Fertility Care Intern Leah Stader has volunteered to offer NFP consulting to St. Ambrose Academy families. Read an interview...

St. Ambrose Academy welcomes Leah Stader as Natural Family Planning consultant.

St. Ambrose Academy is blessed to announce that it will have a consultant available for any St. Ambrose families needing assistance with Natural Family Planning this year. Leah Stader, a FertilityCare Practioner Intern who will be finishing her training in November 2009, has graciously agreed to help our families in this vital area of Catholic home life. Ms. Stader is trained in the Creighton model and has worked with various groups including high school women and married couples. She will be available to answer any questions by email at creightonfertilitycare@yahoo.com or by phone at 608-330-2477.

She recently accepted Mr. Matenaer’s invitation via email to share her thoughts on NFP, as well as her background and training, with the families of St. Ambrose.

Paul Matenaer: Where did you go to college? What was your degree in?

Leah Stader: UW-Madison from 1995-2000, B.S.N. (Bachelor's of Science in Nursing). My second nursing clinical was in Obstetrics and we had to present a related topic to our fellow nursing students. I chose NFP and presented it from a natural, scientific perspective. This was one of my first memories of researching and talking about the benefits of NFP.

PM: What did you do after college?

LS: I volunteered in Calcutta, India with the Missionaries of Charity from Oct. 2001 until March 2002. During this time I discerned that God may be calling me to the Religious Life and entered the Order in New York in June 2002. I was in the Bronx for a year of Aspirancy, a year in Mexico City for Postulancy and finished one year of Noviciate in San Francisco. The years of formation were very purifying, but it was God's very mysterious and merciful way of teaching me the Faith and the Spiritual Life. Finally I discerned that it wasn't my vocation, and left in July 2005. I moved to Madison in Oct. 2005 to begin working at St. Mary's Care Center on the Memory Care Unit. It has been a time of great healing and adjustment, trying to apply what I learned into my daily life. By God's providence, in 2007 I began auditing the Institute for Pastoral Theology program through Ave Maria University in Janesville, WI. What a gift it has been to continue learning from professors who are faithful, gifted and have given their lives to studying and teaching others the Truths of our Faith. Finally, I began the Creighton Practitioner program in Oct. 2008 and was able to cut back to 50% at the nursing home and focus the other half on studying and providing Creighton FertilityCare services. What joy to be able to serve both at the beginning and end of life.

PM: How did you become interested in NFP? Why did you decide to become trained in it?

LS: During college I met some couples through St. Paul's University Catholic Center who used NFP and I was touched by the tender joy and respect they had for each other. I was also drawn to the natural way a woman's body works and how we can pay attention to certain signs to know our fertility. My first experience of hearing Christopher West talk about the Theology of the Body was 10 years ago...it was very exciting to hear this great news.

Fortunately, Jessica Smith, the former Family Planning Coordinator asked me (twice) if I would like to be trained. The first time I quickly responded, "Oh no, I think you have to be married to be able to teach this." But after a couple months she asked again. This time I said, "I will at least look through the application." My heart was so thrilled as I read through it and I was able to begin training in the year of the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Thank you, Jessica.

PM: Are there any quotations from Scripture, the saints, or holy men and women that inspire you in the study of NFP? Any from Mother Teresa?

LS: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

"Marriage is the beginning of our understanding of the interior life of God, the Trinity of self-giving persons in which personhood is fulfilled in the absolute gift of self. It is the human experience that begins to make God comprehensible to human beings." (JPII)

"Humanae Vitae clearly expressed the mind and will of God about marriage...We must fight selfishness with a true, generous, self-sacrificing love. I pray that you will find peace and joy in continuing your beautiful work of loving and respecting life. May Mary, the mother of Jesus, be a mother to you at all times." (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

In general, one of the biggest attacks of the evil one is making us doubt God's love. We are tempted to think we can't trust Him. This is the falsehood of contraception. Unknowingly, people have a false sense of control, while He is calling us to the way of spiritual childhood. An example of this is God's directives to the Israelites in gathering their daily bread. He was teaching them obedience and trust day by day.

Finally, Dr. Hilgers emphasizes that the use of NFP has an immense potential for the rejuvenation of the family! This is exciting.

PM: What certification do you have in NFP?

LS: FertilityCare Practitioner Intern. (I will be finishing the Internship program Nov. 2009.) I have been trained in the Creighton Model of NFP; however, there are a variety of methods that fall under the theme of NFP similar to the variety of charisms we have within the One Church.

PM: Have you worked with any couples, women, or high school students in the past?

LS: Yes, since November it has been a blessing to work with a high school woman, young adult women, engaged couples, married couples with normal fertility and infertility and pre-menopausal women. This has given me the perspective that NFP is much more than just a way to postpone pregnancy. It empowers women and couples to understand and appreciate the fertility God has given them, to monitor their general health and to cooperate in living out His Will for their lives. Single women become so in tune with the way their bodies work and the dignity they have as women. For engaged and married couples, using NFP becomes the means that facilitates many other conversations that they would not necessarily have if they were using contraception. (ie. their spiritual lives, respecting each other, having more children, daily routines and responsibilities, finances, family vacations, etc.) And for premenopausal women, it is beautiful way to continue tracking as they transition into a new stage of life.

PM: Thank you, Leah, for your generosity in assisting our families as they build a culture of life. May God bless you and your work this coming year.