MADISON — St. Ambrose Academy will have a consultant available for any of its families needing assistance with natural family planning (NFP) this academic year.
Leah Stader, a FertilityCare Practitioner intern who will complete her training in November, has volunteered to meet with any parents who wish to learn more about NFP or who have questions about their own fertility.
Stader is trained in the Creighton model and has worked with various age groups including high school women and married couples with both normal fertility and infertility.
She was drawn to the study of NFP during college when she met practicing couples at St. Paul’s University Catholic Center, Madison. “I was touched by the tender joy and respect they had for each other,” said Stader.
St. Ambrose president David Stiennon welcomes the position as a way to strengthen both the families and the school. “An NFP consultant helps parents in their desires to live their sacramental marriages according to Christ’s teachings.”
He noted that Pope John Paul II stressed that parents’ own practice of the faith and love for Christ is essential to the success of Catholic education. “By helping parents grow closer to Christ in their daily lives, the NFP consultant helps St. Ambrose Academy become a better Catholic school,” he said.
Stader, a former novitiate of the Missionaries of Charity, indeed has the school’s families’ spiritual and physical interests at heart. “I will be praying for all the St. Ambrose families as they continue to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit,” she said.