Ep. 125: Client Story - Claire (Learning NFP in a Challenging Season)

SUMMER BREAK is upon us! Woven Well will be back with more new episodes July 5th! 

Choosing to learn a fertility awareness method can feel scary and daunting -- but what about when you're in a very busy, stressful season of life? Is it worth it to try? Should you wait until things slow down? These are good, valid questions! I asked client, Claire, to share a bit of her story and experience learning Creighton, since she learned Creighton while in Medical School! Wow! She shares what was hard about learning during that time, what made the difference in her learning process, and her advice to other ladies discerning the best time to begin to learn Creighton. 

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences. 

GUEST BIO: 
Claire is a family medicine resident physician. She is a native of the Alabama Gulf Coast, where she lives with her husband and their labrador, Chief. Claire enjoys baking, bird watching, and yoga.

SHOW NOTES: 
Interested in learning about the Creighton Model System? You're in the right place! 

• Register for Creighton Introductory Session: Register here for our next Introductory Session

Looking for ways to implement fertility awareness into your life and faith? Check out out most helpful resources: 

• Substack Newsletter (free)
• Website Resources (free)

Transcript

Caitlin: 0:06

Welcome to the Woven Well podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master of divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. I believe that a part of empowering and educating women is connecting them with other women who are on the same journey. That's why we have episodes devoted to hearing the fertility journey of a woman who is a part of Woven. There are often times when it feels scary and intimidating to try something new like the Creighton method for family planning. But add to that a really challenging season of life, it can feel downright impossible. But our guest today is going to share her experience of learning Creighton through a really challenging season. Claire is a family medicine resident physician. She's a native of the Alabama Gulf Coast, where she lives with her husband and their Labrador, Chief. She enjoys baking, birdwatching, and yoga, and she learned Creighton while finishing med school. I can't wait for you to hear her story. Welcome to the show, Claire.

Claire: 1:20

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be a part of this

Caitlin: 1:24

And I'm really excited for you to share your story for others out there who think, yeah, I'm in a really challenging season, so I need to know that it's possible. So now, first of all, the bio was a great start. I love to know that you are a fellow bird watcher. I love birds. Why don't you share a little bit about yourself?

Claire: 1:44

So , like you said, I'm a native of the Alabama Gulf Coast . Was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. And that's where I started med school. Took me a few years to get in. I had a little foray up into the Jackson, Mississippi area for some grad school. I did some research. I worked in an urgent care , and then , was able to get into med school, back in Mobile. I explored a lot of different specialties , and then landed on family medicine because I get to dabble in a lot of different things. And , it keeps the days very interesting. You never know what you're going to see or who you're going to meet, and that's what makes it so thrilling. I got married a little less than a year ago. Two weeks, exactly. So I'm looking forward to my first anniversary coming up here soon. And , yeah, I'm just excited to kind of talk about this Creighton journey I've been on and to share my story.

Caitlin: 2:43

Let's start there. You know, why were you interested in learning Creighton initially?

Claire: 2:49

So , first and foremost I wanted a method of, you know, pregnancy prevention that was in line with my faith. And then in more of a practical sense, I also wanted, you know, a way to prevent pregnancy that didn't involve hormones, didn't involve prescriptions and extra doctor visits, not that seeing the doctor's bad. And so I had been hearing about fertility awareness based methods , since college and was really intrigued by it and the science behind it and knowledge is to be gained from charting cycles , not just for the utility of preventing or planning pregnancy, but also just learning about a , a woman's health. And I was really excited to learn that about myself. I, in some sense would like to incorporate some aspect of cycle tracking. In my future practice, I don't know what that's going to look like, but I would like to , as a family medicine physician. So there was a lot of different reasons.

Caitlin: 4:02

I love that. And I love that it was the science that drew you to it. Well, science and faith, you said both of those things. Because sometimes there's this perception out there that fertility awareness based methods are not scientific and that could not be further from the truth. There is tons of research being done and that's been done in the past and it is extremely effective, like you were talking about. So I love that those two things, faith and science brought you to Creighton, and anytime someone decides to do something new like this, learning a system like Creighton, as I mentioned earlier, it can feel really intimidating because it's new and it's different. But for you, you also happened to be in med school when you began learning. So share with us how being in med school affected your learning process of the Creighton system.

Claire: 4:58

Yeah, so I started learning halfway through my fourth year of medical school. So this is around the time when you're interviewing with residency programs. You're kind of transitioning away from the clinical environment because you're getting ready to start residency and all the preparations that go with that. So at the time we were in hybrid-type interviews, so I was having interviews over Zoom and somewhere I was, you know, flying across the country to go to. And so I was traveling and then, you know, at the same time I was also getting ready to get married. So there was all of the planning that, and the traveling that goes along with that. And so, like I said, I was in and out of the clinical environment doing interviews. I was never in the same place two weeks at a time, two weekends in a row. And so the, the challenges with learning were, you know, having those memory anchors to, you know, make observations and make sure that I was charting and, you know, packing my chart in my bag and learning those ways to incorporate Creighton into my already busy life. But the nice thing about that was that it is really, you can make a seamless transition where it just becomes part of your habits. And so now as I'm transitioning, you know, as I transitioned into residency, which is now, I'm very much in the clinical environment, I'm in a different place every month. I have a different schedule every month. You know, I've been able to take those skills and apply them to this season as well.

Caitlin: 6:50

Yes, you were trying to learn something that was consistent in a season that was inconsistent. So you had a lot of struggles related to that as anyone in a challenging season may experience. But it sounds like what you're saying is that process of learning during a challenging season means that when you entered your next challenging season of residency, you already had those skills necessary in order to be able to do it. So how did you do it, you know, what helped you be successful despite all those challenges?

Claire: 7:25

Yeah, so , I worked with Caitlin , my wonderful instructor, to come up with ways that I would remember to make observations and record those observations even in a changing environment. And that included things like, you know, at home, which is where my, my habits really started. You know, the, the sticky note on the wall or you know, the the rubber band around the toothpaste to remember to like make that last of the day observation. You know, I'd always have my chart sitting out either on my nightstand or on top of my pillow. I literally couldn't get in bed without making my, writing down my observations for the day. You know, once I got married, I got my husband involved and I was like, okay, you have to now hold me accountable and you've got to ask me at the end of the night if I've done this because you know, because life comes up and you get kind of scattered and you need that person to hold you accountable.

Caitlin: 8:25

And I'm all about teamwork. I think teamwork is a great part of Creighton, so that's a good thing too.

Claire: 8:30

Definitely, definitely. You can't -- you can do it alone, but it is a lot easier with someone, for sure. And so, those habits and skills were things that I could take with me in any environment, and that really helped. And once you've created that habit, it's, it's really easy to take it anywhere.

Caitlin: 8:51

So, you know, what I love about that is none of the examples you just gave there. The things that you did differently in order to be successful were crazy or out of the normal, or you know, these really difficult challenging things in order to be successful. They were really simple things. You changed where your chart was, you put a reminder where you would see it. I love that because it's just a reminder that those little things that we can do can help us to be successful. It doesn't matter what's going on in life, even if you feel like your mind is going a mile a minute and you are being pulled in lots of different directions, you are working with a practitioner. You , you know, you mentioned that we went back and forth, we brainstormed things because there are going to be some suggestions that may not work for you, but they work for someone else. And so I'm going to make sure that, you know, my clients feel confident and successful, and we're going to find those things that can be, as you said, memory hooks to help them feel really good about it. So I love that yours were really super simple because it just goes to show that it doesn't take a lot of extra effort in order to be successful. It's just that habit and getting that habit into place. So here's my question. Was it worth it? You know, like, did you find Creighton to be beneficial even though you were in that super stressful, challenging season of life?

Claire: 10:17

Oh, it was so worth it. It was so worth it. And I learned something even from the beginning when I didn't know everything. But, you know, it, it had a lot of different benefits. Like from a very practical sense, when I was packing for a weekend, I knew with a lot more certainty whether I needed to pack that extra pair of period underwear, you know? Yes. Because I knew what to anticipate. I knew what was going to happen with my body, you know, even if I wasn't at home. And there's a certain sense of security that comes from that.

Caitlin: 10:50

Absolutely.

Claire: 10:52

I knew that sometimes my anxiety would maybe get a little worse the week before my period, and I learned that about myself, and I was able to anticipate that and kind of go into the week knowing, okay, maybe I'll have more emotional responses to things. Maybe I need to do a little extra self-care. Maybe I need to keep that in mind when I'm interacting with loved ones that, you know, there are hormones at play in my body. And like, that's okay. And, you know, this is just part of my cycle. And like having that knowledge, I mean, knowledge really is power; makes you just feel so much more confident in like knowing what to expect. And now that I'm married, it's, it gave me so much confidence to know that I have so much control over when we're going to have children. Because, you know, many people have many different reasons to have children when they do. And right now it's just not; it would not be good for our family. And so that knowledge and that confidence has really been beneficial. I've been able to use my charts to actually figure out that I had really low progesterone and I was put on progesterone supplementation and it's made me feel so much better. And I didn't even realize that that was a problem until now. I would never have known if it wasn't for Creighton model.

Caitlin: 12:16

Yeah, I I'm glad you mentioned that too, because a minute ago you were saying about all the anxiety and the PMS symptoms you have before your period and I wanted people to know that got resolved, you know, it got improved. That's good too. I'm really glad, and I love that when you share about things that are beneficial about Creighton for you, it goes across the board. There are practical benefits, there are physical benefits, mental benefits, emotional benefits and relational benefits. You listed all those different categories as you went through the things that have been most helpful to you. So that makes me really happy as your practitioner to hear all those things, that this is your why for doing it, and this is why you keep doing it. So there are going to be other women out there who feel like this is the worst possible time for them to try something new. Like Creighton, I feel like they're in this really hard season of life, and maybe later when life's not so crazy, they'll give it a try. What encouragement would you offer to those ladies?

Claire: 13:28

Don't wait. You know, life is crazy and likely you're not going to get that more peaceful time, and the longer you wait, the the longer you're going to have to wait for those benefits. The great thing about Creighton is that it, I mentioned earlier, it incorporates seamlessly into your life. You're not spending extra time doing a bunch of things and you can take as long as you need to to learn Creighton. It's not something that, oh, I need to get this down in so many months. It's like, no, you're always kind of, as you say, honing your craft in a way. I'm still learning things. I'm still getting better at it. You know, it's something that, that kind of ebbs and flows with your life. You know, there are times where I'm working 80 hours a week and, you know, my observations are kind of minimal , but I always have those skills in my back pocket so that when life calms down, I can kind of get back into like a better schedule. But I always have those skills with me. And so , just don't wait. It's, it's totally worth it.

Caitlin: 14:41

I love that you said the longer you wait, the longer it takes for you to experience the benefits because you can go ahead and have those benefits pretty early on in the process. Like you said, you were suddenly able to know exactly when your period was going to start, and that was early on in the process. Even though we have a standard learning process of, we do four initial education sessions where we're teaching you something new every single time we're meeting, I do not expect anyone to come in knowing anything. Okay. So I love that you said there's no rush. You can learn it as you go. That's how everyone does it. So there's no expectation that women would come in having this great wealth of knowledge and understanding what's going on in their cycle, and now we're just formalizing it. No, we are working with women in challenging seasons of life who don't know anything about their cycle, but they want to. And so that desire is there, and like you said, knowledge is powerful and they want to have that information at their hands so that they really can participate in their fertility and in their health instead of being in a passive position where they don't really have much choice about what's going on. They don't have much information and they can't really improve their quality of life in any way. So , thank you so much Claire, for coming on the show, for sharing some of your story and what it was like learning during med school and even now using it during residency. I really appreciate it.

Claire: 16:10

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for having me.

Caitlin: 16:13

For those of you in a tough season, those who are feeling overwhelmed about the idea of starting a natural family planning option, like Creighton, remember Claire's great advice. Don't wait. You know, you can do this. And the whole point here is that you're not alone in the process. There are other ladies who have walked through this, walked through other challenging seasons as they learn, but they're all learning with the help of a certified fertility care practitioner. So I would love to help you be successful in this. So if you're interested, then I invite you to join us for our upcoming introductory session. It gives you the perfect opportunity to learn more about Creighton and your own body and health as you discern your next steps . So there's no assumption that you will keep moving forward. You can attend this and really use it to decide if you want to get started with Creighton or not. So I'll be sure to link the registration in the show notes and so that you can join us, or you can also check for dates at wovenfertility.com. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.