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Real Solutions to Real Problems — The Saint Paul VI Institute

Embodying the best principles of women’s reproductive healthcare, the Saint Paul VI Institute offers effective, healthy treatments for disorders causing:

  • Infertility
  • Miscarriage
  • Painful periods
  • PMS
  • Polycystic ovaries
  • Post-partum depression, and more…

The Creighton Model FertilityCare System is a standardized method of tracking the menstrual or fertility cycle which enables couples to achieve or avoid pregnancy. This charting also aides in the diagnosis and treatment of gynecological disorders using NaPro Technology.

NaPro Technology approaches work to restore a woman to natural fertility and include targeted hormone therapy that correlates with the phases of the cycle and specialized surgical techniques performed by da Vinci® Robot. NaPro Technology treats the root-cause of pain and infertility.

All methods established and used by the Saint Paul VI Institute promote life, healthy living, and fully abide by the highest ethical standards as outlined in Catholic Church teaching. Contraceptives and artificial reproductive technologies are never prescribed.

The Saint Paul VI Institute is a multi-divisional organization that includes:

  • The National Center for Procreative Health -the premier NaPro Technology reproductive health clinic helping patients from the Omaha Metro and nationally.
  • Allied Health Education Programs – training programs for physicians and healthcare providers in NaPro Technology as well as FertilityCare Practitioners who teach women and couples the Creighton Model FertilityCare System.
  • FertilityCare Center of Omaha – the Omaha location to receive individualized teaching on use of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System to achieve pregnancy, avoid pregnancy, or chart for NaPro Technology diagnosis and treatment.
  • Center for NaPro Ethics – Bioethicist, Sr. Renee Mirkes, OSF, Phd, provides guidance in making moral decisions regarding procreation, birth ethics, and more through consultations, publications, and public speaking.
  • St. John Paul II Surgical Fellowship Program — OB-GYN doctors receive intensive training in the specialized medical and surgical techniques of NaPro Technology.

History of the Saint Paul VI Institute

The Saint Paul VI Institute (formerly Pope Paul VI Institute) was founded in 1985 to answer the call for reproductive healthcare that fully respects life. The challenges in Saint Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, prompted Dr. Hilgers to begin scientific research in the applications of natural fertility regulation. It was in the 1960s that artificial reproductive technology was introduced along with the wide-spread use of contraceptives. This began a growing trend in women’s healthcare of doctors bypassing proper diagnoses and using oral birth control pills to treat disorders of the menstrual cycle and in vitro fertilization to treat infertility. In reality, these methods are harmful and do not provide treatment for the underlying cause.

In contrast to this harmful trend, Dr. Hilgers’ research led to the development of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, a standardized modification of the Billings Ovulation Method, which is highly effective form of natural fertility regulation. He set out to train allied health professionals to become FertilityCare Practitioners to teach this method to women and couples in their own community. since 1978, over 3,500 FertilityCare Practitioners have been trained throughout all 50 United State and from six continents.

As Dr. Hilgers continued his pursuit of women’s healthcare that cooperates with a woman’s menstrual and fertility cycle and provides a truly healing alternative to contraceptives and in vitro fertilization. With the Crieghton Model FertilityCare System as the foundation, he established the collective medical approaches to women’s reproductive health disorders, NaPro Technology (natural procreative technology). In 2004, the first definitive textbook on NaPro Technology was published, The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaPro Technology. Incorporating this new system into the allied health education program, over 800 physicians and medical providers have received training in medical NaProTechnology

Continuing to build on this research and education infrastructure, Dr. Hilgers established a one-year fellowship program, the St. John Paul the Great Fellowship in Medical and Surgical NaPro Technology, which provides training to OB/GYN doctors in the specialized surgical techniques of NaPro Technology as well as in-depth study of reproductive endocrinology, and perinatology. There have been 25 fellows complete the program and a newly incorporated professional association, The Society of Procreative Surgeons, consisting of past fellows.