The NFP Podcast

What if the symptoms you’ve learned to live with are worth a closer look? This week on ⁨@thenfppodcast⁩ , Emily sits down with Rita Johnson, a Creighton FertilityCare practitioner, nutritional therapy practitioner, and host of the Health and Hormones podcast, to explore the connections between gut health, hormones, and caring for the whole woman. Rita shares her personal journey through nearly five years of secondary infertility, persistent digestive symptoms, and a search for support that honored her Catholic faith. She reflects on how that experience shaped her work helping women better understand their bodies—and why she encourages women to ask deeper questions about what they’re experiencing. Together, Emily and Rita discuss: • How cycle charting can open conversations about health beyond fertility. • Rita’s approach to exploring digestive symptoms and hormonal concerns. • The challenges of perimenopause and the need for support consistent with Catholic teaching. • Helping daughters understand their changing bodies with confidence and reverence. • Making space for physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Whether you’re navigating fertility struggles, approaching perimenopause, or simply wondering why you don’t feel like yourself, this conversation offers encouragement to pay attention, ask questions, and seek thoughtful support. Your body has a story to tell. Understanding it can begin with learning to listen. Resources: 1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinemercynutritionalcare/ 2. Listener Freebie: https://healthandhormones.org/optimal-markers/ 3. Website: https://healthandhormones.org/ 4. Katie Vidar Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1eqDYSgDcxGxu2IOBvaV1Z?si=EIe2xH8OQN2v7EglP8hNbQ 5. Christina Valenzuela: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7IPXFXzo1BhFQA7GfTdHyG?si=VomV2NRbSX-WdKOKCm5-HQ 6. FertilityCare Centers: https://www.fertilitycare.org/

What happens when a secret carried for years becomes a doorway to healing? As we continue our “Life Is a Gift” series, Amylynn and Emily welcome Vicky, a wife and mother who shares her deeply personal experience of abortion, the shame she carried in silence, and her journey toward God’s mercy. With honesty and courage, Vicky reflects on the fear that shaped her decision, the effects on her marriage and family, and the healing she and her husband experienced together through a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat. She shares how returning to the Catholic faith, receiving the sacraments, and encountering compassionate support helped her begin to move beyond secrecy and shame. Today, Vicky volunteers with abortion healing ministries and participates in 40 Days for Life, offering others the hope she once needed herself. Together, we explore the importance of talking with our children about sexuality, dignity, and faith; recognizing the wounds others may carry quietly; and accompanying those who are hurting with truth and tenderness. Whether abortion is part of your story, someone you love has been affected, or you want to better understand how to offer compassionate support, this conversation is an invitation to remember: you are loved, you are not beyond God’s mercy, and healing is possible. Listener note: This episode includes a personal account of abortion and discussion of grief and shame. Resources: 1. Project Rachel: https://www.projectrachel.ca/ 2. Rachel's Vineyard: https://www.rachelsvineyard.org/ 3. Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline: Call 1-877-883-8497 or 1-855-209-4848 for 24/7 assistance. 4. PROLIFE Across AMERICA Pregnancy Hotline: Call 1-800-366-7773 for immediate pregnancy or post-abortive support 5. Spanish-Speaking Support Line: Call 1-888-434-2748.

What does it mean to have a good death? In this episode of The NFP Podcast, Amylynn and Emily continue their conversation about the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death with Sheila Pursell, Director of the Northwest Arkansas Respect Life Council and a longtime advocate for the dignity of human life. Sheila invites us to consider an aspect of family planning we don't often talk about: planning for the end of life. What does the Catholic Church actually teach about end-of-life care? When is medical treatment morally required—and when can we allow the natural process of dying to take its course? What is the difference between proportionate and disproportionate care? And how can we prepare now so that someone we trust can advocate for us if we're no longer able to speak for ourselves? Together, Amylynn, Emily, and Sheila discuss euthanasia and assisted suicide, the difference between prolonging life and prolonging the dying process, the importance of food, water, pain management and palliative care, and why a health care proxy may be one of the most important end-of-life decisions we make. But this conversation goes deeper than medical decisions. It's about human dignity. Our worth does not disappear when we can no longer work, walk, speak, remember, or care for ourselves. We are not valuable because of what we produce or because we remain independent. We are valuable because we are human beings created in the image and likeness of God. And sometimes allowing another person to care for us—and allowing ourselves to care for them—is one of the final ways we learn what love really means. Sheila also challenges listeners to consider the lonely and forgotten elderly in their own communities. Could visiting someone in a nursing home or volunteering with hospice become a ministry for you or your family? This is a conversation about death—but even more, it is a conversation about how we value life, how we love one another, and how we prepare to accompany the people we love all the way home. In this episode: • What Catholics mean by a “natural death” • Why human dignity never depends upon someone's “quality of life” • Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide • True compassion versus simply eliminating suffering • Proportionate vs. disproportionate medical care • When declining or withdrawing treatment can be morally appropriate • Food, water, pain management and palliative care • Why you should consider choosing a health care proxy • How to choose someone who can advocate for you • The spiritual privilege of accompanying someone through death • Serving the elderly, disabled and forgotten members of our communities • Having end-of-life conversations with your spouse and family before a crisis occurs Because being pro-life doesn't end at birth. Every human life is sacred—from conception to natural death—and every person deserves to be loved and accompanied until the very end. Resources: 1. In emergency situations, an NCBC ethicist is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by calling 215-877-2660. NCBC ethicists do not provide legal or medical advice. 2. NCBC website: https://www.ncbcenter.org/ 3. Catholic Healthcare Proxy Paperwork: https://www.dor.org/tasks/sites/home/assets/File/Charities/Health%20Care%20Proxy%20-%20Catholic%20Guidelines.pdf

What happens when you do everything “right”—learn NFP, seek restorative reproductive care, pursue answers, pray faithfully—and the baby you long for still doesn’t come? In this deeply honest episode of The NFP Podcast, Emily and Amylynn sit down with Paula Gallagher, founder of Catholic Infertility Coaching, to talk about the physical, emotional, marital, and spiritual realities of infertility. Paula shares her own journey through more than a decade of primary infertility: learning to chart with the Creighton Model, receiving diagnoses including endometriosis and hormonal concerns, undergoing surgery and years of treatment, and eventually confronting the painful reality that medicine may not provide every answer. Along the way, infertility became about far more than achieving a pregnancy—it challenged Paula’s understanding of her body, her identity, her marriage, and even her relationship with God. Together, Emily, Amylynn, and Paula have an honest conversation about the questions many women carry quietly: Why would God give me the desire for motherhood and not fulfill it? Is it okay to be angry with God? How do I celebrate someone else’s pregnancy while grieving what I don’t have? Do I have to attend the baby shower? When is it okay to stop pursuing treatment? And who am I if motherhood doesn’t happen the way I imagined? Paula also offers practical wisdom for navigating pregnancy announcements, baby showers, insensitive comments, friendships, family relationships, and the loneliness that can accompany infertility—especially within Catholic communities where large families and openness to life are so deeply valued. But this episode is ultimately about something even deeper: learning that infertility can be part of your story without becoming your entire identity. Today, Paula accompanies other women through Catholic Infertility Coaching, offering the kind of support she wishes she had during the hardest years of her own journey. She and her husband have also recently welcomed a son through adoption, entering a beautiful new chapter of their family’s story. Paula reminds us that surrender does not mean pretending the cross doesn’t hurt. Grief and gratitude can exist together. We can desire the good of motherhood while still recognizing the goodness already present in our lives. And even when God's plan looks nothing like the one we carefully imagined for ourselves, He can still bring tremendous fruit from our suffering. As Paula beautifully shares: “The Lord can make your life abundant no matter what that life looks like.” If you are walking through infertility—or love someone who is—this conversation is for you. Paula is the founder of Catholic Infertility Coaching and the author of the forthcoming book Navigating Infertility: The Catholic Woman’s Guide to Hope and Healing, scheduled for publication by Ave Maria Press in March 2027. Resources: 1. Creighton Model: https://www.fertilitycare.org/about-fcca/ 2. Paul Gallagher's Website: https://www.catholicinfertilitycoaching.com/ 3. Follow Paula on Instagram: @catholic.infertility.coaching https://www.instagram.com/catholic.infertility.coaching/ 4. Pre-order Paula's New Book: https://www.avemariapress.com/products/navigating-infertility

What does it really mean to believe that every human life is sacred—from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death? In this episode of The NFP Podcast, Amy and Emily welcome back Fr. Jason Tyler, bioethicist for the Diocese of Little Rock, for a conversation about the dignity of human life at its very beginning, at its end, and throughout every moment in between. Beginning with the Incarnation, Fr. Tyler explores why the Church places such profound importance on the moment of conception and how Catholic theology and human biology help us understand the beginning of a new human life. The conversation also considers how this understanding shapes the way Catholics approach difficult questions surrounding contraception, miscarriage, IVF, embryonic research, and the language we use when speaking about life in its earliest stages. Then the conversation turns to the other end of life: natural death. What does the Church mean when she speaks about the separation of body and soul? Why does the Church oppose euthanasia while still allowing families, in some circumstances, to discontinue disproportionate medical treatment? And what does it look like to accompany someone through suffering rather than trying to control the moment of death? Amy also shares deeply personal reflections on being present during the deaths of loved ones and the surprising beauty, intimacy, and even peace that can exist alongside grief and suffering. Together, Amy and Fr. Tyler reflect on redemptive suffering, memento mori, the corporal work of accompanying the dying, and what we lose when modern life separates us from the realities of birth, aging, suffering, and death. Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to recover a distinctly Catholic vision of the human person: life is not something we manufacture, own, or control. It is a gift entrusted to us by God. From conception to natural death, every human life is worthy of dignity, protection, love, and care. Join Amy and Emily for this important beginning to a month of conversations about the gift of fertility, the gift of human life, and what it means to truly live as a people of life. Resources: 1. Fr. Jason Tyler on The NFP Podcast: https://youtu.be/Ux_T8oM4fcg?si=pT8z8qRKGGkTOSee 2. National Catholic Bioethics Center: https://www.ncbcenter.org/contact-us 3. Fr. Tyler's Secrets of Star Trek Podcast- • Sisko’s Fate Revisited & Starfleet Academy...