Improvement and understanding at Billings Ovulation Method teachers’ weekend

By Lynne Anderson, 19 August 2019
Educators at the National Training Weekend. Image: Supplied.

 

National Fertility Awareness Week runs from 19 – 26 August.

April 5 saw thirty-four Billings Ovulation Method® teachers and trainees from across the country descend on the Mount Schoenstatt Spirituality Centre in Mulgoa, NSW, for their biannual National Teachers’ Weekend.

This year the theme for the weekend was ‘The Beauty of Womanhood’. Prof Isabell Naumann ISSM THD/STD opened the weekend with a wonderful presentation.

The Diocese of Parramatta has two representatives on the weekend – Natural Fertility Services Educator Margaret Coakley and Billings Method teacher Crystal Wilkes.

As well as inspiring teachers to return to their work with renewed vigour, the weekend is a time for focusing on improving teaching skills and understanding the scientific basis that underpins the Method.

Presentations covered all uses of the Billings Method, including post chemical contraceptives and breastfeeding and postpartum situations.

On Sunday evening, teachers were treated to a viewing of the film “The Sexual Revolution – 50 Years Since Humanae Vitae”. This recent documentary chronicles the prophetic nature of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical and his call to scientists. He implored men and women of science to work to find an answer in nature to the problems faced by couples wishing to regulate the size of their families while remailing faithful to the Church’s magisterium. Drs John and Evelyn Billings were two such scientists. People who have seen this film have been amazed that Paul VI’s vision of the future has come to fruition so accurately. This is plain to see in society today.

Most of the teachers stayed on after the weekend for a two-day advanced training course titled “The Common Sense Method.” This course focused on the changing patterns of hormones made visible through the woman’s chart. The original development of the method was done so rigorously that the 4 simple rules that were developed in the late 1950’s still apply today. Developments in science since then have only helped to validate the original findings of Dr John Billings.

Lynne Anderson is the Executive Director of The Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre of Australia.

For more information about the Billings Method, and about Natural Family Planning, please contact Catherine Bourne, Coordinator/Educator, Natural Fertility Services, Diocese of Parramatta on 02 8838 3442, 0400 427 605 or catherine.bourne@parracatholic.org

With thanks to Billings LIFE – Leaders in Fertility Education.  

 

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