On behalf of the Caucus for the Advancement of the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) I am happy to report on the contribution that the Billings Ovulation method has made in the last ten years to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, particularly in the areas of education, health, equality of women and the girl-child.
The role
of the woman as child bearer has exposed women to contraceptive practices that
are harmful to their health and fertility. There is a growing awareness in the
medical community of the damage caused by hormonal contraception and the
resulting increasing incidence of infertility, as well as the profound physical
and psychological damage that can be caused by induced abortion. Girls are routinely given contraceptive
medication without complete information about its harmful effects. While
regulating the timing of producing a family is an understandable human need, it
can be achieved in a natural, simple, effective and cost free way by the use of
the Billings Ovulation Method. Millions of women in the last ten years have learned the four common sense
guidelines of the Method. This knowledge empowers them as they learn which act
of intercourse may lead to pregnancy and which one cannot possibly do so. The
Method is easily spread by women teaching each other, mother to daughter, etc.,
and is open and acceptable to all, regardless of their economic status,
religion and culture.
Progress
in the use of the Method and the benefits for women in the last ten years can
be illustrated by developments in The People’s Republic of China. Since the official introduction of the
Billings Ovulation Method by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 1995, the Method
has been distributed over large areas of the country, including industrial, agricultural and minority regions. By the end of 2003 Drs. John and Evelyn
Billings had trained 1,871 core-teachers who in turn have been responsible for
training 48,449 other Chinese teachers.
Dr.Evelyn’s book, “The Billings Method” has been
translated into Mandarin and teaching techniques have been simplified with the
use of symbols. Today the method
is being used by more than 3,645,600 fertile couples as the means for avoiding
pregnancy. The overall success rate is around 99%. The method is also invaluable
in the case of achieving pregnancy when desired particularly by those with low
fertility. Of 48,267 such couples
15,640 have already conceived using the Method. Undoubtedly many more couples are using the method without
notifying centralized records and the BOM is now one of the principal choices
of fertility regulation in China.
The
benefits for women’s health are difficult to measure but can be deduced
from the following. A large Chinese trial conducted by the Jiangsu Family
Health Institute and published in 1998 in the Chinese Medical Journal, gives
results of a randomized one-year comparison of the efficacy of the BOM and the
intrauterine device (IUD) known as the copper T. It was shown in the study that
both pregnancy and discontinuation rates are much lower in the BOM than in the
IUD group. Of IUD users pregnancies, expulsions, hemorrhage and pain led to 65
couples discontinuing its use in the group of 662 cases. In the BOM group of
992 cases there were no pregnancies related to the method and only 5
pregnancies overall, all of which resulted from a failure to apply the
guidelines of the method correctly. Recent surveys also found that where the
BOM is taught there is a seven-fold decline to 0.61% in the rate of artificial
abortion compared to a 4.06% rate where the BOM has not yet been introduced.
The
internet has played a major role in educating women and the girl-child since
the inauguration of the first Billings Method web site, in Canada, in 1995. Recently, all national Billings sites, in many
languages, are linked to the official web site: woomb.org
which is maintained by the conscientious work of John and Audrey Smith of
Canberra, Australia. This official
web site has enabled Billings Method teachers in over 100 countries to access
standardized teaching materials at the click of a button. The booklet,
“Teaching the Billings Ovulation Method - Part one” may now be downloaded in PDF format or ordered from the Ovulation Method Research and
Reference Centre of Australia.
PowerPoint presentations and CDs have been made available together with
interactive spreadsheet charts, information on upcoming conferences, medical
teacher training and animations of cervical functions. However, these are not a substitute for
personal instruction from an accredited teacher.
Increasing
numbers of doctors have been educated in the Billings Method in the past ten
years. University medical departments in many countries including Australia,
the United States of America, Italy, and Turkey are granting credits for
participation in training programmes organized by the Education Committee of
the Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre in Melbourne,
Australia. Metabolic abnormalities, often detected in the pattern of infertility on a woman’s chart, can lead to disorders of ovulation and alert doctors to investigate the cause of such disorders. Diseases such as those relating to the thyroid, diabetes and polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD), may be detected early.
A method
so simple to understand and apply can suffer from a lack of credibility in the
medical world. However, the method is underpinned by extensive research into
the complex features of the reproductive cycle which provides physicians with
an understanding of the scientific basis of the method. Two leaders in this
research for many years are Professor- Emeritus Erik Odeblad, of the University
of Umea, Sweden and Professor-Emeritus James Brown of the University of
Melbourne, Australia. The former was able, with the use of electron microscopy,
to verify the different properties of cervical mucus at various stages of the
fertility cycle as interpreted in the Billings Ovulation Method. The results
were published in the Journal of Human Reproduction in 2003. (Vol. 18)
Professor James Brown’s Monograph with PowerPoint presentation entitled,
“The Continuum of Ovarian Activity,” provides increased understanding
of hormonal fluctuations in normal fertile cycles, whether short or long, and
cycle variants that may indicate fertility disorders and disease but which any
woman may experience from time to time throughout her reproductive life;
adolescence, breastfeeding, pre-menopause, recovering from emotional and
physical stress and coming off contraceptive medication.
In
conclusion, all women of childbearing age in the world should have knowledge of
the Billings method. Such knowledge empowers a woman and raises her status in
the eyes of her husband. She is able to make decisions about having children on
an equal footing with her husband.
She is entitled to this knowledge and the benefits for her, the family
and society as a whole are many.
Her health and fertility remain unscathed and her new knowledge leads to
enhanced self-confidence and communication within the marriage. This leads to
strong families and stable society. This goal will be reached if as much
progress is made in the next ten years as has been made in the last ten.
(To be read by Susan Fryer, NGO Representative of W.O.O.M.B. International Inc. and Endeavour Forum (Eco-Soc status) e-mail: jandsfryer@shaw.ca
