Mr Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen,                   

Thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of the Caucus for the Advancement of the Billings Ovulation Method (C.A.B.O.M.) regarding the relevance of the Billings Method to the discussion about women, poverty and the life cycle. The Billings method of natural family planning (NFP) provides a couple with an effective way of achieving or avoiding pregnancy with an assurance of a better than 99% success. It is cost free, simple to learn , non-invasive, has no side effects, involves no devices, is culturally acceptable and continues to be effective when cycles are irregular, such as may be caused by breastfeeding, pre-menopause, coming off contraceptive medication or emotional and physical stress. It is based on recognizing external signs of fertility, and applying that knowledge according to some simple rules.

It was the World Health Organization that gave the name “Billings” to the Ovulation Method to distinguish it from other methods on account of successful multi-national trials of it in 1978. In the last few years the journal, Contraception published a trial of the method, conducted by The Indian Council of Medical Research Task Force on NFP, which studied over two thousand women in 1995 resulting in 0.86% method related pregnancies. In China the Jiangsu Family Health Institute, conducted a trial of the method, published in the Chinese Medical Journal in 1998, where 992 women used it and there were only five user related pregnancies. All five women are continuing on with the method having realised that the rules really mean what they say.

What is the method’s relevance to women, poverty and the life cycle? Let me address women first. The role of women in bearing children forms a significant aspect of most women’s lives. The Billings Method provides them with a way to manage this important dimension, naturally and without harm of any kind. It recognizes fertility as a gift to be cherished, not as a condition which requires medication. The knowledge empowers them and lifts their status in the eyes of their husbands. It enhances communication in marriage thereby strengthening the family bond. Women’s health, fertility and very lives may be preserved through its practice as more is understood about the anti-viral properties of nature’s barrier in the cervix. Husbands have been known to give up alcoholism upon experiencing the loving response of their wives to sexual intimacy during the many infertile days of her cycle. Even blind women are empowered by this method.

Poverty is certainly no barrier to learning the Billings Method. Doctors John and Evelyn Billings have found the greatest welcome among the poorest of the poor in developing nations, especially India and Africa. Here the low cost and multiple benefits for the family, the basic unit of sustainable and economic growth in society, appeal to parents and governments alike . A mother and wife is able to contribute to the family business, a large percentage of the way business is conducted in developing nations, only if she is healthy and free of the costly side effects of “birth control” and invasive family planning programmes. Ill-effects of these include heart attacks and strokes arising from blood-clots migrating with the circulation, an increased tendency to cancer of the breast, gall stones, diabetes, liver tumors, loss of libido, depression, irregular bleeding from the uterus, migraine, a prolonged, even permanent infertility following the previous use of the medication, this infertility arising primarily from damage to the cervix. From the first introduction of the contraceptive pill it was pointed out by the pharmaceutical industries that medication interfered with the normal development of the endometrium in preparation for a pregnancy, such as to impede implantation and that therefore an abortifacient action would sometimes operate if the pill failed to prevent ovulation.

Lastly, I was reminded of how the life cycle plays such a crucial role in the passing on of wisdom from one generation to the next when I met twenty-five grandmothers who were hearing about the Billings Ovulation Method for the very first time. They were indignant that for over half a century this method, which would have benefitted them had they known about it, had been used by millions of couples around the world and yet they were ignorant of it. While political will, the pharmaceutical industry and family planning clinics, are busily redefining the very beginning of life to justify their latest technique, “emergency contraception,” whose primary purpose is to act as an abortifacient and not as a contraceptive, they will be happily proclaiming the Billings Method as the method of the future to their families!

(More information in several languages is available on the website: www.woomb.org. or billingsmethod.com)

WOOMB is an entirely volunteer, non-profit organization, incorporated in Los Angeles in 1977. Its objective is to teach every woman in the world the facts of her fertility and how to use this information to achieve or avoid pregnancy. This is a basic skill, like knowing how to feed a baby, which is passed down from one generation to the next.. Studies all over the world have demonstrated that, with this basic knowledge, couples can plan their families naturally with confidence and without mechanical or chemical use.

The Billings Ovulation Method was developed over several decades by an international team of medical researchers and clinicians, led by Drs. John and Evelyn Billings of Australia. It is based on a woman's vulval observations of what she feels and sees and is not to be confused with the rhythm or temperature methods. Where it is known and practised it is acclaimed as both the most effective way of avoiding pregnancy, even when cycles are irregular, and as a primary treatment of infertility. Professor James Brown, an internationally renowned endocrinologist, has used the method to achieve pregnancies in more than 50% of couples whose infertility is of undertermined cause without prior investigation or the expensive intervention of fertility experts.

The spread of the Billings Ovulation Method throughout the world has been remarkable. It is now taught on an organized basis in over one hundred countries on every continent. Dr. Evelyn Billings' book "The Billings Method"" has been translated into 22 languages and over 50 million copies have been sold. The most frequent reactions to the method are amazement at its simplicity and bewilderment and even anger at not having heard of it before!

A dramatic example of the way this natural method has spread in recent years is its adoption in China. China carried out its own trials of the method and concluded that it is more effective than the most widely used birth control technique, the intra-uterine device. They also found that it was effective in helping sub-fertile women in China achieve pregnancy.

So how is the Billings Ovulation Method relevant to the objectives of the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements? Human Settlements by definition denote people living together in harmony. The basic unit of settlements is the family, and the Billings Method acts as a bonding agent for the mutual support and physical and psychological well-being of all family members, transforming a house into a home.

• a) It empowers the woman with knowledge of how her cycle works and so lifts her self-confidence, self-esteem and status to equal partnership in marriage;
• b) It fosters communication and love between parents who can make responsible informed joint decisions on the number and spacing of their children.

• c) It emphasizes the value of the child, the planned as well as the unplanned.

• d) It leads to parents recognizing their responsibility for the sexual education of their children. The mother who understands her own fertility communicates more easily with her daughter before puberty why menstruation occurs. This communication is then ongoing. Adolescents need to know that nature's sign of their health and fertility is a normal event . The knowledge, together with discussion of all aspects of sexuality, strengthens their resolve to resist peer pressure and to realise that waiting until marriage to engage in sexual intercourse is not only a challenge they can undertake but is the way to avoid sexually transmitted disease. Since 1980 school programmes have shown that a third to two thirds of sexually active teens return to chastity with the knowledge of the Billings Method.. (Hanna Klaus, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. , USA)

The philosophy of WOOMB is to recognize and endorse the innate dignity and freedom of the individual. It rejects imposed solutions to meet external agendas that fail in this basic test and lead to such aberrations as forced sterilization and blackmail aid linked to population control programmes which show cynical disregard for the dignity of the individual. This is consistent with the Istanbul Declaration that states that "human beings are at the center of our concern for sustainable development, they are the basis for our actions."

In conclusion, the Billings method presents to those concerned with human settlements a tool that meets the criteria of the Istanbul Declaration and is worthy of endorsement and promotion. To quote Professor S.Z. Qian of the Jiangsu Family Health Institute, "The Billings Ovulation Method is the safest and most effective method so far available for fertility regulation". Thank you . (Further information: www.woomb.org or www.billingsmethod.com.)