Natural Birth Control
Natural Contraception
What if you didn’t have to suppress your fertility to control it?
For generations of women, contraception has largely meant choosing between hormones, medications, injections, implants and intrauterine devices.
The Pill has become so normal that many young women begin taking it during adolescence — sometimes before they have ever had the opportunity to properly understand their own menstrual cycle.
But there is another way.
You can learn to understand your fertility rather than suppress it.
A woman is not fertile every day of her cycle. Her body produces observable biological signs that identify the changing phases of fertility and infertility.
Learning to recognise those signs provides women with an entirely different approach to contraception — one requiring no hormones, drugs or implanted devices.
When did fertility become something that needed to be switched off?
This is a question I believe more women should be encouraged to ask. A normally functioning reproductive system is not a disease.
- Ovulation is not an illness.
- Menstruation is not a pathology.
- Fertility itself is not something needing to be ‘fixed’ on the female body.
Yet much of modern contraception approaches fertility by deliberately altering, suppressing or circumventing normal reproductive function. For many women that is a choice they are comfortable making. But it should be an informed choice.
Hormonal contraceptives and intrauterine devices are medical interventions. Like other medical interventions, they have recognised benefits, contraindications, side effects and potential risks. Different methods affect the body differently and individual women respond differently.
Some women tolerate them well.
Others do not.
What concerns me is not that these choices exist. It is that many women are never meaningfully introduced to another choice.
There is another way to manage fertility
Imagine understanding your menstrual cycle sufficiently well that you can recognise when you are potentially fertile and when you are naturally infertile.
- No prediction based on an assumed 28-day cycle.
- No guessing when you ovulate.
- No daily temperature readings required.
- No app deciding whether you are fertile.
Instead, you learn to observe the biological signs produced by your own body during your current cycle.
This is fertility awareness.
And the most extensively studied method of fertility awareness is the Billings Ovulation Method®.
The Billings Ovulation Method®
The Billings Ovulation Method is based upon decades of scientific investigation into the relationship between ovarian hormones, cervical mucus, ovulation and fertility.
The cervix responds to changing levels of oestrogen and progesterone throughout the menstrual cycle by producing characteristic patterns of mucus.
These aren’t meaningless secretions.
They are part of the biology of human reproduction.
By learning to recognise changes in sensation at the vulva and cervical mucus, a woman can identify her individual pattern of fertility and infertility.
This is very different from the old-fashioned rhythm or calendar method.
Billings doesn’t predict fertility from the calendar. It teaches you to observe your fertility as it is happening…in real time!
Yes, natural fertility management has been scientifically studied
Natural methods are sometimes dismissed as ‘unscientific’ or ‘unreliable’.
That criticism fails to distinguish between completely different methods.
Calendar calculations, fertility apps, basal temperature methods and scientifically developed cervical-mucus methods are not interchangeable simply because they are all labelled ‘natural.’
The Billings Ovulation Method has been subjected to laboratory investigation, clinical research and international field trials, including multicentre research supported by the World Health Organization.
Studies have demonstrated that cervical mucus patterns reliably reflect ovarian hormonal activity and can be used to identify the fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle.
When the method is being used to avoid pregnancy, however, correct teaching and correct application of the rules matter.
That is precisely why I recommend learning Billings from an accredited teacher rather than simply downloading an app or attempting to teach yourself from social media.
Knowledge instead of medication
There is something profoundly empowering about a woman learning to understand her own reproductive physiology.
You begin to recognise:
- what your cervical mucus means;
- when fertility is developing;
- when ovulation is approaching;
- when the fertile phase has passed;
- and how your individual fertility pattern changes throughout reproductive life.
The knowledge remains with you through:
- regular cycles,
- irregular cycles,
- coming off hormonal contraception,
- breastfeeding and the return of fertility,
- trying to conceive,
- and the transition towards menopause.
The objective isn’t simply contraception.
It is reproductive literacy…for your entire fertile continuum
And what about our daughters?
This conversation is particularly important for mothers of adolescent girls. A girl’s menstrual cycle is one of the most important biological systems developing during adolescence. Yet girls are commonly taught remarkably little about it.
They may know how to use a sanitary product and perhaps be told that pregnancy is possible, but very few are taught how ovulation works, why cervical mucus changes, what constitutes a healthy menstrual cycle or how to recognise their own fertility.
When contraception becomes necessary, medication is most often presented as the only option.
I believe our daughters deserve more knowledge than that.
Before a young woman decides whether she wants to medically alter her reproductive cycle, she deserves to understand the cycle she already has.
Whatever contraceptive decision she ultimately makes, that knowledge can only improve her ability to make an informed one.
Natural doesn’t mean irresponsible
Natural contraception requires responsibility.
If you are using the Billings Ovulation Method to avoid pregnancy, both partners need to understand and follow the rules during the fertile phase.
That isn’t a weakness of the method.
It is part of the method.
There are no hormones or devices doing the work in the background. Instead, fertility management becomes something understood and shared by the couple.
For some couples that will not suit their circumstances.
For others, it is extraordinarily liberating.
Your fertility belongs to you
I am a three times accredited Billings Ovulation Method teacher with Billings Life Australia.
My role is not to tell women what method of contraception they must use.
It is to make sure women know that they have a choice.
If you are uncomfortable using hormonal contraception…
If you don’t want an implant or intrauterine device…
If you’ve experienced unwanted effects from contraception…
If you are coming off hormonal contraception and want to understand your natural cycle…
Or if you simply believe you should know considerably more about your own reproductive health and functioning than you currently do…
I can teach you.
You don’t necessarily need to suppress fertility to control it.
You can learn to understand it.
