Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The State Of The Science Of Natural Family Planning Fifty Years After Humane Vitae: A Report From Nfp Scientists’ Meeting Held At The Us Conference Of Catholic Bishops, April 4, 2018, Michael D. Manhart, Richard Fehring

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

A one-day meeting of physicians, professional nurses, and scientists actively involved in Natural Family Planning (NFP) research was held to review the state of the science of NFP and consider future priorities. The meeting had four objectives: (i) determine the gaps in research evidence for secure methods of NFP among women of all reproductive categories, (ii) determine the gaps in the research and development of new technology for providing NFP services, (iii) determine the gaps in the research that determine the benefits and challenges with use of NFP among married couples, and (iv) provide prioritized ideas for future research needs …

Achieving Pregnancy Using Primary Care Interventions To Identify The Fertile Window, Thomas Bouchard, Richard Fehring, Mary Schneider

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of achieving pregnancy with focused intercourse in the fertile window identified using natural fertility indicators. Methods: 24-cycle prospective effectiveness study. Setting: A North American web-based fertility monitoring service. Participants: 256 North American women aged 20–43 (mean age 29.2 years) seeking to achieve pregnancy. Intervention: Participants identified their fertile window with either electronic hormonal fertility monitoring or cervical mucus monitoring, or both, and recorded their observations on an online fertility tracking system. Main outcome measures: Pregnancies were validated by nurses with an online self-assessed pregnancy evaluation form. Survival analysis was used to determine pregnancy rates. Results: …

Efficacy Of Achieving Pregnancy With Fertility-Focused Intercourse, Qiyan Mu, Richard Fehring

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose:

To compare pregnancy rates when women have intercourse on self-estimated high and peak fertile days and when they only have intercourse on low fertile days during the fertile window (FW).

Study Design and Methods:

We used a prospective observational cohort study design. Our convenience sample included 124 women who utilized our online charting Web sites to achieve pregnancy from January 2010 to November 2012. Participants used an electronic hormonal fertility monitor (EHFM) or self-observed cervical mucus or both to determine fertility during the estimated FW. Pregnancy rates were determined with Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Chi square analysis was used to …

Pilot Evaluation Of An Internet-Based Natural Family Planning Education And Service Program, Richard Jerome Fehring, Mary Schneider, Kathleen Raviele

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy, knowledge of fertility, and acceptability of a web-based natural family planning (NFP) education and service program.

Design: A 6-month repeated measure longitudinal evaluation pilot study.

Setting: A university based online website.

Participants: The website was piloted with 468 volunteer women seeking NFP services. Of these participants, 222 used the automatic online fertility charting system to avoid pregnancy. The 222 charting participants had a mean age of 29.9 years (SD=5.6), 2.2 children (SD=1.9), 37% were postpartum, and 47% had regular menstrual cycle lengths.

Intervention: Nurse-managed web-based NFP education and service program.

Outcomes: …

Variability In The Phases Of The Menstrual Cycle, Richard Fehring, Mary Schneider, Kathleen Raviele

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: To determine variability in the phases of the menstrual cycle among healthy, regularly cycling women. Design: A prospective descriptive study of a new data set with biological markers to estimate parameters of the menstrual cycles. Participants: One hundred forty one healthy women (mean age 29 years) who monitored 3 to 13 menstrual cycles with an electronic fertility monitor and produced 1,060 usable cycles of data. Measures and Outcomes: Variability in the length of the menstrual cycle and of the follicular, fertile, and luteal phases, and menses. The estimated day of ovulation and end of the fertile phase was the …