Teaching the Method

If You Want to Teach Fertility Awareness or Natural Family Planning

In order to teach Fertility Awareness (FA) effectively, you need to know and present FA's core material simply and clearly. What's the core material? It's a solid grasp of:

• female and male reproductive hormones and anatomy
• the physiology of the menstrual cycle
• how conception and pregnancy occur
• how to observe and chart fertility signals
• the rules for preventing pregnancy
• timing to enhance one's chances of conceiving
• using charts to help identify trends in a woman's gynecological health
• Fertility Awareness and breastfeeding

Besides clarity, warmth and humor are also helpful in presenting this material. I've found that information about the menstrual cycle is best heard when it's presented as a story. What parts do you emphasize? What can you leave out? What details are crucial to the whole? All of these questions need to be thoroughly examined while you train--and regularly re-examined.

Whenever Fertility Awareness is taught and another woman begins using what she's learned to prevent or achieve pregnancy, the method's reputation is on the line. Also, whether they want FA for birth control or to become pregnant, many women's charts indicate possible health problems. The teacher needs to be able to help them interpret their charts and to find options for strengthening their menstrual cycles.

Often, when a woman begins to chart her fertility signals, questions arise about life and death, previous sexual experiences, identity, and so much more. Fertility issues are universal and deeply personal. Again, the FA teacher needs to be prepared to offer this woman and her partner options for strengthening her health and emotional wellness.

I began teaching Fertility Awareness in 1997. About 25 percent of the women who take my classes are not ovulating and/or their charts indicate thyroid problems, PCOS, or progesterone deficiency. All of these problems can lead to more serious health risks. An FA teacher needs to be able to define and describe these conditions, and to respond to questions like, What causes this condition? What does it mean for my overall health? What are my options in addressing it? What should I ask my doctor? Where do I go for more info? Are there support groups of women with this condition? The teacher needs to respond to these questions as an educator, not as a physician. She may need to provide her students with referrals of health care providers whose medical practices compliment Fertility Awareness.

Familiarity with FA's core material comes from reading extensively over at least 12-18 months; from observing at least two teachers' classes; from raising questions about your own charts and researching answers for your own situation. Teacher-training also includes a comprehensive, open-book exam that can serve as a guide while you study and as a reference when you begin to teach. Also, you need to present 3-5 workshops to friends who are new to FA while an experienced teacher is present. Effective teaching requires creating a clear structure for your classes, including handouts that have been approved by a senior teacher with editorial skills.

FA offers a new view of the menstrual cycle and a way for every woman to observe trends in her own health before serious problems arise; it encourages informed health care. It presents a cooperative method of natural birth control, and a way to identify your fertile days when you want to conceive. It encourages a fresh dialogue between women and men!

"If you are interested in becoming a Fertility Awareness Teacher I recommend the following resources:

1. I have posted a comprehensive Study Guide for people who want to teach the method. It's available via PayPal for $35.
2. I highly recommend Geraldine Matus' teacher training program: visit www.justisse.ca to learn more.
3. If you are comfortable with a Catholic orientation, I recommend training with the Couple to Couple League (www.ccli.org) or the Billings Ovulation Method Association (www.boma-usa.org).

Most people require at least a year of study and training to become a Fertility Awareness teacher. As an alternative, or before you qualify to teach, you may choose to be a Fertility Awareness Advocate.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES OF FERTILITY AWARENESS ADVOCATES:

• You chart your fertility signals!
  
• Bring your charts to appointments with health care providers, along with your observations and questions--and be prepared to explain what Fertility Awareness is and how you learned to chart.
  
• Share your enthusiasm for charting with friends, family, health care providers. Give books about Fertility Awareness as presents at graduations, weddings, when a new relationship begins, when a pregnancy is announced.
  
• Write papers about Fertility Awareness in biology, Women's Studies, psychology, pre-med, religion, and political science classes.
  
• Ask bookstores, herb shops, natural food stores, and doctors' offices to stock books about Fertility Awareness.
  
• If you're in practice as a midwife, acupuncturist, chiropractor, herbalist, homeopath, naturopath, nurse practitioner or physician, sell books about FA in your office, be prepared to help your clients locate a teacher, encourage women to chart their fertility signals and read these charts well enough to talk about their findings.
  
• Research your own cycles!! And share what you learn with your sisters, cousins, daughters, friends, and health care providers.

Viva la Fertility Awareness!!