I’m Amanda Smith. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with my husband and five children, but we’re both from Chicago originally.

I graduated from Loyola University in Chicago with a BSN in 2007. I travelled all over the country for the first 10 years of my nursing career, working as a travel nurse in intensive care units. My husband and I settled down in the suburbs of Chicago when we had our first child. Then I worked as a nurse in a hospice for three years before becoming trained as a Marquette Method instructor.

(My husband jokes that with all that I’ve done with my nursing degree I really can manage a person’s care from womb to tomb.)

Jokes aside, I truly love how flexible a nursing career can be and that there’s a place for nurses at every stage in the beautiful circle of life.

My Natural Family Planning Journey

When I was pregnant with our fifth child our local parish priest, over for dinner at our house, asked if I was interested in leading a natural family planning (NFP) class at the parish. I laughed and asked him “What on Earth makes you think I’m qualified to teach an NFP class?” His follow-up question was to ask which method of natural family planning we practiced.

And that was how I found out that there were multiple forms of NFP.

For our whole marriage we’d been loosely following the rhythm method. After 16 years of Catholic education, pre-Cana classes during our engagement, and 5 children into building our family this conversation with our priest was the first I’d heard that there were modern, evidenced-based methods of natural family planning.

And that began my journey into the wonderful world of NFP. After some research, I realized quickly that the Marquette Method seemed perfect for me. We started using Marquette after our fifth was born—and practicing Marquette while nursing was the most relaxing and stress-free postpartum NFP experience I’d ever had.

Why I Became a Marquette Method Instructor

I felt a tug on my heart as soon as our priest asked me to help teach NFP at the parish.

I realized that if I had been so in the dark about NFP, there must be other couples out there with a similar experience. Learning and practicing the Marquette Method has been such a positive experience in our marriage.

As a Marquette Method instructor, I get to accompany couples young and old who are searching for answers.