RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BILLINGS OVULATION METHOD

1. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BILLINGS OVULATION METHOD

2. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD can mean 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.

3. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE TO ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTIVES 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BOM: THE CHINA EXPERIENCE 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.

7. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD BOM: THE CHINA EXPERIENCE Success Rate from 1995 to 2006: In 2,686,400 fertile couples avoidingpregnancy = 99% In45,280 infertile couples trying to get pregnant = 32.1% 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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 beatitudeof having from birth a father and mother who love them and love each other.” John Billings

12. 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 1. 288 2,224 98-100% CENTER 2. 273 1,980 99-100% CENTER 3. 378 2,471 99-100% CENTER 4. 597 7,084 99-100% CENTER 5. 242 1,810 97-100% • 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)

13. RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD THROUGH ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTION OR NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING? WHAT IS THE RATIONALCHOICE?

14. GOD’S DESIGN OF LOVE

15. CONJUGAL LOVE • 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

16. PERSONALIZED SEXUALITY 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

17. CONJUGAL ACT

20. 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

21. Fertility Control

23. 5. Personalized Sexuality Dr. Angeles Tan-Alora, Bioethics for Students, 2006

24. Pope John Paull II (Familiaris consortio) and Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (Donum vitae)

25. “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”