Ministry of Human Sexuality and Natural Family Planning
TRAINING THE TRAINERS

by Peter Gentle     

A seminar on Natural Family Planning (NFP), also called the “Billings Ovulation Method”, was held at the Emmanuel Community in Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, on April 29 with the courtesy and assistance of the community who allowed us the use of their facilities.

It is hard to believe, but the last time a seminar was held on NFP in T&T was in 1995 and the advocates of NFP have realised that this gap has been far too long.

The theme of the seminar was TRAINING THE TRAINERS because the old trainers who continue the teaching of NFP in T&T have been suffering from ‘burnout’ and some have advanced in age themselves or moved on with their lives and interests elsewhere.

The trainers for the seminar were Dr Richard Clerk, Marianne Devaux, Clem and Nan Yip and Joan Ryan. The talks were videotaped with the kind assistance of Trinity Communications Network (TCN) of the Living Water Community.

The first speaker, Dr Richard Clerk spoke about the history of NFP in T&T, going right back to 1968 when he was sent by the late Archbishop Anthony Pantin to a conference in Australia given by Drs John and Evelyn Billings on “Natural Family Planning by the Billings Ovulation Method”, developed by them.

 This method was very new at that time and it was also the year of the controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI. Then, the Church had been using the “Rhythm Method” as the natural means of birth control but this was unreliable and complicated.

There was heavy criticism of the Rhythm Method and Humanae Vitae, and this was the unfriendly atmosphere into which Dr Clerk tried to introduce “Billings” to T&T.

Since that time, scientific studies indicate that, with proper instruction and motivation, the Billings Ovulation Method in actual practice is 98.5% effective, and is completely safe.

Billings in a nutshell:

• Is medically safe and approved by the WHO (World Health Organisation).
• Is based on sound scientific knowledge.
• Is natural and therefore completely harmless.
• Is morally acceptable to all religions.
• Is highly reliable, easy to learn and inexpensive.
• Does not require pills, devices or temperature taking.
• Is used successfully by blind and illiterate women throughout the world.
• Can be applied to all variations throughout a woman’s reproductive life.
• Can be used in irregular cycles.
• Can be used in anovular cycles.
• Can be used when approaching the menopause.
• Can be used in low fertility.
• Can be used to conceive a child or to postpone having a child.

The first talk was followed by a written “Evaluation Quiz” using Billings Quiz Papers, after which there were corrections, discussions and an evaluation. All participating couples will be brought to the required standard before they are certified as Billings trainers.

After lunch six short talks were given on “Special Circumstances” in relation to NFP. The first talk on “How to talk to a client” was given by Errol and Sandra Roberts from Point Fortin who were asked to give it on the spur of the moment by the trainers.

The talk on “Pre-Menopause and Menopause” was given by Nannette Yip who showed that the challenges of these times in women’s lives are easily met by the Billings method, but she also stressed how important it is for husbands to understand and support the hormonal and mood swings that occur for several months and even years at the menopause.

The talks on “Coming off the pill” and “Infertility and stress” were combined by Marianne Devaux who showed on the Billings chart that these two circumstances were very similar in their effects on a woman’s menstrual cycle.

She also pointed out that simple things like illness in the family and some common drugs can affect menstruation and change the cycle. The thought occurred to me that the stress of driving in the T&T traffic every day now must be having a marked detrimental effect on the menstrual cycles of T&T women.

Joan Ryan then spoke about NFP “Following childbirth” and showed how the Billings method solves the problems at this time. She gave some personal experiences and explained the effects of breast-feeding on monthly hormones. Some timely advice was also given by Dr Clerk who stressed the important benefits of breast-feeding, both to the mother and the child. 

Finally, Clem Yip gave a talk on “Men and Morality” in relation to NFP in which he showed that many men in T&T start off by being very sceptical about “Billings” but in fact often end up being better at knowing about the charts than their wives. He gave some very amusing tales about the different effects of the fertile period on males and females.

He showed how the “culture of death” has had such a sad effect on the relationship of couples and how easily Billings fits into the “culture of life” especially in the many ways that it increases the loving relationship of the couples.

After the last talk, suggestions were made about getting books about “Billings” for the trainee couples and a date for a follow-up seminar was tentatively set for October 2006. It was also pointed out that a lot of training had to be done since only seven couples presented themselves for training at this seminar.

 It was felt that our seminarians needed to be given some lectures on the “Billings Ovulation Method” since so many of the problems that they will encounter as parish priests with their parishioners will be related to sexuality and fertility.

The seminar ended promptly at 3:00 p.m. with thanks to all involved and a prayer for the spread of NFP in T&T.