My name is Susan Fryer and I am British by education until marriage
to another Brit. and then we emigrated to Canada where we became Canadian.
I have been teaching the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) for some twenty
years in Montreal and then now in Calgary, Canada. I have been involved in
teaching midwives in Calgary about the Billings Ovulation Method of natural
family planning.  They have been extremely receptive to the method and, in
some instances, have wanted to train as teachers of the method.

	Professor Erik Odeblad of the University of Umea in Sweden, has had
great success with the training of Swedish midwives in this area.  You can
contact him through our website:  www.billingsmethod.com

	I have just returned from New York where I represented the World
Organization Ovulation Method Billings WOOMB International Inc. at the
United Nations 21st General Assembly.  I read the following statement which
was translated into 6 languages and was well received by UNFPA.


Caucus for the Advancement of the Billings Ovulation Method, C.A.B.O.M
Statement to the Twenty-first Special Session of the General Assembly -
Cairo +5, United Nations, New York, June 30 - July 2,1999,
as read on Wednesday, June 30, 1999

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Mr Chairman,
The Caucus for the Advancement of the Billings Ovulation Method, C.A.B.O.M.
thanks the Chairman, Dr. Sadik, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and
Gentlemen, for the opportunity to give a short statement to the General
Assembly. We represent fourteen eco-soc NGO organizations present at the
Cairo +5 meetings and speak for 60 affiliates of the World Organization of
the Ovulation Method Billings teaching the authentic Billings Method in
over 100 countries around the world. Teaching materials are published in 22
languages and carry the WOOMB logo to ensure authenticity.

The method, developed by Drs. John and Evelyn Billings of Australia, is the
most simple, natural and effective way in the world of achieving or
avoiding pregnancy. In a 1978 five nation study, conducted by the World
Health Organizatiion, it was found that 93% of women can return, after just
one conversation with a Billings teacher, with a recognizeable chart of the
few possibly fertile days and many infertile days in her cycle. With some
further instruction in the keeping of a simple chart and in the application
of a few commonsense guidelines she will know on which days an act of
intercourse can possibly lead to pregnancy and which one cannot possibly do
so, ahead of time. It allows parents to be in total charge of their
fertility without the costly complications of the contraceptive
/sterilization /abortion package.

The way in which the method is spreading is reflected in the huge interest
in our web site. It had 311,000 visits in March this year compared to
33,000 during the same time last year . Most of the visitors came from the
U.S.A. and the E.U. and had selected "achieve pregnancy" as their reason
for wanting to use the method. Many from Asia and unspecified areas of the
world, wanting to space their children or avoid pregnancy discovered a
natural, modern method that is scientific, cost-free and culturally
acceptable to all groups, regardless of race, colour, religion or
socio-economic
background .

I want to say a few words about the proven benefits of this method for
mothers of families. It is their right to be told about it. There is now no
doubt that the knowledge they acquire from it empowers them as they learn
about the physical changes that occur within their bodies. Women in
developing nations report that their gift of knowledge of their own
fertility enhances their self esteem and status within their relationship
and community. Understanding their own cycle gives them deeper insight into
their womanhood and the dignity of being a woman. As well as that they will
quickly learn to detect the development of abnormalities, so the Method
proves to help women preserve gynaecological health.

Breast feeding women welcome the good news as it provides them with the
security to resume sexual intercourse, without the worry of pregnancy, by
accurately detecting the presence of their infertility while waiting for
the return of their normal fertility. Women with irregular cycles learn to
understand how they can use the knowledge. Mothers pass the information on
to their daughters and parents welcome the knowledge that provides them
with a healthy context in which to discuss fertility with their
sons........Blind women are able to use the method as can women who have
undergone the
unnatural practice of female genital mutilation.

Governments of over 100 nations appreciate the method as it provides them
with the lowest cost policy option for fertility planning. There is no
longer the need to resort to involuntary sterilization programs. Its
widespread appeal removes the need for an agenda of coercive and unpopular
child spacing. Families benefit from knowledge of the Billings Method.
Suffice it to say that a healthy mother is vital for the health of the
whole family, the basic unit of a healthy society leading to healthy,
sustainable economic development. Even women needing treatment for common
vaginal infections can understand their cycles. Dr. John Billings in his
letter to delegates on the back of our brochure describes further how a
marriage benefits from this knowledge:

"A very great advantage of the BOM is that it fosters communication and
understanding between the man and the woman, develops cooperation between
them and a sharing of this important matter of their children. In all these
ways it improves their relationship, helping them to grow in love and
fidelity to each other. In this way it helps to protect them against the
widespread epidemic of sexually-transmitted diseases which cause so much
infertility and other complications in virtually all the countries of the
world. This protection is also afforded against AIDs, against which the
only certain protection is the preservation of monogamous sexual
relationship."

With all due respect can we suggest that the time is ripe for the World
Health Organization to follow-up on the successful findings of its study of
1978 by shifting the emphasis from "emergency contraception," resulting in
more abortion and more misery for women and families, back to the mother of
all education, Nature, which has provided us with such good timely
knowledge. European nations are worried by low population replacement
levels while the two most populous nations in the world, China and India,
are providing the greatest success in the use of the Billings Method in
avoiding
pregnancy, by showing near zero method-related pregnancies in recent
studies. Even Dr. Nafis Sadik, before a room jam packed with NGOs in the
March Prepcom meeting of this year, acknowledged that the Billings
Ovulation Method should be a "choice" for women.

When we are blessed with a method like this why are we not taking advantage
of it? With all the resources available to the W.H.O. is it not time to
apply them to take advantage for the benefit of the whole world? The
advantages are: non-political, non religious, non commercial and above all,
acceptable to all. Need we look further? The answer is sitting on our
doorstep all the time! Let us all accept the challenge of teaching every
woman in the world how to understand her cycle by, say, a target date of
2010!

Read by Susan Fryer, UN NGO delegate representing WOOMB International
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.billingsmethod.com or www.woomb.org.
(Duration: approximately 7 mins )




Sue Fryer
Calgary Billings Centre.
fax: 403 252 3929
website:  http://www.billingsmethod.com




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