Who doesn’t love info graphics? This showed up on Facebook last month, and has been posted a couple different places. In case you didn’t get to see it….

Special thanks to Christina Rorman Rosamond for permission to post (and permission for you to share it if you’d like!).

Infographic Inspo

I for one love a good infographic, and think we’ve got some great graphic designers who can take something like Christina’s done, and run with it! Sadly, there’s not enough NFP/ FertilityCare Info-inspiration out there, so here’s some inspiration from the other side of things. I personally love the first one because of the circle graphs which mimic birth control pill packs, the use of dots throughout, the type used, and the colors chosen. The second one is decent too. (Click the second picture below to see a few other examples, though none as nice, design-wise, as these.)

Infographic by Column Five Media

Graphic by WomenHealthZone.com via Positive Med

Image of Monroe in 1952, post-appendectomy via HISTORIFUL blog

Check out this lovely, endearing and very telling little story of Marilyn Monroe’s fear of losing a very important part of her femininity. Apparently on On April 28th, 1952 (the feast of St. Gianna!), the actress and icon was admitted to the hospital for an appendectomy. The doctors found a surprise when the lifted her gown, about to perform surgery.

(H/T to Re:Cycling Blog for the original link.) Btw, if you like random internet gems about fertility, do check out their Weekend Links regular feature.

It’s been some time since the appearance of anything on the blog. We thank you so much for your patience. I’ve been in transition to a new part of the country, and financial needs have taken a toll on our time and energy. Keep up the prayers–still no full time work yet.

Though I’m starting back in with a round of links, stay tuned for: contraception subvertising, developments with the Edith Stein Foundation, and tips for increasing NFP Awareness–just in time for the annual NFP Awareness Week!

News

• JOB: NFP Education Job (LaCrosse, Wisconsin) –not sure if this is still available, but still posted, so worth a look!
• Bayer Said to Pay $110 Million to Yaz Plaintiffs (Bloomberg)
• Study adds to evidence on clot risks of non-oral contraceptives (h/t to @wearahue)
• Human Ovulation Photographed for First Time (Birth Works)
• HHS hires former PP Spokesman (Politco via Catholic Exchange)
• Why Women Suffer More Migraines Than Men (NPR)
• Perms Linked to Uterine Fibroids & Early Puberty (Madame Noir)
• Birth Control Effects Women’s Taste in Men (Scientific American)–not exactly breaking news, but it’s good to see it in popular science mags
• Rick Sanctorum Explains His View on Contraception (Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno)

Editorial, Commentary

• NFP, Providentialism & Future-You (NC Register, by Simcha Fisher)
• Divorce Rates Between Couples Using NFP & Contraception (Ruth Institute Blog)
• Young Catholic Women Try to Modernize the message on Birth Control (WaPo)
• Responses:
• Truth in Advertising: How We Talk About NFP (CatholicVote, Emily Stimpson)
• Women Try to Rebrand the Church’s Position on Birth Control (Jezebel)
• The Contraception Trap (NC Register, Jennifer Fulwiler)
• NFP Super Sucks? (NFP & Me)
• NFP: Not Just Natural Birth Control (The American Catholic)
• Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women? NO (Wall Street Journal)
• THE REPRESSIVE LOGIC OF LIBERAL RIGHTS: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, CONTRACEPTIVES, AND THE “PHONY” ARGUMENT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES (David Schindler, Communio)
• The Assault on Womanhood: Is Fertility the Next Down Syndrome? (Catholic Online)
• Baseball, Steroids, the Pill & Russian Roulette (NC Register)
• Catholicism’s Lessons on Love (NY Daily News)
• Learning the Hard Way about the Great Benefits of NFP (St. Louis Review)

Blogs

• Why Can’t We Criticize the Pill? (Holly Grigg-Spall at Re: Cycling Blog)
• The Pill Kills (New Feminism)
• Why You Don’t Have to Use NFP (Catholic Sistas)
• How ‘the Pill’ Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health (The Healthy Home Economist)
• “It’s Like Being in a Time Machine…” President Mocks Catholics (Curt Jester)
• We are the 98% (Endless Strength Blog)
• NFP, Jean Skirts & Skechers (Life with Liz)

This is one of my favorite feast days of the whole year.

About nine years ago, St. Joseph started showing up in my life–St. Joseph style: strong, silent, subtle, but dang hard to ignore. It started with a Father Joseph preaching a homily about the Transfiguration (those two have been linked for me since that day, though they have no obvious links). Upon leaving that parish in my Gram’s hometown (I was visiting her for the last time in a while because I was becoming a postulant with the Servants of the Lord & the Virgin of Matara), I found a holy card from the Carmel of Port Tobacco in the literature rack stuck upside down and backwards. This is how St. Joseph introduced himself to me–upside down and backwards in the back of a old fashioned parish literature rack. I picked up this holy card of all cards, and my life has not been the same (text of the prayer below).

If you don’t know St. Joseph, ask our Lord and our Lady to help  you get to know him. He’s the patron of the Universal Church first and foremost, and a foster father for you as well. If you have trouble embracing Divine Providence, and have anxiety about your role in this world, it ad ioseph–go to Joseph.

Read this book.

I’ve read several books on St. Joseph, but this is one of my favorites–if not my favorite. My husband is an aspirant oblate for the Community of St. John, which the author, the late Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, founded. I’m grateful that Zaccheus Press had decided to reprint these reflections and lectures as one volume on St. Joseph.

More on St. Joseph

• St. Joseph’s Marriage (All Things Made New, by Stratford Caldecott)
• St. Joseph, we love you (includes links to several great St. Joseph articles and resources)
• St. Joseph, a patron for the Age of Anxiety (the Deacon’s Bench)
• About Magnificat’s March cover, Joseph, father of Jesus (Magnificat)
• Guardian of the Redeemer (John Paul II)

Prayer to St. Joseph, Model of Magnanimity

Joseph, teach me your great gift of magnanimity–that greatness of soul that was yours. Teach me to live audaciously, to live with purpose and conviction as you did under the shadow of Providence.

Help me to realize where I come from, why I was created, my place in the universe, and where I am going. Magnanimity does not shrink from ideals and dreams. It recognizes the eternal significance of the moment, the depth of the present, which endures beyond the fleeting passage of time. It engenders an unshakable hope that God has a plan, His Providence will prevail, that He loves me and protects me.

Joseph, grant me magnanimity, that defining characteristic, the outrageous confidence, the profound hopefulness of the true lover. Give me noble perseverance in the face of the mundane and the routine. Like the true lover, let me see through the misty veil of the ordinary to the substance of my own adventure in the great drama of Creation. Then let me say with Cardinal Newman–that nothing is as extraordinary as ordinary life, nothing as dangerous, nothing as exciting, and nothing as great.

Joseph, Model of Magnanimity, pray for us.

Katie Falk at NFP & Me blog whipped up some blog bling for NFP users. Why don’t you head over there and check out her full spring line? I’m really glad kicked off this great project. Let’s keep the ideas ‘a coming. I would like to see something similar for those who may not be active NFP users (due to state in life, age, or circumstance), but are lovers and supporters. Who can come up with the jazziest “I ♥NFP” button??

Poster via the Ruth Institute Blog

So, a couple of ya’ll had additions to last week’s Fertility News Round Up, and naturally, it’s been a busy week. Here’s more for ya! Leave your additions in the comments.

STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM NATIONWIDE MARCH-3/23

• National Rallies Seek Religious Freedom Restoration March 23

News

• Cardinal Dolan Writes to Bishops, Outlines Religious Liberty Fight (ZENIT)
• Catholic hospitals in seven states conducted 20,073 sterilizations in three years: study (LifeSite)
• Bioethicist welcomes Pope’s call for ethical fertility treatments (Catholic News Agency)
• FDA:Glenmark Generics Inc. Nationwide recall of (7) Lots of Norgestimate and Ethinyl Estradiol Tablets (FDA)
• Researchers hopeful about male partner for ‘the Pill’
• Americans get reacquainted with IUD’s (NYTimes Health Blog)
• Who is Sister Carol Keehan? (NCRegister)
• Making Babies: Google Introduces a Brave New World (Bust Magazine)
• Will Vitamin D Save you from Painful Periods? (Bust Magazine)
• Catholic Foundation Announces Latest Grants [One of which went to promoting NFP in a parish!]
• Diocese hosts Natural Family Planning Seminar (CNA)
• My Employees Don’t Want Free Birth Control, Even if Sandra Fluke Does (CNWire)

OpEd/ Commentary

• New: The War on Fertility (Wall Street Journal)
• New: Bishops Face Internal Challenges in Fight over Contraception [defense of religious freedom] (WaPo) –via @CatholicPlaza
• Limbaugh & Our Phony Contraception Debate (Wall Street Journal)
• Audacity of Power: President Obama vs. the Catholic Church (Forbes Magazine)
• The Secret Lives of Women (Who Don’t Use Contraception) / Jennifer Fulwiler
• The Contraceptive Mandate & the Indignity of the Law (NCRegister)
• Women Star In the President’s Political Theater; Who’s Getting Played? (Catholic Online)
• Nancy Pelosi is Right (Pat Archibold, NCRegister)
• I Have a Say --Fr. John Hollowell rocks Planned Parenthood’s ‘I Have a Say’ tag (YouTube)

Blogs

• Cardinal Dolan: White House Lectured My Staff on How to Interpret Catholic Teaching (AmericanPapist)
• Top Ten Reasons to Support the HHS Mandate–Updated (Why I Am Catholic)
• Reproductive Writes: Keep Talking (Bitch Media)–an interview with one of the authors of “The Pill: Are You Sure it’s for you?”
• The Myth of Consequence Free Sex (Creative Minority Report at NCRegister)
• The Contraceptive Mentality & The Church’s Fear (Making Things Visible)
• No Kidding: Jillian Michaels is ‘Not doing that to her body’ (BitchMedia)

Oldies, but Goodies (older articles, but something you should check out anyway)

• Waking up from the Pill (NY Magazine)
• NY Magazine’s “Waking up from the Pill” (Bust Magazine)

Again, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good cross section. Let me know if you’ve come across other good reporting as well.

• NEW: Obama’s Contraception Mandate Sparks Nationwide Protests 3/23 (Jill Stanek)

• HHS Talking points from the CCL Blog

• Talking Point #1: Religious Liberty

• Talking Point #2: Free Birth Control?

• Talking Point #3: Preventative Healthcare?

• NEW: Hands Off Our Birth Control (Madison’s ISTHMUS daily)
• Catholic Bishop Joins Contraception Mandate Debate
• Resistance to HHS Mandate Grows: 7 States File Lawsuits, National Rallies Announced (Catholic Online)
• USCCB links to Bishop’s Statements on Conscience Protection
• Catholic Charities Does Not Support the HHS Mandate or the ‘Accommodation’ (NRonline, Lopez)
• What got lost in the Debate about Birth Control (TIME blog)
• Perhaps “some time in jail” for Bishops claiming religious liberty (Catholic Vote on TIME piece)
• Chilling bit of idiocy in TIME op-ed (CatholicVote)
• The Little Sisters of Limousine Liberalism (American Spectator)
• Referral is not the answer; Rescinding the mandate is (Bishop Lori on the USCCB web site)
• Why Catholics Should be Offended by the Obama ‘Compromise’ (Catholic Vote)
• Seeking a Win-Win Solution for HHS regulations (Washington Post)
• Health & Human Services My Foot–an MBA grad takes a look at how the HHS Mandate impacts businesses (Tara Stone @ JP2 the Great U. blog)
• Sisters of Life Not Exempt from HHS Mandate (Creative Minority Report)
• Sanctorum: Birth Control ‘harmful to women’ [shock!horror! yes.] (WaPo Opinion)
• HHS Mandate: It’s not about…. (Mark Shea)

With the craziness of the last eight weeks, this is getting to be the Fertility Drudge—links galore! I took a look at all my unread Google Alerts, and I nearly passed out. Normally it’s a meager to slightly adequate “Natural Family Planning” culling, but with the HHS bizness, Susan G Komen debacle, it’s just mushroomed. Tomorrow I begin again, but in the mean time, this is what I have.

Because of the HHS Mandate Frenzy, I’m doing a separate Fertility News Round up to follow. Please let me know if you have come across notable news articles, op-eds or commentaries that I’ve not included. Also, I discovered a few older articles that I still wanted to share with you, so you’ll see those at the end of each section.

News/ Research

• ‘Study after study’ shows Catholic teaching on sexuality right (Catholic Register, Canada)
• Researchers say 3 embryos too many for IVF (NPR)–[or maybe one IVF embryo is too many?]
• Brazil’s falling Birth Rate: a ‘new way of thinking’ (NPR)
• Birth Control for Men: for real this time? (Ms. online)
• TOB Institute names Damon Owens Executive Director —not exactly breaking news, but in case you hadn’t heard (National Catholic Register)
• Creighton FertilityCare Program a family blessing (Clarion Herald)–this is an older piece–November–but is a great example for diocesan papers that need to keep NFP/ FertilityCare in the public eye of their community. [Side note: does 'Clarion Herald' seem like a redundant title for a paper?]

OpEd

• Just How Safe is Yaz? Women Need to Know! (Ms.)
• Catholic women and Contraception: why don’t Catholics use Natural Family Planning? (Washington Post Guest Editorial by altcatholic’s Ashley McGuire)
• Opinion: Contraception Denigrates Me as a Women (CNN via Ruth Institute Blog)
• Time to admit it: the Church has always been right about birth control (Business Insider)–not the best written piece, but the truth nonetheless, and it’s great to see it in a secular sphere.
• ‘Natural Family Planning’ vs. Contraception (Herald News)
• ‘Natural Family Planning’ vs. Contraception (Taunton Daily Gazette)
• The Pill is Not Good for Women (National Review Online)

Blogs & Commentary

• Father, We’re Ready for that Homily on Contraception Now (Jennifer Fulwiler at National Catholic Register)–Oh, girl, don’t even get me started. This will be blogged on.
• Poll: 98% of Catholic Women Contracept [??] (Catholic Sistas Blog)
• Results of Catholic Sistas Poll
• Trojan War a Comin’?
• Why I am Passionate About the Topics of NFP & Contraception (My Feminine Mind)
• NFP for Dummies (NFPandMe guest post)
• NFP & Breastfeeding (Catholic Mom)
• The Crazy World of Natural Family Planning (Common Sense Momma)
• Dangers of the Birth Control Pill (Kelly the Kitchen Kop)
• Natural Family Planning/ Fertility Awareness (The Mama’s Hip)
• The Church on Contraception Made her go ‘Ah-ha!’ (National Catholic Register)

Got an email from the Madison NFP Coordinator in the Diocese of Madison, and she gave me some great news: the Diocese of Madison is hosting a Creighton Model Teacher training!

If you’re within driving distance, and you ever thought of becoming a NFP teacher, give this some serious thought. Because of the intensive training that goes into becoming a Creighton Practitioner, there’s time and cost involved. But guess what? If you’re called, the money will come. There are some scholarships available, and a little birdie told me of a great non-profit that finds money for people like you who promote a culture of love and life that embraces fertility.

DO IT. The world needs you.

When in doubt, give Allison a call in Madison. She’s gone through the training, so she could answer your questions about the training and becoming a Practitioner.

• Debate|Contraception: Is it harmful to women? (Thomas Center, Boulder, Colorado) January 26th, 7pm
• Flyer
• Is the Pill Necessary for Women’s Health? In Introduction to NaProTechnology(Diocese of Richmond, Virginia) February 5, 10am
  

• “ENDOW in a day” One day study: Humanae Vitae (ENDOW, Denver) February 11
• NFP Medical Mini-Conference (Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan) February 25
• Flyer
• Annual NFP Conference (Philadelphia NFP Network, March 24, 2012)
• Flyer

News/ Studies

• Current Medical Research (USCCB medical review, Fall 2011)
• See especially:
• Past Use of Oral Contraceptives Associated with Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis
• Most European Women Want to Be Informed of Post-Fertilization Effects of Contraceptive Methods
• Common Form of Hormonal Contraception Increases Cardiovascular Risk
• Birth Control Pills May Keep Nuns Healthy (FoxNews)–more coming on this
• Wisconsin Catholic Hospitals Reimbursed Under Family Planning Waiver (read: Catholic Hospitals violate Catholic Health Directives)
• Involving Men in Family Planning (Inquirer.net)–This article refers largely to contraceptive services, but I think there are points and lessons here on getting men to promote NFP.

Editorial & Commentary

• The Church of Kathleen Sebelius (Wall Street Journal)
• How Evil is Your Birth Control Manufacturer? (Jezebel)
• Yaz, Yasmin & Ortho Evra Patch increase risk of blood clots (Society of Menstrual Cycle Research blog)
• Leadership in Pharmaceutical Companies: Where are the Women? (RH Reality Check)
• Plan ‘Oh No They Didn’t': Roundup of Response to Plan B decision (Ms. blog)
• New Birth Control Decisions Don’t Mean Birth Control is Killing You (Jezebel) [It's not killing you yet]

Reflections

• Raising Human Beings & Life Lessons from the Duggars (Millions of Miles Blog)
• Natural Family Planning–Does it work for everyone?  Check out her earnest, albeit flawed reasoning (WhatToExpect.com)