RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BILLINGS OVULATION METHOD

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The prudent and generous decision to have a large family; or The choice to have no more children for the time being or even for an indeterminate period, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral law. can mean

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The Billings Ovulation Method is the most modern natural way to achieve or avoid becoming pregnant. Dr. John (died 4/1/2007) and Evelyn BILLINGS Catholic Australian doctors THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE TO ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTIVES

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The BILLINGS OVULATION METHOD is a bidirectional approach that can be used for both fertility control and promotion. It is simple to learn cost free non-invasive has no side effects It is the most effective way of fertility regulation in all conditions, as breastfeeding irregular cycle pre-menopause coming off contraceptive medication during emotional and physical stress.

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The Billings Ovulation Method teaches women : to recognize their own individual pattern of fertility and infertility to understand that they are infertile more often than fertile throughout their reproductive years. to recognize the fertile phase of their menstrual cycles, signaled by the development of a particular type of mucus from the crypts of the cervix. HOSPITABLE CERVICAL MUCUS DURING FERTILE PHASE. SPERM (PINK) IS SEEN SWIMMING UP AQUEOUS CHANNELS AMONG MUCUS THREADS.

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) was officially introduced into China by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 1995, and since then: fourteen BOM Centers have been established in China at the most strategic areas for fertility regulation and 36,845 BOM teachers have been trained. BOM: THE CHINA EXPERIENCE

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BOM: THE CHINA EXPERIENCE The method is highly efficient only when a series of precautions and regulations are strictly followed. Inappropriate use would result in higher failure rates, as in preliminary trials in China (1989) and some other places. Success Rate from 1995 to 2006: In 2,686,400 fertile couples avoiding pregnancy = 99% In 45,280 infertile couples trying to get pregnant = 32.1%

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD “The teachers of the Billings Ovulation Method are enriched by their activities because they see how much the BOM exercises a therapy upon conjugal love. The marriage of the couple has made a covenant in which they give themselves completely to one another and within this gift is their precious fertility. John Billings

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD The natural method preserves this unique gift and every act of intercourse remains open to the transmission of life. The need to wait without intercourse at times is a part of every marriage, because of the birth of a new child, sickness of the husband or the wife, demands of employment and so on. ” John Billings

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD “When the couple accepts this gentle discipline they make a magnificent demonstration of their love, the husband for the wife, the wife for the husband, and both together for the children already born and to be born in the future. Each observes the goodness of their decision so that it has the effect of ennobling them both as they perceive what they have done for each other. John Billings

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD They are happy to be cooperating with what the Creator has designed in Nature, are at peace with their conscience, and the family is growing in an atmosphere of love, happiness, security and peace which is so appropriate to the rearing of children, each of whom has experienced the beatitude of having from birth a father and mother who love them and love each other.” John Billings

CREIGHTON MODEL SYSTEM – a refinement of the Billings Ovulation Method PREGNANCY AVOIDANCE AT FIVE FERTILITY CENTERS (1980, 1980, 1985, 1989, 1994) #COUPLES#COUPLE-SUCCESS RATE MONTHS CENTER , % CENTER , % CENTER , % CENTER , % CENTER , % 1.Creighton University (Omaha), 2. St. John’s Mercy Hospital (St. Louis), 3. St. Francis Hospital (Wichita), 4. St. Joseph Hospital (Houston), 5. Marquette Nursing Center (Milwaukee)

RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD THROUGH ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTION OR NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING? CHOICE WHAT IS THE RATIONAL CHOICE ?

Marriage is the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design Reciprocal personal gift of self communion of their beings in view of mutual personal perfection cooperate with God in the generation and bring up of new lives

above all fully human, a mix of sense and spirit an act of the free will a love, which is total, a friendship that is unconditional and selfless, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself also faithful and exclusive until death it is productive

Conjugal act has inseparable and integrated UNITIVE (love-giving: signifies, expresses and incarnates the mutual love between husband and wife; authentic total self- giving) and PROCREATIVE (life- giving: inherent orientation to the transmission of life) dimensions. Dr. Angeles Tan-Alora, Bioethics for Students, 2006

UNITIVE PROCREATIVE

UNITIVE value and function of the entire humanity, both men and women created unto the image of God (Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation “Familiaris consortio” 1981) The sexual act inherent to marriage therefore, by which man and woman are united in a chaste and intimate manner, is noble, dignified, honorable and good When exercised in a truly human way, it signifies and fosters ‘reciprocal self-giving, with which they enrich each other mutually in a climate of joyous gratitude

PROCREATIVE God, the Creator has, through divine laws, built into the act of mutual love the capacity to transmit life (Humanae Vitae No. 13, Pope Paul VI) Love between husband and wife must be fully human, exclusive and open to life.

NATURAL PLANNING   conception control based on the natural fertility cycle in women   Couple does not practice contraception (artificial interference with the two aspects of intercourse) but uses an opportunity provided by nature   “fertility awareness-based methods”   Develops dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility and self-control

Fertility Control ETHICALUNETHICAL Natural Family PlanningArtificial Contraception “rightly use a facility provided to them by nature.” obstructs the natural development of the generative process both cases for acceptable reasons, have the intention of avoiding children abstain from during the fertile period during infertile days, “use their married intimacy to express their mutual love and safeguard their fidelity towards one another.” “In doing this they give proof of a true and authentic love.” Performance of sexual intercourse with deliberate intention of rendering infertile an act that could be fertile

Inseparability of the Two Aspects of Conjugal Act Basis by which the Church condemns any voluntary deprivation of procreation It emphasizes that any act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life, which God the Creator has built into it, frustrates His design constituting the norms of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of Life

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES VIOLATED Dr. Angeles Tan-Alora, Bioethics for Students, 2006 Separation of Two Aspects of Conjugal Act Acts as arbiters of the divine plan manipulate and degrade sexuality and themselves by manipulating the value of total self-giving Inseparability of the Two Aspects Acts as ministers of God’s plan Benefiting from their sexuality

Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI) Use the divine gift of the sexual act, while partially or completely depriving it of its meaning and purpose, is equally contradictory to the nature of man and woman and strikes at the heart of their relationship, and is consequently in disagreement to God’s plan and holy will. Casti Conubii (Pope Piux XI) “no motive, even grave ones, can make an act that is intrinsically against nature become honorable and in conformity with the same nature: the conjugal act is directed by its very nature to the generation of offsprings. Those who disregard this end during the exercise of marriage, disregard its very essence and perform a lascivious and intrinsically evil act.” Pope John Paull II (Familiaris consortio) and Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (Donum vitae)

“every action which, in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible”