Birth control, Creoghton

[brendenseth]

Hi all, my wife and I use the Creighton model and I was just wondering if anyone had a similar experience. We have 3 children right now. One will be 5 in November, one is 16 months, and one in the womb. According to our charts my wife should not of gotten pregnant now, but she did! I am very excited because now I know what it is to be totally surprised. My question is after the baby how do we make love now without being terrified about getting pregnant again? I know God would not let anything happen that shouldn’t, but it is scary. Does anyone have success with Creighton? Or should we just abstain after this baby until she stops breastfeeding? Which could be like 2 years!

 

[ShrodingersCat]

You need to discuss you charts with a Creighton practitioner to figure out what happened. Creighton has a very high success rate, if used properly, but there are always people for whom it might not work as efficiently because everyone is different biologically.

Only a practitioner who sees all of your wife’s charts can tell you what may have happened. Even with perfect use, NFP is only 99% effective (same as the pill), so you could just have hit that 1%.

 

[Allegra]

We use Creighton model and while it’s been successful for us, we’ve had to been extremely conservative post-partum because the signs you are looking for are not as clear. I think the best solution is to use a different method post-partum, until her mucus cycle returns to normal. I’m 8 months post-partum and we are considering using one of those ovulation monitors because it seems like we hardly ever have a clear green day.

 

[TyburnTreeHuggr]

Hey There!

My wife and I use the Creighton model as well. For us… well, it stinks. The charting is challenging to say the least and that leaves us about 1-2 green days when we’re trying to avoid (or fewer). So, we just abstain a lot.

Sure, man, it’s two years- I feel you! But I like to think that that is offset by the times when we’re actively trying + 9mo of pregnancy. It all evens out in the end.

My advice is to just go with it, abstain when you have to, and get a really good long book that you can read in the evenings to pass the time.

Commiseratingly Yours,
Tyburn

 

[ShrodingersCat]

Hey There!

My wife and I use the Creighton model as well. For us… well, it stinks. The charting is challenging to say the least and that leaves us about 1-2 green days when we’re trying to avoid (or fewer). So, we just abstain a lot.

Sure, man, it’s two years- I feel you! But I like to think that that is offset by the times when we’re actively trying + 9mo of pregnancy. It all evens out in the end.

My advice is to just go with it, abstain when you have to, and get a really good long book that you can read in the evenings to pass the time.

Commiseratingly Yours,
Tyburn

Have you ever thought about trying another method? That seems like a very frustratingly low number of green days.

I use STM. I just use an app on my phone to record all my symptoms.

I think Creighton probably works great for some people, but I like having a range of signs to confirm ovulation with. For example, some women get fertile mucus after ovulation just before menstruation. It doesn’t mean anything, so if you are using STM and have confirmed ovulation you can ignore, whereas with Creighton wouldn’t you have to assume it was a secondary peak?

Possibly STM doesn’t work great if you have to get up at night to breastfeed though. Some people swear by fertility monitors.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility is an amazing book, every NFP user should read it.

Also, OP, there are rules around breastfeeding for NFP; they are pretty strict (ecological breastfeeding and so on) but you might get lucky and your wife might meet the criteria for them.

 

[AnastasiaRomano]

Have you done a pregnancy chart review with a practitioner for the most recent pregnancy? This is always suggested when Creighton users experience an unexpected pregnancy. It is a very effective method, but like anything does depend on humans and user error is possible.

Postpartum is hard in many NFP methods – the signs can be confusing. I know several women who switch to Marquette model while breastfeeding to have the more “objective” monitor. The downside to Marquette is that it’s not cheap for the monitor and test sticks.

 

[ShrodingersCat]

Taking Charge of Your Fertility is an amazing book, every NFP user should read it.

Should probably mention that it is actually a FAM book, which is NFP but condoms instead of abstinence. Just ignore that part

 

[Allegra]

Hey There!

My wife and I use the Creighton model as well. For us… well, it stinks. The charting is challenging to say the least and that leaves us about 1-2 green days when we’re trying to avoid (or fewer). So, we just abstain a lot.

Sure, man, it’s two years- I feel you! But I like to think that that is offset by the times when we’re actively trying + 9mo of pregnancy. It all evens out in the end.

My advice is to just go with it, abstain when you have to, and get a really good long book that you can read in the evenings to pass the time.

Commiseratingly Yours,
Tyburn

Only 1 or 2 days? Presuming you already discussed the charts with a practitioner and your wife is sure she is interpreting her signs correctly, I would try out another method!

 

[brendenseth]

I talked with our Nurse Practitioner who taught us Creighton, and she said that that your mucus changes while you breastfeed! That would of been nice to know that far out, because my wife was still breastfeeding! Haha I love it though honestly, it’s more souls to bring to heaven! Her HCG levels were high for how far along she is too, so it could be twins too! Whatever God gives me I’m happy, as long as they are healthy. Please pray for my wife and I, because I feel that we will be facing a lot of criticism with our family. God is good all the time, I just keep that on repeat now haha. Thank you for all of your responses, God bless.

 

[Allegra]

I talked with our Nurse Practitioner who taught us Creighton, and she said that that your mucus changes while you breastfeed! That would of been nice to know that far out, because my wife was still breastfeeding! Haha I love it though honestly, it’s more souls to bring to heaven! Her HCG levels were high for how far along she is too, so it could be twins too! Whatever God gives me I’m happy, as long as they are healthy. Please pray for my wife and I, because I feel that we will be facing a lot of criticism with our family. God is good all the time, I just keep that on repeat now haha. Thank you for all of your responses, God bless.

My instructor told us that whever I became post-partum, I was to call for an appointment to get special instruction for breastfeeding because of the difference in mucus.

 

[brendenseth]

My instructor told us that whever I became post-partum, I was to call for an appointment to get special instruction for breastfeeding because of the difference in mucus.

That would make sense! I will be sure to this time, because we want to avoid now.