We live in violent times. Shortly after Paris, we were hit by the shooting at Planned Parenthood, and then the San Bernardino rampage this week. And we can’t even imagine what people living in Africa or the Middle East experience every day.
How much power do we have to stop violence? What should be done? We hear a lot of political posturing that ends up dividing us and creating another type of violence: the one inside us and between us, a deep frustration and rage because we know that many of these ideas are superficial solutions and yet we have to pick a camp. We feel so powerless.
Yet we have power. Peace can and must start with us and those around us. Natural Womanhood is neither a political nor a religious movement. But Natural Womanhood and all the other campaigns that celebrate, promote and teach the use of fertility awareness methods (FAM) are peace movements. They unite people with very different views on the hot topics of our day. That’s because they help us personally and help our loved ones in real and radical ways. Here is how.
First, FAMs foster interior peace for women as they regain knowledge and understanding of their own bodies. Fertility awareness teaches women how to track the stages of their cycle. Women can use them for self-knowledge, to get help with major women’s health disorders, to achieve pregnancy or to postpone a pregnancy. “That kind of knowledge has given me such a feeling of calm and confidence,” reports Katy Bicknell, an advocate of the FAM movement and co-founder of the Kindara charting app.
Fertility awareness methods are an antidote against the objectification of women as they teach the amazing depth and functions of the human body. When you understand the beauty of the human reproductive system, how hormones play a role in your life, and how you can manage and even leverage these powers and effects for your benefit, you come to appreciate it and love yourself more. It’s very different from medicating your body with foreign hormones or devices, changing it, taking risks, and denying some of its primary functions. Women who chart their cycle, like Cassie Moriarty, “discover that their body is awesome and wise.”
Then FAMs facilitate peace between men and women who use them as their method of family planning. Two studies, one in the US and the other in Austria, show that couples using them are far less likely to divorce than other couples. Another study reports that couples who used them had a better and deeper communication, more mutual respect, and a more intimate physical relationship.
Such harmony and closeness enable parents to love their children better. They’re more likely to stay together, which is also a major way to stop violence as kids who grow up in fatherless home are more at risk of using drug and alcohol or experiencing behavior problems. Love, peace, confidence, communication, all are ingredients for great parenting, regardless of income, race or religion.
Sylvia, a friend of mine, counsels young women about contraception. She shared her experience with me. “I politely ask why they are at the facility. When they answer, ‘I am getting my pills,’ or ‘I am here for the shot,’ I will then quickly get to my elevator speech. I realize I may only have one or two minutes so I get to the point quickly.”
She describes the health risk associated with contraceptives, which gets the women’s attention. “I establish rapport by asking them if they like organic and gluten free and they usually say yes. Most of these young women want to stay fit and healthy, so this places doubt in their minds about contraception.”
Then she addresses a deeper concern, the fact that women who are using contraceptives are in essence, isolated: “At this time I tell them how courageous they are to take on all the responsibility, and I tell them that they must feel how unfair it is for them to have to go through everything to take care of the whole pregnancy protection.
“I then refer to Natural Womanhood. I point to the brochure, asking her to learn to engage her significant other in being responsible and respectful to her if he truly loves her, and to demand that her partner do his part. I ask her to learn her body cycle, to be bold and protect her body,” she explains. Sylvia is a peace worker, and it fills me with joy that we can be a small instrument of her work.
I invite all of you who have experienced how FAMs are contributing to peace in your life to share your story, whether it’s personal peace, peace with your partner or spouse, peace within your family. You can post it on our Facebook page, email us, or post a comment below. It is a good time to spread such a message to the rest of the world. We will do our part to share it as well.
When this article refers to fertility awareness methods (FAM), or natural family planning (NFP), we are referring to Fertility Awareness-Based Methods, evidence-based methods of cycle charting which can be used as effective forms of natural birth control when learned by a certified instructor.
