Fertility Awareness and Natural Family Planning

Being aware of one's fertility empowers women's health decisions and helps spouses make moral decisions regarding fertility, how to deal with infertility, and the great gift of children.

Two organizations have instructors serving in Kansas City and St. Joseph.Fertility Care of Kansas City and The Couple to Couple League.

Fertility Care Center of Kansas City

Fertility Care of Kansas City 

offers instruction in the Creighton Model and has affiliated doctors who use NaPro technology to assist those with infertility.They offer instruction to women of all ages including those preparing for marriage and offer education programs and instruction for girls who have begun to menstruate.
Information is also available en Español.

Couple to Couple League

The Couple to Couple League 

offers instruction in Natural Family Planning for the engaged and married.  

Couple to Couple League is now offering an introductory course for the engaged to learn NFP as part of their marriage preparation process!
The cost to attend an introductory session is $35, which can be applied toward registration for the standard live course if the couple chooses to continue.  To register for the introductory course, please contact Christina Paoletti by email: [email protected]. or Alison & Allen Greenlief at [email protected].

 

In addition to the standard live course (offered both locally and virtually), they also offer a self-paced online course, and classes for postpartum, and premenopause.  Courses available en Español.

Olathe Health- Marquette Method NFPRestorative Reproductive Community Education Class

Join Patrick R. Herrick,  MD, PhD, and Molly Price, Olathe Marquette InfoAPRN, FNP-C, MSN, to learn about methods to assist with Natural Family Planning (NFP).

This one-hour session will cover topics such as the Marquette Method, an approach to assist NFP that uses fertility monitors (at home, daily) for a simple urine test to measure and track hormone levels in urine – specifically the hormones estrogen and luteinizing hormone.

Dr. Patrick HerrickAs a member of the Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science, Dr. Herrick has extensive experience with every method of natural family planning.

Molly Price, ARNPMolly Price is certified in The Marquette Model to assist patients with natural family planning.

What is Natural Family Planning (NFP)?

[description of NFP from the USCCB resource page]

The Catholic Church supports the methods of Natural Family Planning (NFP) because they respect God's design for married love. In fact, NFP represents the only authentic approach to family planning available to husbands and wives because these methods can be used to both attempt or avoid pregnancy. When learning about NFP, it is important to know that: 

  • Natural Family Planning is an umbrella term for certain methods used to achieve and avoid pregnancies. These methods are based on observation of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of a woman's menstrual cycle. Couples using NFP to avoid pregnancy abstain from intercourse and genital contact during the fertile phase of the woman's cycle. No drugs, devices, or surgical procedures are used to avoid pregnancy.
  • NFP reflects the dignity of the human person within the context of marriage and family life, promotes openness to life, and recognizes the value of the child. By respecting the love-giving and life-giving natures of marriage, NFP can enrich the bond between husband and wife.  

Please visit the USCCB page on Catholic Teaching for a master list of teaching documents on NFP.

Please visit the pages on our website to learn more about discernment and Natural Family Planning use and the difference between NFP and contraception.

Looking for an NFP only doctor? Use the search at One More Soul.

Made for Life

Made For Life

Online NFP Courses through CCLI

All available Live-online or Self-paced online:

Main NFP Series

This is the basic class to learn fertility awareness using CCL's Symptothermal method of Natural Family Planing.  Learn to observe and register your fertility signs. This class provides valuable information, hands-on practice and support for your practice.

 

Postpartum Class

How does practicing NFP change during the postpartum time? What effect does baby feeding have on the return of fertility? Learn this and more in our Postpartum class. This is a supplemental class to the Main NFP series, thus knowledge of CCL’s method is a prerequisite.

 

Premenopause Class

As your fertile years wind down your fertility signs change and can be confusing. The Premenopause class is designed to help you confidently navigate this transition. This class builds on the information taught in the Main NFP series.

 

You can start your class right away: https://register.ccli.org/