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Billings Ovulation Method Association - USA

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What Physicians are saying about Billings Ovulation Method

A tribute to Dr. John J. Billings

Images of him dart in and out of my mind as I try to comprehend that our beloved Dr. John Billings passed away in Melbourne, Australia on Passion Sunday, April 1, 2007.

First and foremost, I see him looking so lovingly at Lyn and smiling as she speaks.

Next we are across from one another in a small Italian restaurant not too far from their home in Melbourne. I’m briefing him of the struggles we experience in the United States. More studies need to be published in American Medical Journals, I tell him. He agrees. Then I tell him about the many other natural methods in the United States and how their followers insist they are better. How should I deal with that, I ask. “They don’t get it”, he said. “Just teach the truth.” But the good news, I say, is that our teachers are becoming authentic in their teaching. He smiles and nods his head. He knows how much work this has been for us. I show him a copy of our brochure with the cute picture of him and his wonderful Lyn wrapped in a red, plaid blanket while aboard a ship sailing to Alaska. They love it. Many photos have been taken of them over the years, few they’ve seen.

Then I see my parents and I and the Drs. Billings walking into a country restaurant in Australia for brunch. “It started an hour ago,” said the Maitre D, “So, it will be half price!” We all look at each other and burst out laughing. Then my Dad raises his hand and proclaims, “Great! I’ll treat!” Then we all burst out laughing again!

Next we’re their last guests in their country home during Holy Week a few years ago. Dr. Lyn had tucked us each in with hot water bottles to warm us while we slept in the lower level of their simple yet wonderfully comfortable home. “We’ll have to be up and out by 3 a.m.” they tell us, “in case there’s fog.” And, sure enough, at 3 a.m. we are in the car and making our way with Dr. John at the helm going down a very long and narrow and winding road. Finally we reach the end. It’s dark and chilly but it’s Easter morning and soon we would arrive in a small chapel in the woods, surrounded by candlelight. The Mass would last for nearly four hours with songs before and after each of the several readings. We would then gather in the rectory in front of a large fire eating little pastries and drinking hot tea.

Next I can see us back in their home on Wellington Avenue, almost transfixed by Mir, the treasured cat. Dr. John would lovingly stroke her, over and over and over as we talked and laughed.

He was a humble man. I remember during that same conversation in the little Italian restaurant I gave him and Dr. Lyn Billings a copy of our newly published book, “A Preachable Message”. “We dedicated it, in part, to you,” I rather excitedly told him. No reply. Nothing. That time his humility made me feel a bit awkward.

My mother, Kay Ek (who was in the first Billings Method teacher training ever held in the United States) told me in the early years that she would call him “Dr. Billings”. This he did not like. “If you call me Dr. Billings then I will call you Mrs. Ek!” he said. And so he was John from then on.

“Faxes come at all hours of the night,” they once told us. Why don’t they check to see what time it is, we wonder rather irritated at the thought. The Billings smile, always gracious, always forgiving.

One can imagine they’ve had a lot of forgiving to do over the years. Ever since Dr. John Billings agreed to give his pastor, Fr. Maurice Catarinich three months of research, they were met with challenges and many, many opportunities to forgive.

In 1953, the good doctor agreed to see if he could figure out something better than the Rhythm Method. That evolved into over 50 years and now his simple, highly scientific and even more effective method has reached over 100 countries around the world. He once told me the Peak Rule was the first rule they established. He coined the term “Peak Day” and now any reasonably viable natural method has its own version of Peak Day. Bless his heart for giving us only four simple rules and yet a method that can be used equally effective regardless of the woman’s situation.

The spreading of the Billings Method in China was something this humble man was clearly proud of. Reaching over four million users at the time of this printing, with nearly 50,000 teachers, the government-run health centers continually report 99.5+ percent effectiveness in avoiding pregnancy and high rates of achieving a desired pregnancy.

About a week before he died, Father Ronald Lawler, a great theologian whom many of us knew, called me in his final days of cancer. Sounding a little hoarse and very tired, he said, “Sue, we must get the word out about the Billings Method in China. That is a whole country on its way to conversion.”

In the early years, during one of their private meetings, Pope Paul VI told the Drs. Billings they were to make the Billings Method their life’s work. And so they did.

Now a true hero is meeting his Eternal Reward.

May God richly bless you, Dr. John J. Billings.

With love,

Sue Ek, Executive Director
Billings Ovulation Method Association – USA

What is the Billings Ovulation Method?

The Billings Ovulation Method is a simple yet scientific method of Natural Family Planning. Ongoing research has been conducted in Australia, Sweden and Spain since it was developed over 50 years ago by physicians John and Lyn Billings of Melbourne, Australia.

Couples using the Billings Ovulation Method track the woman's natural and unique signs of fertility and infertility each day. Based on the primary observation of sensation, four simple rules are applied within the woman's cycle (the first three rules are used before ovulation and the fourth rule is applied once the fertile phase is over) based on a couple's desire to achieve or postpone pregnancy.

As published in numerous journals including, Lancet, Contraception, Fertility and Sterility, British Medical Journal, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as by the World Health Organization, the Billings Ovulation Method is 99.5% percent effective in postponing pregnancy, providing couples follow the guidelines correctly.

To learn more, please explore our web site or visit www.woomb.org for more of the scientific basis behind the Billings Ovulation Method. A sampling of effectiveness studies can be found on: http://www.woomb.org/bom/trials/index.html