Working for Northland FertilityCare are, from left, Hannah Saeger, FCP; Anna Crain, director; Susie Marchetti, CFCP; Mary Marquis, CFCP; Rachel Westphal, RN, CFCP and staff supervisor; and Megan Muhich, FCP, administrative assistant. This fall, the Diocese of Superior started a partnership with NFC to provide Catholics in the diocese with fertility awareness education. (Submitted photo)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff
Engaged couples who are curious about natural fertility awareness methods – or married couples who want to learn new NFP practices – now have access to free, personalized instruction.
On Sept. 9, Bishop James P. Powers sent out a letter introducing the Diocese of Superior’s new partnership with Northland FertilityCare.™
The partnership “provides parishioners with access to Natural Family Planning and Fertility Education using the Creighton Model FertilityCare™ system. This program offers introductory sessions, one-on-one instruction with trained practitioners,” the bishop shared.
He noted the “urgent need” that has been observed preparing couples for marriage without having “ready access to provide” training and accompaniment.
“Thanks to this partnership, that will no longer be the case,” Bishop Powers wrote.
The Catholic Herald interviewed Loree Nauertz, assistant director for the Office of Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship who specializes in marriage and family issues, and Anna Crain, director of Northland FertilityCare, to discuss the new partnership.
Crain said her organization has offered introductory sessions in Superior and has had casual relationships with people in the diocese. Although they have programming available to Catholics in the Diocese of Duluth, “reach out to Diocese of Superior” has been on her to-do list for at least five years, she said. She didn’t have the bandwidth at that point but trusted that when the time was right, the right doors would open.
Fast forward to 2025 and Chancery employee Emily Sjomeling, coordinator of employee benefits and insurance, was familiar with the FertilityCare™ program and contacted Crain to ask, from a medical insurance perspective, what they could offer diocesan employees.
Looking at the congregational model Northland has used in the Diocese of Duluth to provide free education and mentorship for the first year to those in member parishes, the Diocese of Superior and the organization collaborated on a pilot contract.
Nauertz added that something like this has been on her heart and wish list since 1996, when she moved to Spooner from the Diocese of La Crosse, where they had an “incredible NFP program” under full-time director Alice Heinzen. Nauertz learned NFP from Heinzen and looked for resources when she moved to the Northwoods but could find none.
As fruit of her asking around, Nauertz was asked to participate in a three-year diocesan advisory committee. One initiative was to offer education through a 1-800 number, but it ended after one year because the service only received one inquiry. Nauertz herself was teaching women and couples a sympto-thermal method of family planning.
Nauertz credited Megan Noll, former employee of the Diocese of Superior, who was tasked by then-Bishop Peter Christensen to start some Marriage and Family work at the diocesan level. When Nauertz was hired to assist the Office of Discipleship and Missionary Evangelization, it was immediately on her radar to get connected with Northland. She continued praying and to her surprise, “without doing anything other than pray,” she was thrilled to learn about the program Crain and Sjomeling designed.
This fall, packages were mailed to each parish across the Diocese of Superior with brochures and information about the training. Northland had an information table at the Fall Conference in Rice Lake in late October, and Nauertz is working on updating the information available on the diocesan website at the NFP page under the Marriage & Family tab.
One clarification Nauertz wanted to make is that education is open to all couples, engaged and married. It is not just for those preparing for marriage, Nauertz affirmed: “This is for everybody in the diocese.”
Crain interjected that one of the issues she has worked hard at is fertility awareness accessibility. Her own experience as a young wife and mother was that NFP methods were “for those in the pews” who are either getting married or really want to practice what the church teaches on openness to life. She remembers thinking to herself, “But this is for all women, if we really believe the science behind the method and it really being a holistic and restorative health concern, not merely throwing contraception at women as a band-aid for reproductive health.
“We need to break this open and be in mission with women,” she added. “I always felt like this was an access point to conversion.”
When done well – in relationship and aided by the Holy Spirit – NFP is an opportunity to open up larger conversations about trust in God, the gift of parenthood and eternal perspective to the realities of marriage and family life, she reflected, including struggles with infertility and miscarriage.
Northland FertilityCare™ teaches the Creighton method, which Crain said, “medically-minded people love.” She understands it won’t be the right method for everyone.
“The best method for someone is the one that they will use, and use consistently,” she said.
An overview of natural fertility awareness methods at catholicdos.org/natural-family-planning-nfp highlights which biomarkers each model uses and includes where to find further resources.
“Fifty percent of our clientele right now is solely focused on couples experiencing the reality of infertility,” Crain stated. These couples are not coming to Northland motivated by any church or faith connection, “but they want to get to the bottom” of whatever obstacle is preventing childbearing.
Practitioners work with clients at the level of fertility science and at the level of the heart. For women who have come to them using barrier methods of contraception, they dive deep into how to give them confidence in their observation and charting.
When they present at engaged couples’ retreats, Crain said, “We give them the 10,000-ft. view, give them an overview of the various methods, adding why (we) promote the Creighton method,” and then welcome them to try an introductory session.
“Just give an intro session a try – yes, it’s a bit like a biology class,” she said. “The presenters are pros, but you’ll get more of a relational feel in follow-up, one-on-one sessions.”
Northland FertilityCare™ is also working on offerings for young women and their mothers to teach about reproductive health, as well as addressing the changing needs of women in perimenopause and menopause. Crain asserted the importance of this, especially from the pro-choice stance accusing the pro-life movement being “pro-birth” only. She said when a woman’s fertility is aging out, fertility awareness methods can be helpful but that often the involvement of a physician is needed.
Nauertz and Crain spoke about how to broach the topic of natural family planning and fertility awareness for couples – married and unmarried – whose perspective on parenthood is predominantly secular.
Both the Catholic Church and secular society talk about responsible parenthood, but their definitions vary. Without denying the challenges that accompany parenthood – including financial responsibility, mental health and good intentions of wanting to give children the best upbringing possible – she focuses her teaching on openness to life as a gift and part of God’s loving plan for humanity.
When she is thinking about talking points for an “elevator pitch” with a contraceptive-minded woman, Crain understands and values the intention of women who want to “make sure they’re really ready to be a mother” before they get pregnant.
“I spend a lot of time in that elevator in my mind, because I don’t know how to ‘convince’ someone that a natural method can be effective, but that the larger questions are really relational,” she said.
Her experience accompanying women in the move from hormonal contraception to trusting their bodies and understanding their bio-markers is that practitioners “do really have to hold their hand … because they have spent so many years not trusting their bodies.”
She commented on how strongly they have trusted pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers. They are convinced they cannot get pregnant, when that is not completely accurate, and they choose not to look at the harmful side effects because they want the security of choosing pregnancy when they feel ready.
Practitioners will actually meet with many of these women weekly rather than bi-weekly, but it doesn’t solve the real issue, which is the “disordered thinking” that sees a child as the worst possible outcome of having sex.
“I get it,” Crain said. “I get it, even from the personal experience” of using a natural method to avoid pregnancy, and God having a different plan.
Having partners involved helps keep the bigger picture of the woman’s overall health in mind. She acknowledged how much more commonly she hears of men choosing vasectomies over their wives being on contraceptives.
Nauertz affirmed the real question being about our understanding of what brings happiness and fulfillment – a personal plan being followed “to a T,” or allowing God to have a say and having a mindset of faith and providence. She said this is where NFP really fits in as just one piece in the puzzle of evangelization and discipleship.
She responded to Crain sharing about clients who come in distressed that “they messed up” with the method and got pregnant. I’d say, “You didn’t mess up. You did have unrealistic expectations of your ability to control your life and God clearly had a different idea.
“I don’t try to oversell NFP primarily as a way not to get pregnant. It is a way to get to know your body, it is a way to assist responsible parenthood and couple’s communication,” Nauertz said. “But the reality is that when you surrender to God, you’re trying to do his will and you’re praying about all this, there is a big picture, a big, big picture that the eternal eyes of God see. In the moment, it seems so terrible and awful but in the big picture, God is the author of life. I feel like it’s God always asking us, do you trust me? Do you really trust me?”
Contact your parish for more information on NFP instruction. Register online for introductory sessions at northlandfertilitycare.com.
