Billings Ovulation Method

Breast-feeding

Are you interested in learning the Billings Ovulation Method to understand your fertility and protect your reproductive health?  If so we can help. You can use this method to either achieve or avoid pregnancy.

Scientific studies show that with proper instruction and motivation the Billings Ovulation Method is 99% effective in preventing pregnancy. This method is widely used in breast-feeding.

Breast-feeding promotes bonding between mother and baby. There are irreplaceable benefits to both mother and baby by breast-feeding. Breast milk is:

• readily available
• at correct temperature
• protects against allegies/diseases
• nutritionally correct
• hygienic

Benefits for the mother include:

• convenience
• cost-free
• reduces incidence of premenopausal breast cancer
• helps uterus return to normal size
• maintains temporary infertility

Contraceptive medication passes on to the baby through breast milk. Both mother and baby are assisted by using the Billings Ovulation Method as it is free of drugs or devices.

Using the Billings Ovulation Method, breast-feeding mothers can:

• easily recognise infertility
• identify returning fertility
• continue to breastfeed even when fertility returns

In some cultures breast-feeding may continue for some years. When a woman breast-feeds she remains infertile for a variable time, Dr Evelyn Billings says "...More and more clearly it has been realised, too, that breast-feeding can provide natural child-spacing and it is therefore being increasingly urged. This is good news for public health...".

A breast-feeding woman experiences either a continuing sensation of dryness or an unchanging discharge at the vulva. The appearance of blood or change in the mucus or sensation alerts her to the possiblity of her returning fertility. A Billings Ovulation Method teacher will assist the couple to interpret these signs.

The woman's pituitary gland produces two hormones during breast-feeding:

• prolactin - for milk production and also suppresses ovulation for a variable time depending on the individual woman
• oxytocin - for the 'let down' of milk

Prolactin suppresses the FSH which is secreted by the pituitary gland during normal fertile cycles.

Further Information on Breastfeeding and Lactation

Accredited Billings teachers help individual couples manage their fertility naturally. Contact a teaching Centre in your area, or direct your inquiry to our online address (see Teaching Centres Around the World for other addresses).