The Springer's had been trying to get pregnant since 1996 when they began using the Creighton Model in January 2000. They tried the traditional medical approach to infertility and even tried things that made them uncomfortable. None of these methods helped them achieve pregnancy and put a lot of stress on their marriage. They found the experience very frustrating.

The doctors were unable to detect the reason for their infertility and it wasn't until a friend told them about the Creighton Model that they were able to diagnose the problem. They enjoyed working with a Creighton Model Medical Consultant and were thrilled at how different this approach is compared to what they had experienced. The Creighton Model respects life and marriage. It united them as a couple rather than divided them. The philosophy of CrM helped their marriage by enhancing the role of intimacy in their relationship and improving their communication.

In just a few months after using CrM they achieved a pregnancy and their son Jeremiah was born in February 2002. They liked CrM so much that they wanted to share it with others especiallyother infertile couples. Jennifer has been teaching since February 2001 and is one of our active FertilityCare Practitioners. They plan on using CrM for spacing and throughout their procreative life.

(Jackson's cont'd) We waited a month and again started the treatments. We continued the treatments and more testing for 4 cycles. At that point they got back some test results and told us that our chances of getting pregnant on our own was very slim. They said our only hope was in-vitro fertilization. I had read a lot about this and knew I didn't want to go through that. We were devastated by this news that we would never have a child of our own.

We started to look a little into adoption when we saw a class in our church bulletin for the NFP program. It stated that they could help with infertility. My husband and I attend the NFP class and found ourselves having some hope again. We signed up with Kathy to start learning the NFP program. After our first session with her she recommended we see a Creighton Model Medical Consultant to see if he could help us also. I made an appointment to meet this doctor after I had charted two full cycles. He said he would try his best to find what the problem was and to help us out. He ran some tests on me and found that my progesterone and estrogen was a little low during my cycles. He said he wanted to try HCG shots to boost my hormone levels.

So for the next cycle I took the shots after I ovulated and my husband and I continued to chart and try to get pregnant. On the second cycle I took the shots again after I ovulated & then found out that I was pregnant!! It only took two cycles of being on the hcg shots for us to get pregnant on our own. A couple of days after I found out I was pregnant I stopped having any pregnancy symptoms. I quickly called the doctor and told him that I had the same thing happen when I miscarried last time. He had me go to the hospital and get a progesterone level test and get a shot of progesterone. The test revealed that my progesterone level was low. I had to be on progesterone shots for all of my first trimester.

After that I didn't have any more problems and had a very good pregnancy. I loved every minute of being pregnant and when my daughter was born on March 1, 2002 we just thanked God for our wonderful precious gift. We are so thankful for finding NFP and our docotr. We will always use the NFP program in our lifes and recommend it to everyone."

After two years of marriage, my husband and I decided it was time for us to have our first child. We carefully planned what season we wanted our child born and stopped using contraception accordingly. I expected not to see my period that month, so when it did come my husband and I were both upset. After three months, we were worried about why we hadn't yet conceived. I called my OB/GYN. I never actually talked with my doctor about this issue, but instead was instructed on what to do via her nurse. She told me that I should wait one year and if I still hadn't conceived she would treat me for infertility. One year. I couldn't imagine how long that would be.

We waited the year. During that time, my periods were irregular and I took many pregnancy tests. Anxiety over pregnancy grew stronger and stronger. After the year, I called my nurse, who prescribed Clomid over the phone. I had no idea what it was or how it worked. All I knew was that she attached the word infertility with it. I never saw my doctor or nurse face to face about this issue, so I never really received any answers to questions I had. I felt helpless and uneducated. My nurse also asked me to track my BBT every morning. This caused me a lot of stress. I never could remember to do it first thing in the morning, before I got out of bed, and when I did, I just fell back to sleep while waiting for the thermometer to beep.I was stressed out because I felt that if I didn't do this temperature thing right, I would never be able to have a baby.

Also, this increased my anxiety level, because the first thing I thought about every day was the fact that I still didn't have a baby. I would look at my chart and cry every morning, because the points on it were so scattered-clearly not adding up to pregnancy. My nurse instructed me to take a pregnancy test if I didn't see my period after 30 days. I did so and the results came out negative. I called my nurse to ask her why I hadn't menstruated, and she told me to wait a couple of weeks and then call her again. I did so. At that point, she gave me a drug Provera. She said it would jump start my menstrual system. She and I went through this entire process several times, her changing the dosage of Clomid each time. I grew frustrated with what was going on. After my second year of trying to have a baby, I felt I had made no progress.

What if Clomid wasn't fixing the problem? What is the problem? How could this nurse possibly know? Could the problem reside within my husband's body? After about 2 1/2 years of trying to conceive, I went in for a pap smear. I saw a different nurse (still not my doctor). She noticed I had some black hairs on my neck and asked me if I had ever had my testosterone levels checked. I told her that no, I had not. She said perhaps that was contributing to my difficulty getting pregnant. I asked her why no one had ever checked that before. It became clear to me that no one had looked at my body or my husband's body to determine what the problem was. They were just shooting in the dark.

At this point, my husband met a doctor who had been doing research on the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. We switched to this doctor and began our journey. I felt better immediately-even though I still wasn't pregnant. There are several things that really made my time with infertility so much more bearable using the Creighton Model:

1. We were looking for the problem. Suddenly, we were no longer just trying things to see if they worked, but we were investigating what was not working normally so we could treat it. I think this is the most important thing the Creighton Model did for us.

2. I became educated. I learned all about my body and my husband's body-what should be happening and when. I learned that my own body works on a six-week cycle. Thus, while my former doctor told us that my ovulation was probably occurring between day 12 and day 18 of my cycle, I found that really, ovulation for me occurred much later on. We had miscalculated when we should be having intercourse and had been actually trying during infertile periods. Also, we were able to gauge when my period should come, and I started seeing some method behind the madness of my irregular cycles.

3. I received personal treatment. My doctor spent plenty of time with me, explaining what he saw on my chart. Also, my husband and I felt an enormous amount of support from our personal Creighton Model instructor (FertilityCare Practitioner), who spent a lot of time educating us on how to track our progress and deal with the difficulties of infertility. It seemed that there was a team set up to face these problems: wife, husband, doctor, nurse, and Creighton educator.

4. There was a focus on relationships. Never before had I considered the fact that no matter whose body wasn't working, both my husband and I were infertile. The focus that the Creighton Model places on family and marital relationships helped my husband and I to find ways to support each other through this difficulty and use it to strengthen our marriage.

5. The method was low stress and easy. Once I got used to checking my mucus every day, there was no difficulty in remembering to do it. My husband reminded me each night to record the day's observations, and each night we discussed our progress. There was never much worry about what our chart said, because for the most part, we understood what things meant. We knew exactly what was going on in my body at any given moment. At the end of each month, we knew if we had a chance of being pregnant or not, and knew when to check for it. Before this, we took a pregnancy test every time I hadn't yet menstruated on day 30.

Since my cycle is so long, this meant that we got our hopes up virtually every month and felt the crushing blow of a negative pregnancy test on a regular basis. This method told us what to expect, so that we never had to go through this anxiety. I realize that if I had been using this method all along-first to avoid and then later to achieve pregnancy, I would possibly might not have gone through the difficulties I experienced in those three years of trying to achieve. I would have had a clear understanding of what was going on in my body and could have corrected the problem within a few months. I will never use another method for contraception again. I like the health history I get from the Creighton Model. Plus, my husband and I recognize the value of times of abstinence as an opportunity to strengthen our marriage in other ways.

After learning the Creighton Model, I was able to achieve pregnancy within six months. For three months, we tracked the patterns of my natural cycle. Then, for another three months, we worked with our doctor to resolve the problems we saw. Although I am happy that the Creighton Model helped me to achieve pregnancy (and that happiness that makes everything in my life seem lovelier), I do not discount what the Creighton Model did for me while I was trying to achieve as well. It helped me feel a sense of peace and control and hope that I was not feeling with other methods. I feel that learning about the Creighton Model was a blessing from the Lord-an answer to our prayers. Without it, I fear we would still be in the despair of the guessing game. With it, we were able to handle the challenges that faced us, and we found solutions.

"My husband and I started trying to conceive our first child in September 1999. I had been on birth control for five years and thought that when I came off of it that I would have no problem getting pregnant. Six months went by and we were still not pregnant. We decided to go see my doctor and have some tests done to see if there was a problem. They told my husband and I that we both had problems and needed to see a fertility specialist. We were told by the specialist that our problems were not that bad and he could help us to get pregnant.

We did clomid and insemination treatments for two months when I found out I was pregnant. We were so excited but our excitement was short lived. A week later I miscarried and was devastated.