recommended to me by friends that used Creighton and learned from this person. I did the routine Creighton follow up schedule. The follow ups were $45. The initial session was maybe $65 (can’t remember). Plus charge for charts and stamps
- Describe your daily charting routine.Charting for 4.5 years. Mucus checks whenever I go to the bathroom. For the most part this has become a routine that I don’t think much about. I like observing and knowing what’s going on with my body and think of it as a check on my health like a vital sign. I love that I can look back at my charts and how they have changed based on what I was going through in life.
- What made you choose this method?It was the first method I was introduced to (friends using it) and started it for the purpose of family planning, knowing that I would not ever use contraceptives due to faith reasons initially but the more I learned about the science and then NaPro the more I have fallen in love it. I like that it doesn’t require any extra technology - just mucus observations but more recently it has been frustrating for me in the postpartum breastfeeding stage because of continuous mucus patterns
- Has charting helped you to understand your overall health?Yes, my cycles have never been consistent I think due to stress levels but I am able to identify that clearly when I am going through something how my cycles change which is empowering because without the charting to correlate that, I might think something else was wrong with me.
