Metro Detroit — Jenelle Ponkowski believes many Catholics who say they disagree with the Church’s teaching on contraception still don’t fully understand it.

Ponkowski, natural family planning coordinator for the Archdiocese of Detroit who also teaches NFP in the Metro Detroit area, said the numbers attending her classes have gone up, even though statistics indicate fewer weddings are taking place among Catholics.

“There are a lot more people saying I’m curious,” Ponkowski said. “It’s so much more in the news now with Obamacare and Hobby Lobby and the contraceptive debate.”

Often, she said, married Catholics are curious about NFP either because they had never heard of it before, or because they didn’t receive a good introduction to it in marriage preparation. Other times, they’re converts to Catholicism who are just now learning about the Church’s teachings on marriage and the family.

“I have married couples coming to me and saying ‘I wish I knew this sooner! This is good information; why have I never heard it?’” Ponkowski said.

When she and her husband, William, were preparing to get married, Ponkowski was “on board” with knowing contraception was “not good,” but not as on board with “being open to life and open to God’s direction.”

“People tend to look at NFP with how effective it is … just in terms of postponing a pregnancy,” she said. “I wasn’t open to giving up that control.”

But over time, she and her husband grew to see NFP as more than just avoiding pregnancy, and more about learning to communicate and grow together in the direction God leads.

“Now I’m in awe that God’s given me this ability to create something that wasn’t there before, and that’s amazing,” Ponkowski said. She said using NFP has helped her learn more about her reproductive cycle, because unlike using the birth control pill or other contraceptives, NFP “doesn’t cover up any sort of gynecological issues. I actually had endometriosis, and if I had been on the pill I wouldn’t have known I had it.”

Through using NFP, Ponkowski and her husband have welcomed two little girls: Gabby, 3, and Maria, who turns 1 on July 20.

Dorothy Stapel teaches the Ovulation Method as instructed by the Family of the Americas Foundation (FAF). She currently offers classes at St. Sebastian Parish in Dearborn Heights.

Stapel said the Ovulation Method is based on that fact that if a woman is fertile and will soon ovulate, “the body will produce a specific kind of discharge,” which the couple will monitor.

“This is all combined with the hormones: there is a balance there, and with that there is also a change in the woman’s emotions,” said Stapel, who served as archdiocesan NFP coordinator for a number of years. Stapel explained that during a woman’s fertile phase, “she feels active and her husband can tell her a funny joke and she’ll laugh. Then he can tell her the same joke (after the fertile phase ends) and she says ‘get a life!’”

She found that in her classes, “many of the husbands or fiancés are very interested because it helps understand their wife or wife-to-be.”

Mary Margaret Early is a local FertilityCare Practitioner with the Creighton Model — one of the several different forms of natural family planning.

Early explained that the Creighton Model is particularly helpful with assessing infertility issues, due to its standardized observation of cervical mucus.

“It is 100 percent pro-life, in line with the Church’s teachings,” she added. “We take a holistic approach, look at the underlying cause of infertility and try to correct it.”

It also fosters communication between the couple, she said, and helps them determine how they will use the days of fertility and infertility.

“It can be used both as a method of family planning but also as a method of evaluating what’s going on in a woman’s cycle — not just as a method of achieving or postponing pregnancy,” she said.

Natural Family Planning Awareness Week

The Archdiocese of Detroit is marking Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, July 20-26 this year, with the following events:

July 19: Afternoon with the Authors: The authors of “The Infertility Companion for Catholics,” Angelique Ruhi-Lopez and Carmen Santamaria, will give a free presentation at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

July 20: Kick-Off Picnic: NFP Awareness Week will celebrate its kick-off picnic from 1-5 p.m. at Rotary Park, Pavilion 4, Livonia. Event is free; burgers and hot dogs will be provided but please bring a dish to share.

July 22: Creighton Intro Session: Learn about the Creighton Model FertilityCare System from 6-8 p.m. at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. Pre-registration is requested; contact Nicole Joyce, FCPI, at [email protected] or (248) 321-4065. Intro session is free but there is a fee for materials to begin charting.

July 25: “The Sweetest Thing: Love, Marriage & Natural Family Planning:” Introduction to a natural and effective way to plan your family, from 7-10 p.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Plymouth.

For more information on any of these events, as well as teaching sessions, contact Jenelle Ponkowski at (313) 355-4NFP or visit www.aod.org/nfp.