By Caroline Smith
An upcoming Perth conference is set to bring the concepts of natural family planning to the forefront as teachers from Billings LIFE hone their skills and discuss the implication of these concepts for general reproductive health.
The event, which is themed ‘Billings Ovulation Method – More Than A Method, A Way of Life’, will be held from the 6 to 8 May at the Epiphany Retreat Centre, Rossmoyne, and will bring together teachers, organisers and speakers to discuss key issues.
Billings LIFE Senior Teacher, Mandie Bowen, said the theme was chosen to reflect the wider benefits of natural family planning.
“It focuses on the fact that this method does much more than just help women conceive or postpone pregnancy,” she said.
“It helps them monitor their reproductive health, build relationships and respect, so not just aiding the couple, but their family as well.”
Mrs Bowen said the conference would be targeted at teachers and people interested in becoming teachers of the Billings Method and would be built around seminars with key speakers including University of Notre Dame Australia, Manager of Campus Ministry, Tom Gourlay.
“We will also have our senior teachers running workshops and programs,” she added.
“The conference is mainly for professional development, so it will be targeted at our teachers and trainees. We have teachers and trainees coming from around Australia plus colleagues travelling from New Zealand.
“The focus is on developing knowledge as well as collegiality and support.”
Mrs Bowen said this would be the first conference for Billings LIFE to be held in Perth, two years after the last Australian event, held in Wagga Wagga in 2015.
In the past, the organisation held international conferences in Melbourne but this ended in 2011 following changes to government funding for such events. Since then, international conferences have been organised by the World Organisation of Ovulation Method Billings (WOOMB) in countries such as Malaysia in 2013 and Croatia in 2016.
In the lead-up to the event, Billings LIFE hosted a fundraising concert on 17 February at the Romancing the Stone amphitheatre in Maida Vale, featuring the Jarrah Celtic Band and sponsored by the Knights of the Southern Cross.
“About 160 people attended the concert,” Mrs Bowen said.
“It went really well, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the setting and music were great. We raised just over $3000.”
The Billings Method was developed in the 1950s by neurologist Dr John Billings, after he was approached by Melbourne priest Father Maurice Cataranich, to find a solution for Catholic couples who were finding family life difficult, due to the number of children they were having.
Fr Cataranich, who had been appointed to the Melbourne Catholic Marriage Guidance Bureau, asked Dr Billings to work with these couples, sparking a life-long career journey researching reproductive health and fertility awareness education.
Ten years later, his wife Dr Evelyn Billings, began to contribute to this and was credited with identifying a woman’s infertility within her cycle, which is referred to as the Basic Infertile Pattern.
The Method came to Perth in the 1970s, thanks to teachers who sought to disseminate this knowledge.
For enquiries about the conference, including ticketing and session information, please contact Mandie Bowen at bnfpwa@westnet.com.au.