Exploring Faithful Fertility
Environmental infertility is one of the most pervasive issues in our world today. Not only is it harder than ever to get pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy, but it is also becoming more and more difficult to find natural support that doesn’t lead to fertility treatments like IVF or IUI. Here we explore ways to beat environmental infertility in line with Laudato Si and the teachings of The Catholic faith.
What does it mean to be truly open to life?
While struggling with infertility I asked myself this question many times. I questioned if I was called to motherhood. If I was making an idol of children and denying my given status as a wife and career woman. When we finally detoxed from plastics and fell pregnant. I was on the first cycle I had after the Easter Vigil when my husband was baptized, confirmed and our marriage became sacramental. I started wrestling with the Lord’s hand again.
People we’re confronting me. I was either too faithful for the environmentalist crowd or gave too much credit to science for the religious crowd. I couldn’t win. Just as I pondered whether I should “try” to get pregnant when I was 3 years in with multiple miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy that took my tube. Now I had to find where faith and science meet.
Here’s the thing. All glory to God in all things. That is my firm stance as a Catholic wife, mother and daughter. The beauty of this statement is that God is very much in all things that are right and just. When we tried for a baby, we followed every guideline set fourth by the magisterium. We prayed and left my womb open. We maintained chastity in our marriage and left dignity in the marital act.
We pursued technologically advanced methods of cycle tracking, ovulation dating and hormone support. Was trying to make my body a healthy vessel wrong?
I believe that God often uses human hands to perform his miracles and he almost always asks us to meet him halfway …or maybe just inch towards him a little. God is LOVE and he is always outpouring that love to us. It is our job to open the door. So sitting around in prayer can be beautiful but love is an action and we embody our faith by taking steps to honor the Lord with our bodies, our relationships and the way we live.
When I took steps to heal my fertility in a way that honors Gods design and brought healing to the environment in the process. It was pleasing to rightful order. Science is the study of God’s miracles. Environmentalism isn’t an inherently anti human. Anti human environmentalists have cheapened our understanding of stewardship. The Earth was created far before we were and every bird and fish was commanded to fill the seas and sky. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit that should be defensible. Not acting for the fertility of the planet is directly hindering these commandments. If we remain shrouded in dignity without compromising our relationship to LOVE itself while attempting to be fruitful and multiply then all fertility is for the Glory of God.
