A very interesting e-mail from the medical director of Maternal Life International:

Let us give the Georgetown researchers the benefit of the doubt and trust they are working to create a more user friendly method of NFP. However, there are those of us who teach NFP whom have serious reservations about the approach, both methodologically and philosophically.

The method simply uses calendar days and ignores other biological markers such as cervical mucus.

The method does not teach lactational amenorrhea (exclusive breast feeding in the first 6 post-partum months), a NFP method that is 98 percent plus effective.

The method does not teach women how to use NFP in transition from lactational amenorrhea to resumption of regular cycles, a critical time in which most couples are trying to avoid pregnancy

The method does not teach NFP in situations where women have irregular cycles or are pre-menopausal

The method is devoid of any spiritual context, i.e., it does little to promote self-giving love (the sincere gift of self) that is at the heart of NFP

Our particular organization, Maternal Life International, works in Africa doing health care development in three areas: AIDS prevention and care, Emergency Obstetrical Care and Natural Family Planning. In regard to the latter, we have developed a system of colored beads known as “the bead system of fertility awareness.” We did this independently of Georgetown. Unlike Georgetown, we teach and emphasize cervical mucus observations. In our method, a woman places a bead on a string each day to mark where she is in the cycle and to code her cervical mucus observations. (This is different than Georgetown in which a rubber band is moved along a pre-made collar of beads). The method is being used successfully by literate and illiterate women and couples in Malawi, Uganda, and Cameroon. We have requests to expand the program to Nigeria, the Congo, Sudan, Botswana and South Africa.

I would offer that the Standard Days Method sells women and couples short. It does not provide true fertility literacy. Literacy in the developing world is key to human consciousness and having control over one’s destiny. Once a woman and couple is literate in regard to their sexuality and fertility they are empowered with their own sense of sexual self-mastery and with the capacity to use their literacy to space their children and to limit their family size when that time comes. To achieve such literacy does take time – more time than the five or ten minutes it takes to hand a woman a pre-made collar and tell her to move the rubber band each day. One of the challenges of the Church is to realize is make such literacy possible and practical. We do hope our bead system is a step in that direction.