II am absolutely fascinated by medicinal plants, the gentle gifts of our Creator to help us to improve our lives, treat health conditions, and optimize our health and fertility. One of my favorite ways to enjoy beneficial plants is through essential oils. If you don't already know, essential oils are a big health trend these days, and for good reason! These super concentrated essences of plants are aromatic, potent, healing, and just plain fun to use.  I have slowly graduated from cautiously smelling the cute little bottles to incorporating many different ways of using these oils in my home and daily healthcare. 

The essential oil industry however, can be confusing to navigate. There are dynamic  debates on safety, optimal use, and quality. Having a pure and high quality oil is very important if you want the product to be safe and beneficial. It's certainly vital to know and trust your essential oil manufactures and educators. 

Everyone and their brother seems to have an opinion on what brand is best, which is great! A competitive marketplace ensures that consumers have options.  However, this particular industry can have so many voices that it's tricky to sort it all out. So what essential oil brand do I recommend?

While I certainly have a few favorites, I don't recommend any one brand, because no one brand has the corner on quality and value. I could tell you which low quality brands to avoid, but that's another conversation. Let's talk a bit more about your basic options and where to start in choosing a good brand. 

Store Bought vs. Direct Sales
The biggest debate seems to be between the retail only crowd and the direct sales diehards. Those part of a big mulit-level marketing (MLM) company might worry that any oils bought off the shelf at stores or on Amazon poor quality and unregulated. On the opposite end,  those who dislike the MLM model may see any direct sale company as pushy and their products overpriced. Both viewpoints are far too generalized and unfair. 
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Both MLM and store bought essential oils can be excellent products. No one company has the corner on quality oils. You just have to do your research and find a brand that's best for you. Or pick several! Who says you can't enjoy more than one?

Here are a few things to consider when deciding on what to buy:

•  Do you agree with the company's philosophy?
• Is there 3rd party testing available to ensure quality?
• ​What do reviews say?
• Is it in a price range that you and your family can afford?
• Are you looking for a product that is less expensive because of lower overhead, or are you looking for the community, support, and business opportunities from a direct sales/multi-level marketing company? (hint - there is no wrong answer)
• If you are buying retail, what's your source? (I'd trust brands selected by a health store more than something I'd find at Walmart, for example).
• If MLM, is it a brand new company that's untested, or one that has a good track record of successful products and happy customers?

So talk to friends, read reviews, books and articles, and try as many different brands as you can.  Good oils should smell good and have noticable effects. They should be enjoyable to use and worth their price. 

One website I love for non-brand specific essential oil information is Using Essential Oils Safely.  Check out your library as well - there are lots of essential oil books with reference information,  recipes, and creative ideas on how to use oils for health and wellness. I hope you are able to find a favorite brand of your own to use and enjoy!
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I'm always on the lookout for alternative therapies to improve menstrual cycle health. So many women turn to powerful artificial hormones such as oral contraceptives for symptoms such as irregular periods, period pain, and even hormonal regulation. While therapies such as the Pill may mask symptoms temporarily, they do nothing to address the root cause of women's symptoms or balance a women's own hormones. 

I've long been aware of a unique kind of abdominal massage called Arvigo® Therapy, but practitioners with this kind of specialized training are few and far between. So I was delighted to discover that a homebirth midwife in my area is a certified Arvigo® practioner! She graciously agreed to an interview so that all of us could learn more about this fascinating modality and how it can benefit cycle health, fertility, and childbearing.

First, a little Cycle 101. The menstrual cycle consists of several phases. The follicular phase, which is pre-ovulation (the release of an egg from an ovary), the fertile window (the time around ovulation when conditions are right for conception), and the luteal phase (the post-ovulatory part of your cycle.) While the length of the follicular phase can vary, the luteal phase is generally stable. A healthy luteal phase is between 12-16 days long - you can count on it being nearly the same length every cycle. Once you ovulate, the luteal phase begins, as well as the countdown to your period. 

​With this in mind, there are really only two reasons why your period might be 'late'.

2.  Ovulation didn’t happen, or was delayed. ​
However, if you didn’t ovulate, you may be watching the calendar expecting your period to arrive, but your body hasn’t even started the two week countdown yet. No ovulation, no luteal phase, no period. So your period appears ‘late’, but it’s actually ovulation that is late. 

 It's a myth that all women ovulate on day 14 of their cycles all of the time - a little variation is perfectly normal. Beyond that, ovulation can be significantly delayed or even prevented for any number of reasons: stress, illness, sudden weight loss or weight gain, hormone imbalance, etc. 

So how can you know if and when you ovulate? How do you know if your long cycle is due to pregnancy or delayed ovulation?
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A simple way to track ovulation is to practice fertility charting, or natural family planning.​ This is more involved than simply keeping track of your period dates - fertility charting involves observing and recording your physical signs of fertility, which provide information about your hormones throughout your cycle. These signs can show you when your body is preparing to ovulate, and confirm when ovulation has passed. By keeping a fertility chart, you can know for certain if ovulation has happened and when you should begin the lookout for your period.

By charting, you'll know if your period is truly 'late' (and that you're having a long luteal phase indicating possible pregnancy), or if the delay is simply the result of the timing of ovulation. You'll also be able decide whether or not to avoid intercourse during your potentially fertile window, thus avoiding pregnancy naturally and worry free!  Learning to chart your fertility signs is a fascinating process that not only gives you valuable insight into the workings of your body, but also a sense of empowerment and confidence that you understand your own reproductive health and can make informed choices about when to engage in sexual activity.

​Are you interested in learning more? Send me a message, browse this website, visit the Facebook page, or take a natural family planning course from me!

As a mother myself, I’ve been giving more and more thought to how I want to convey this important life transition to my children. I don’t have a specific plan yet (plenty of time for that!), but I do know that I don’t want to let this moment pass for my daughters without acknowledgement. There are several reasons for this. I believe period positivity can be the beginning of body literacy, giving a girl both a healthy perspective on her body’s development and a sense of the preciousness of her femininity and sexuality. If our girls learn from day one that periods are a beautiful and functional part of how God designed them, they will be encouraged to be proactive in their healthcare, vocal about their questions and concerns, and better equipped to demand that their bodies be respected by others.

So celebrating the onset of menstruation, which will be a major part of a woman’s life for decades, is a worthy goal. But how to go about doing it? ​

Menarche rituals will look different for every family and every individual, so don’t constrain yourself to one set idea. Be creative. Ask friends, peruse forums, and explore a variety of options. Here are just a few ideas that I’ve come across:

• Create a special period kit and present it to your daughter, perhaps including soothing herbal tea, a heating pad, feminine hygiene products and a cute carrying bag, a journal, a favorite music cd, etc.
• Buy a bouquet of flowers
  
• Take her on a date to her favorite restaurant and ask her about her fears, hopes, and dreams for the future
• Pray together, buy a devotional book or personalized Bible
• Buy or make her a unique piece of jewelry to mark the occasion
• Invite her closest friends over for a celebratory sleepover
• ​Go on a mini mother/daughter retreat at a nearby hotel and pamper yourselves

 As you consider what to use for your daughter (or niece, sister, granddaughter, goddaughter, etc), here are some general guidelines that may be helpful to keep in mind:

​(Oringinally written for SymptoPro.org)
​So you’ve taken a big step in awareness of your cycle and hormonal health to make the decision to begin charting. Congratulations! Whether you’ve taken a SymptoPro class, learned a different natural family planning or Fertility Awareness Based Method (FABM), or have simply been scouring the web, accurate charting is a must. That is, making sure what’s written on your chart actually reflects your daily fertility signs.
So how do you ensure that your charts are accurate? I’m glad you asked.
Here are 5 Tips for Accurate Charting to help you get the most out of your experience with fertility awareness.

1. Take your temperature at the same time, in the same way, every morning.
If you’ve chosen to observe your basal body temperature, or morning resting temperature, consistency is key. Erratic temperature taking practices can make it difficult (if not impossible) to detect the tell-tale temperature shift that serves as confirmation that ovulation has occurred. 

To avoid confusion, make sure to take your temperature at the same time every day, preferably before 7:30am and after at least one hour of uninterrupted sleep. It’s also important that this is a true resting temperature. This means taking your temperature while still in bed, before rising, drinking water, brushing teeth, etc. The more accurate your temperature taking routine, the more accurate your chart will be.
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1. Don’t skip cervical mucus observations​
It’s vital not to miss any mucus observations. Sometimes fertile quality mucus may only appear once or twice a day. In this case, missing observations could create inaccuracies in your chart, potentially causing you to mislabel your fertile window.
For observing mucus on toilet tissue, make sure to check before and after every single time you use the bathroom. For observing mucus by vaginal sensation, make sure you are paying attention and noticing sensation throughout the day. At the end of the day, record on your chart the most fertile sign that you observed. Don’t save it until tomorrow thinking you’ll remember later!

Just like with temperature, make mucus observations in the same way every day. For example, if you learned a method that teaches tissue observations, do these diligently. If your method calls for internal observations, stick with those. Don’t mix and match observational styles – this creates inconsistencies in your chart that are confusing to interpret.
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Note: The same principals apply to the optional cervical observation. If you choose to observe your cervix (checking for openness, softness, height, mucus, etc), make sure you do it daily. This is a subjective and comparative sign; if you’re missing days, you may be left feeling really confused about what you’re feeling and causing yourself unnecessary stress.

(Originally written for LiveWell Collective)
With all the cute planners, digital calendars, and fancy phone apps available, keeping track of your period is easier than ever. Whether you write little dots on your wall calendar or record it in your phone, many of us want to remember when our last period started.

But there is so much more knowledge to be gained than simply keeping track of when you bleed. I’m referring to the practice known as ‘cycle charting’. Have you ever heard of it? Cycle charting is simply observing and recording your body’s signs of fertility, which include cervical fluid, basal body temperature, vaginal sensation, and cervical position.

By doing this, you can create a visual chart mapping the various hormonal phases and events in your cycle, such as the pre-ovulatory estrogen build up, the tell-tale high progesterone phase that dominates the second half of your cycle, and of course, menstruation itself. Learning to chart is a fascinating process that often sets a woman on a journey of self-discovery.
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Besides being simply interesting, cycle charting actually has practical applications as well. Here are my three favorites.

​1. Cycle charting promotes body literacy.
Cycle charting will probably teach you more about your body than you ever knew before. For example, did you know that you can only get pregnant about 6 days each cycle? Did you know that your cycle can be divided into distinct phases? Or that your cervix changes shape and position throughout your cycle?  Or that you don’t need to pee on a stick to know when you ovulate? Not only does charting give you a deeper understanding of how your body works physically, but it can also help you to discover how your cycle effects your relationships and emotional experiences on a day to day basis.

2. Cycle charting can be used to plan your family.
​As I mentioned before, pregnancy is only possible during a short handful of days each cycle. Your fertile window is determined by hormonal and physiological conditions being just right for conception to occur, along with the timely presence of sperm and an egg. Your body has observable signs of fertility that allow you to accurately determine when the fertile window begins and ends. This knowledge can be used to practice natural family planning, or NFP. Not to be confused with the outdated Rhythm Method, which relies on counting days and knowledge of past cycles guess at the timing of the fertile window, NFP relies on real-time physical observations so you can identify the fertile window as soon as it starts, whether your periods come regularly or not. You can simply avoid intercourse during the fertile time, resulting in a 99.4% effective way to avoid pregnancy. This can mean freedom from the risks and side effects of the Pill and other forms of birth control. This is a game changer!
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As you can imagine, this same skill set can be used to maximize your chances at conceiving. Not only does cycle charting allow you to accurately identify the best days for conception, but it also helps you asses if you have optimal fertility.

A simple description of natural family planning (NFP) is using knowledge of a woman's cyclical fertility to avoid or achieve pregnancy. The fertile window is determined by observing physical signs of fertility. ​Not terribly complicated, right? But what exactly are these fertility signs, and why can we trust them? Can a woman really tell if she's fertile simply by observing her body?

Fertility signs are physical biomarkers that reveal where a woman is in her menstrual cycle. Because the fertile window only occurs once per cycle, knowing when that window occurs is vital if a couple wishes to avoid pregnancy naturally (by abstaining during the fertile time), or if they are trying to conceive. Most fertility signs can be observed by the woman herself with no medical tests or specialized equipment. The signs commonly used in most  methods of natural family planning  are:

• Basal body temperature: A woman's resting or waking temperature, taken with a thermometer first thing in the morning
• Cervical mucus or cervical fluid: ​A special mucus produced by the cervix that is vital for fertility, acting to keep healthy sperm alive and filter out abnormal sperm, among other things.
• Cervical position: ​Subtle changes in the position and texture of the cervix itself
• Secondary signs: ​​​Breast tenderness, intermenstrual pain, and mood are interesting signs to note, though not reliable enough to be used alone to practice NFP.

The reason that fertility signs can be relied upon to detect a woman's brief fertile window is this: fertility signs are direct reflections of hormonal activity. Since women's sex hormones fluctuate in a very particular manner throughout the stages of her cycle, her fertility signs will show exactly what her body is doing.
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For example, a woman's basal body temperature will rise slightly in response to the hormone progesterone. ​Fertile quality cervical mucus is produced by the cervix according to a woman's estrogen levels. To a woman trained in fertility awareness, the presence of these signs is unmistakable and their timing tells the story of what her hormones are doing. Even though the moment of ovulation (the once-per-cycle release of an egg from an ovary) can't be detected without ultrasound, the hormonal events surrounding ovulation can be clearly observed through fertility signs. Because of this, a woman who uses NFP can confidently determine when her fertility begins and ends in any given cycle. 

The implications of this are widespread. As previously mentioned, the ability to determine when she is and isn't fertile gives a woman incredible control and flexibility in her family planning. Pregnancy can be avoided with no pills, devices, or barriers. A couple can also optimally time lovemaking for achieving pregnancy.

​But beyond family planning. learning to understand her fertility signs can help a woman to understand and monitor her health. Knowing her usual pattern of healthy cervical fluid will allow the woman to be the first to know if she has some kind of cervical or vaginal abnormality. Fertility charts, records of daily fertility signs, can reveal hormonal imbalances or other health issues.  Learning fertility awareness can truly enable women to be active participants in their own healthcare.  

Fertility signs are reliable, physical reflections of the day by day hormonal story of your cycle. Would you like to know more about how natural family planning works and why it's effective? Read some frequently asked questions or contact me!

As a natural family planning instructor and fertility educator,  I'm not shy about praising the virtues of women's natural cycles. What I don't often discuss is those times in our lives where our normal, cyclical fertility may be suspended for a time. This could perhaps be from the use of artificial hormonal medication, from illness or over exercise, or for happier reasons such as pregnancy and breastfeeding. As much as a monthly cycle is the biological norm for women, these times without our periods can be a normal part of the feminine experience as well.

If you have experienced times of non-cycling, you may be familiar with the mixed emotions that accompany the return of your periods and fertility. Even a mature woman can feel like a teenage girl as she tries to get accustomed to having periods again. While this time can be unsettling, disorienting and distracting, it can also be exciting, rejuvenating, and grounding! Let's talk about some practical ways to gently reacquaint yourself with your period.

​As your period returns, this can be an excellent time to evaluate your lifestyle and self-care routine. ​Are you happy with your old menstrual care products, or would you like to try something new? Are you consuming energy-giving, nourishing foods? Have you found a regular form of exercise that is fun and inspiring?  Our period can act as our monthly health report. If it quickly becomes painful, too heavy or light, irregular, or difficult to manage, it might be a good time to assess what you can change about your lifestyle to support healthy periods and overall well-being.

This is also the perfect time to learn more about your cycle and practice fertility awareness.​ ​Remember, your cycle is everything that happens from the start of one period to the start of the next. The cycle is an intricate interplay of biological processes that affects us both physically and emotionally. Do you know about the different phases of the cycle and how they affect you? Do you know when your fertile window begins and ends? Do you know what your fertility signs are and how to chart them? There has never been a better time to learn than right now!

​Finally, let this be a time of leaning in and engaging with others. ​Our feminine biology is something that connects us to other women. Remember puberty? Though it has its awkward moments, puberty is often a time when girls chat about their bodies and their feelings, share stories, and support each other in the reality of becoming women. I would love to see adults do this too!  Whether we are living with regular cycles, no cycles, pregnancy, infertility, perimenopause, we can use our uniquely feminine  experiences to draw us into deeper community and authentic relationships.

​And if you have questions about the female cycle, or you want to know how to begin evaluating if you are living a cycle-supporting lifestyle, you came to the right place.  I would love to hear from you! Email me at wellspringfertility@gmail.com, contact me through this form, or join the Wellspring NFP and More Facebook group.

Originally written for the Guiding Star Project.

Last night at quarter after nine in the evening, there was still light outside my window. As usual, summer has fully arrived almost without me realizing it! I don’t know about you, but this summer is a particularly busy season for my family. We’re juggling selling one house, buying another, moving, keeping up with growing little ones, new job responsibilities, traveling, weddings, graduation parties, and lots of time with family. Does this sound like your summer too? While this is all wonderful and exciting, it can also be rather draining. My husband and I are feeling a bit frazzled and distracted these days. Romance is often on the back burner, and it can be hard to stay connected. Thankfully, there are ways to work on staying in love! Here are some ideas for nurturing your relationship with your spouse this summer:
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1. Small gestures have big impact
Between long hot work days, crowded family reunions and kids’ baseball games, it’s easy to lose track of each other and disconnect physically. If you’re hosting houseguests or traveling, you may not have much alone time for days or weeks at a time. In these moments, eye contact, holding hands, and stolen kisses serve as powerful reminders that you are there for each other and still interested. Never underestimate how grounding (and sexy!) a meaningful glance can be.

As a seasoned natural family planning (NFP) user, I must admit that at times I get sloppy. I know my body and my fertility signs very well, and I often know what I'm going to see on a given day of my cycle. Because of this, it's tempting to take shortcuts in my observational routine; that is, the way that I observe my body's signs of fertility. But having a solid observational routine is the fundamental skill that ensures effectiveness of natural family planning, so no matter how comfortable you are with the method, it's important to stay on top of this! Think about it; your observations are what sets NFP apart from the Rhythm Method. The Rhythm Method is a way of predicting your fertile window based on the length of your past cycles, but it does you no good if you have irregular cycles, are breastfeeding, perimenopause, or post-Pill. If you aren't diligently watching your body's symptoms of fertility, then your guesswork leaves you vulnerable to the occasional early or delayed ovulation. So how do you prevent this? 

Here are the hallmarks of a good observation routine:

1. Consistency.
You are aware of your vaginal sensation throughout the day, and you are checking for cervical mucus on your toilet paper before and after each time you use the bathroom.  This is key, as sometimes you'll only observe mucus once or twice a day, so it's easily missed if you aren't consistent! If you have trouble remembering, try creative ideas like leaving your chart in the bathroom or putting a bright sticker on your underwear! Eventually it becomes such a habit that you'll make your observations almost without thinking.