THE NATURAL Fertility Australia (NFA) Board has called on the country’s bishops to help expand their services across every diocese and improve what is in many cases poor knowledge of the reproductive concept among Catholics.
By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
THE NATURAL Fertility Australia (NFA) Board has called on the country’s bishops to help expand their services across every diocese and improve what is in many cases poor knowledge of the reproductive concept among Catholics.
As up to 80 percent of natural family planning (NFP) users are non-Catholic, the NFA Board made a verbal submission to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference shortly after the prelates’ May Plenary meeting asking that local Bishops:
– strengthen the advocacy of NFP to pre-marriage couples;
– ensure that Catholic schools offer the Church’s teachings on sexuality and sexual relations;
– keep clergy in their respective dioceses updated on the availability of, and developments in, NFP services.
There was a “broad consensus” among the Bishops that these should be carried out.
“We would like the opportunity to expand our services so that they are available in all dioceses of Australia,” Australian Council of NFP (ACNFP) President Evelyn Brien told The Record. “Hopefully the Bishops can help us to achieve this.
“We see many clients who may or may not be Catholic who are looking for a healthy alternative to contraceptive family planning for whatever reason, but usually for health reasons; and to those who are Catholic and to whom the Church teachings are very important, we meet those needs also.
“We always work within what our Church teaches. This is vital to us.”
Across Australia NFP services are offered in many dioceses, where trained educators speak to couples in marriage education courses, to students in schools and face to face in diocesan centres.
Mrs O’Brien said current Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that one in six Australian couples experience difficulty in becoming pregnant.
“We would really like to expand to ensure that all Catholics know we exist, that NFP is effective and a very healthy choice,” Mrs O’Brien said.
“Many of our clients are seeking to become pregnant and we have an excellent track record in assisting couples to achieve a pregnancy, simply by educating them about the fertile and infertile phases of the cycle.
“When we speak to couples at marriage education courses they are very interested in finding out more about NFP as they have not previously heard much about it.
“They really like the idea of a healthy, effective method of family planning that is in line with the Church and its teachings.”
Derek Boylen, former ACNFP vice-president and chair of promotions and now director of Natural Fertility Services in the Archdiocese of Perth, told The Record that most couples who seek their services are non-Catholics or Catholics who have exhausted every other means of conception, including considering IVF.
It is also often after the woman has come off the contraceptive pill, which sometimes hinders a woman’s ability to conceive even after she has gone off it.
He said while the 80 percent figure reflects the Australian demographic as only 20-25 percent of Australians are Catholic, “we could be doing a lot more to promote NFP in the place it’s meant to be – among the people who are meant to be using it the most”.
This ignorance is largely due, he said, to a misconception among many Catholics that NFP is “Vatican Roulette”, and who think it refers to the less-reliable Rhythm Method which was used 50 years ago. Natural methods have improved since then.
A recent study by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology involving 900 women who contributed 17,638 cycles of information confirmed that the Sympto-Thermal Method, a multi-indicator approach to fertility was 99.6 percent effective when used to avoid pregnancy, an effectiveness level that put it on a par with hormonal methods of contraception. Mr Boylen said that 40 percent of their clients are now Catholics as a result of his office’s promotions work in schools and the wider community over the past year. Younger Catholics, he said, are more open to natural methods.
The WA Catholic Education Office’s curriculum mandates that students be taught the Catholic teachings of sexuality.
This teaching is often delivered by NFS or Billings LIFE WA, to complement the work schools already do.
Mr Boylen said that between the two organisations, most Catholic schools in Perth are covered, but while some choose not to avail themselves of their services, Billings LIFE WA manager Amanda Bowen said the demand is growing. The difficulty is resourcing organisations like theirs when it is not a highly paid job.
Medical students from the University of Notre Dame Australia and the University of WA recently ran school programs for Billings as trained educators and saw it as a key part of their own development.
The underlying problem among the faithful, she says, is that too many Catholics “don’t even understand the reason why we should use it. They only know you can’t use anything but NFP. There’s a lot of naivety,” she said.
“We hardly see Catholic couples. They have this perception of what the Church says but don’t understand why.
“When we do have Catholic couples, they come as a last resort after having used the pill, as do non-Catholics.”
She said a large responsibility falls on priests to be educated on the topic, “it should come from higher up”.
She cited an example of a Bishop in Malaysia who ensured that every Catholic couple who wanted to be married in the Church had to learn NFP and prove they’ve charted.
“They cared that much that they put that policy in place. The Bishops should do more than say it’s up to people’s own conscience; has to be informed before you leave it to people’s conscience,” she said.
Mr Boylen said it can be a difficult topic to discuss in parishes, but research says that over 90 percent of people continued using NFP six months after the study.
He said overall happiness in the relationship is also a good gauge of the effectiveness of NFP apart from conceiving or avoiding pregnancy.
While abstinence is 100 percent effective in avoiding pregnancy, he said that most people aren’t happy with that method as the Church encourages married couples to make love and express their love in that way, “so that’s not conducive to couples’ happiness”, he said.
Billings LIFE WA has programs for Years 9, 10 and 12 and have drafted a Year 11 program, while NFS provides programs for high school and primary school students from Year 6, but Mr Boylen said it is merely ‘this is what’s happening to your body’ rather than ‘how babies are made’.
Parents are also involved in the process, he said, and they are also given help in how to teach their children about Catholic teachings on sexuality in a sensitive way.
Trish Beale, coordinator of Billings LIFE WA’s Loving for Life school program, said most teenage boys still have dreams of marriage and commitment, but have little idea of what it is to be a man in a life-giving marriage.
More regular follow-ups, rather than a one-off program, are needed to help teenagers combat the harmful influence of secular attitudes.
“For example, a GP will never mention natural methods, just contraception … the (negative) messages are everywhere,” she said.
“It’s within young people’s nature to want to know God, to look at ourselves as a whole being and to be loved, to be in relationship and for that to last, and they do dream that, but somehow their lived experience tells them they don’t think it’s possible.
“We need to help them keep that dream alive.”
Natural Family Planning advice available online
By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
RURAL couples now have access to natural family planning (NFP) advisors and online charting opportunities after the Australian Council of Natural Family Planning’s (ACBFP) client services went online on October 27.
While its website, www.acnfp.com.au, has existed for about ten years, their affiliated centres around Australia are mainly in city and regional centres, leaving outback and rural couples in the lurch.
The website now gives couples all the information they need to start using the method and connects them via email with an accredited educator to provide ongoing support for the first six months.
“It’s an exciting new development bringing NFP into the 21st century”, said Evelyn Brien, President of ACNFP.
“It will also give access to fertility education to many regional and rural couples wishing to use
NFP to [regulate] pregnancy” she said.
Sharon Young, Manager of Natural Fertility Services at CatholicCare Sydney, said people are using the web more to access services, don’t want a face to face service, want something quick and easy and the new site gives them the opportunity to learn themselves. “We prefer to have a connection with the clients so we can ensure they’re understanding and interpreting information correctly, and by setting up this facility we can have a dialogue with the client by email; otherwise they’re just reading a book or a website with no opportunity for clarification.
“If they’re unclear they have access to someone who can help them,” she said.
The website also gives access to fertility education to many regional and rural couples wishing to use NFP to achieve or avoid pregnancy.
Mrs Young said the site teaches couples the Sympto-Thermal Method, a multi-indicator approach to natural fertility management that couples often confuse with the Rhythm Method, which was used 50 years ago.
ACNFP President Evelyn Brien said that couples are also increasingly seeking NFP as a means of achieving pregnancy.
On registering as a client, couples receive a comprehensive introduction to fertility and instruction on the indicators and how to chart them.
The indicators can be recorded online, and one payment covers a client for six months who will be assisted by an educator during that time frame.
The Federal Department of Health and Ageing provides funding to ACNFP to ensure natural fertility educators meet standards and accreditation requirements.
Letter from an engaged couple to their local Natural Fertility Services educator
Natural Family Planning was suggested to us through family members who continue to use the method today.
They had found success in the healthy natural method of family planning.
As a young couple, we were encouraged to use hormonal methods of contraception such as the pill.
Discouraged by the negative side effects, we decided to explore the NFP path. At first we were sceptical as to the effectiveness of the method, being afraid of the likelihood of an unplanned pregnancy.
Using NFP has prevented us from experiencing the health conditions that can result from oral forms of contraception.
It has encouraged us as a couple to communicate about what is happening in the female body and helped both of us get used to noticing the various changes.
Learning together formed a closer bond between the two of us. Although we have not been using NFP for long we are confident that with co-operation and motivation it will be very beneficial.
– From a then-engaged couple aged 18 and 24 who were married in September 2009.