Last weekend concluded NFP (Natural Family Planning) Awareness Week.  If you don’t know what that is, read my old post here.

Philip and I learned the Creighton Model during our engagement and used the Creighton Model to help us achieve pregnancies, space pregnancies, and determine when I was having hormonal issues like low progesterone.  After using the Creighton Model of NFP for 8 years, we decided to start researching other methods when I was pregnant with Dorothy.  We absolutely LOVE Pope Paul VI Institute and learned a lot about our fertility through the Creighton Model.  However, we decided it was time to explore other methods because we struggle with a mucus-only NFP method during the postpartum phase.

Like most women, I have a variable return of cervical mucus when breastfeeding.  To further complicate matters, I have varied in the amount of time I’ve been able to breastfeed each baby, so even though this is our fourth baby (and fifth pregnancy), I still don’t have a gauge for when I should expect my period to return or what is/isn’t true peak mucus before my cycles return.  In a gist, the Creighton Model works by having the woman observe her cervical mucus every time she uses the restroom.  Based on her observations, she knows whether or not she is ovulating.  The couple can use that information to determine whether they can engage in the marital act to achieve their goal of achieving or avoiding pregnancy.

The Creighton Model was fabulous for us when my cycles returned after previous pregnancies and things more or less returned like clockwork.  However, those weeks or months postpartum before my cycles returned after each pregnancy involved a lot of uncertainty due to my variable return of mucus.  Due to the uncertainty, that meant a lot of abstaining.  A lot.

May I also remind you that I get super duper sick during pregnancy?  I was on anti-nausea medicine with Dorothy until 34 weeks.  Let me just put that information out there to let you deduce that pregnancy in this marriage also equates to a lot of abstaining.  Then, there’s the minimum 6 week postpartum rule.  After that, we knew we’d be entering into the “it’s anybody’s guess whether this is peak mucus or not” territory.

We wanted to learn a new method that would give us more certainty for the postpartum time.  Ultimately, we decided on the Marquette Method of NFP.  We wanted a method that would help us to achieve our goals of:

• spacing our children
• using the information we gained from the Creighton Model
• being together as much as possible as husband and wife

I’m 4 months postpartum, I’m still nursing, and my cycle is nowhere in sight.  Just like before, I’m experiencing that variable return of mucus.  We are just getting started with Marquette, but I cannot even begin to tell you what a relief it has been!

Marquette can work a couple of different ways.  Philip and I have decided to use the Marquette Model by charting both our mucus readings and the readings from our Clearblue Fertility Monitor.

With the Marquette Model, the mucus readings more or less build on the education we gained from the Creighton Model.  The Marquette Model rules for mucus are much, much more simplified than Creighton.  Your only options for charting mucus with Marquette are Low, High, or Peak.  When it comes to this portion of charting, I am so very grateful for our background with Creighton.  The training and charting with the Creighton Model involved a much, much more detailed description of what was going on with the mucus.  With our background from Creighton, I’m confident going forward that we will be able to identify when something is wackadoodle and needing a physician’s help.

The Clearblue Fertility Monitor is why we switched to Marquette.  We were looking for some objective information we could bring to the table when determining when I’m ovulating.  With a mucus-only model like Creighton, we were dependent solely upon my mucus observations.  With the monitor, we have additional information to rely on.  The Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor is very simple.  Here’s the description of how the monitor works directly from the Clearblue Easy website:

Clearblue Ovulation Tests detect the Lutenizing Hormone (LH) surge which occurs approximately 24-36 hours prior to ovulation. This is how they help you pinpoint the 2 best days of your cycle to conceive a baby – the day before ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. So, if you have sex on these two days, you’ll be giving yourself the best chance of getting pregnant.

The Clearblue Fertility Monitor with Touch Screen tracks two hormones. It not only detects the LH surge and pinpoints your 2 Peak Fertility days, but also identifies typically up to 5 additional fertile days when you may conceive (High Fertility days) by detecting the rise in estrogen which occurs immediately before this LH surge. As your partner’s sperm can survive in your body for several days, having sex on those days can also result in pregnancy.

Isn’t that awesome?!  This is ideal for us because we want to know BEFORE I am going to ovulate.  That way, we can be more successful in our goal to space our children.  Some other NFP methods have a woman take her basal body temperature (BBT) when she first wakes up.  That’s your body’s temperature when at rest.  The problem with this method for us is two-fold:  I don’t wake up at the same time every day with these kiddos, and the temperature increase occurs after ovulation.  This would make things riskier when trying to avoid a pregnancy as sperm can live for a few days during the woman’s peak fertility of her cycle.

Back to the Clearblue Fertility Monitor…The monitor gives 3 possible readings:  Low, High, or Peak.  Low means that there is a low likelihood of getting pregnant.  High means that an increase in estrogen is detected and that it is highly possible to get pregnant that day.  Peak means that the monitor is also detecting the LH surge.  After the 2nd Peak day, the user will know that she is likely ovulating the next day.  The monitor automatically gives a High reading after the second Peak day.

A disadvantage of the monitor is that it is *possible* for the monitor to miss the LH surge.  Marquette claims that it misses it in about 1 out of every 10 cycles.  For that reason, Philip and I are continuing to chart my mucus observations in conjunction with the monitor.  When we have conflicting information from my mucus observations and the monitor, we have an additional tool at our disposal: Wondfo LH testing strips.  These testing strips check my LH level as well.  I haven’t had to yet, but I will use these testing strips when we get conflicting information.  For example, if I have peak mucus but get a low reading on the monitor, this could either mean that the monitor missed my LH surge OR it could just be my variable return of mucus being wackadoodle.  Our hope is that by continuing to chart my mucus AND monitor readings over the course of these next few months, we’ll get a better sense of what my non-peak mucus looks like during the postpartum time (the fake-out, “you’re not really ovulating” stuff) while still putting the information from the Creighton Model to good use.

Another disadvantage of the Marquette Model is the cost.  The Clearblue Easy Monitor is pricey.  It’s regularly $229.  (Great news for you, though!  For whatever reason, the Clearblue Fertility Monitor is on sale on Amazon right now.  I have no idea how much longer this price will stay.  Nevermind that I bought it at full price just a few weeks ago…)  The testing sticks for the monitor are $30-35 for 30 testing sticks.  Gulp.  I know.  Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, all of that being said, Philip and I agree that the monitor and testing sticks are WELL worth the investment for us.  Without the monitor, we would be abstaining ALL THE TIME during these crazy postpartum months.  As Philip would say, “No bueno.”  The best part of all is having some objective data to rely upon in addition to my mucus observations while breastfeeding.  There are special instructions for using the monitor while breastfeeding before your cycles return.  Basically, you’re creating artificial menstrual cycles with the monitor and testing over and over again until your period returns or you get a High or Peak reading.  (The instructions are very thorough and leave little room for interpretation–a dream come true for a postpartum mama needing some objective help!)

So, there you have it.  That’s my long way of explaining why we switched from Creighton to Marquette for these crazy postpartum months.  We still love you, Creighton Model, and we’re grateful for Pope Paul VI Institute for the gift you’ve been in our marriage.  We’re just baby Marquette users, so I’ll probably circle back to give an update all of this when my cycles return.  For now, we are thrilled with our switch to Marquette.