“It’s very human”: the untold story of Natural Womanhood

Last week I asked a young woman who I had just visited the Natural Womanhood website for the first time what she thought, and I loved her response: “It’s very human.” At another time a Facebook fan wrote this comment on our page: “I do deeply appreciate this group for helping women coming to know themselves more deeply, finding consolation and pride in their fertility and femininity, and the empowerment of women to find and reconnect with their true selves.”

Today, I would like to touch base with you about Natural Womanhood as a movement. I’m going to review the needs for what we provide, what we do and where we are going.

The need for Natural Womanhood

What prompted us to create Natural Womanhood? Simply put, the human needs for knowledge, health, family and great relationships. These are some unmet needs today:

• Women have been left in the dark about their natural body and the truth about their cycle and fertility.
• Women have not been told about the risks and dangers of contraceptives or these have been greatly minimized.
• Couples who struggle with infertility, recurring miscarriages, or other dysfunctions are left unaided or prescribed medical treatments that are costly and painful.
• Fertility awareness based methods (FABM) and Natural Family Planning (NFP) have been misrepresented by medical authorities, doctors and the media, limiting the access to them and leaving those who chose them without support.
• Men and women have been told they have to be on contraceptives to live a fulfilled love life; they may never realize the impact contraception has on their relationship or what they were missing out on by not using FABMs/NFP.

This last point is crucial. Dr. Patrick Fagan, in his keynote address at Natural Womanhood’s fundraiser last week, cited a study conducted by Dr. Robert Lerner of the University of Chicago: “On satisfaction with communication between spouses, 76% of NFP women are satisfied (satisfied, very satisfied, or extremely satisfied) while only 5% are dissatisfied (dissatisfied + very dissatisfied + extremely dissatisfied). . . . 76% vs 5 %: unheard-of differences in the scientific literature.”

We’re not alone in trying to meet these needs, and we honor the rich heritage of the organizations that are also working ceaselessly to develop, teach and promote these methods. We’re not replacing them in any way and never will. We see our role as facilitators who help the industry as a whole by creating more awareness and education.

Who we are

My wife Anna and I co-founded Natural Womanhood five years ago and launched our website three years ago. It’s a true labor of love, as we work an average 20 unpaid hours a week besides our day-jobs. But we’re not alone.

As a nonprofit, we’re helped by a board of seven caring individuals who believe in our mission. Over the years, we have worked with wonderful bloggers like Cassie Moriarty, Liz Escoffery, Emily Kennedy, Kathleen Taylor and many more who helped make this work more relevant. We have a small team who helps with social media (yay, Sarah Brown!) and web marketing (go, FIAT Insights!).  We have a great work partnership with FACTS, and are building other partnerships as we grow.

What we do

Liz Escoffery, one of our blog writers, expressed it beautifully: “Natural Womanhood is the go-to resource for accurate and helpful information about fertility awareness and reproduction.”

That’s our primary job.

We help women know their bodies, be informed of the hidden risks of contraceptives, understand what FABMs/NFP are and how they work, learn about other important reproductive health benefits of these methods, and more.

In the past three years, we have published 166 articles, which have been read by over 370,000 individuals (per Google Analytics), not counting numerous translations and re-publications online. We’ve written about evidence-based risks of contraceptives, women’s cycle knowledge, the benefits of FABMs for relationships, how to get started with FABMs, women’s health solutions and more.

We are a resource: our job is to inform and guide our readers about FABM methods, and offer resources for women’s healthcare based on these methods (like NaProTECHNOLOGY or FEMM). Our articles offer practical advice and insights from experienced users or FABM teachers.

We are here to help break the barriers to accessing these methods and to be a voice for them. We’ve done this through our blog, but more recently through our petition to the CDC to change their misleading rating of FABMs’ effectiveness. So far we have collected over 6,700 signatures.

We are a voice for FABMs through our brochures, used by women’s advocates all over the US, and our documentary and videos. We also joined forces with the medical partners of FACTS to develop a presentation a help train a national speakers’ bureau, now with over 80 qualified speakers.

Last but not least, we are also here to bring together women and couples who want to get off contraceptives and those already using natural methods and be a place where they are validated and encouraged. We do it best on our Facebook page right now. By the comments left by our community members, we can tell they find affirmation in the content we publish. We also fulfill this mission through our articles, which reflect on the objective reality of using FABMs/NFP. We want to encourage this community.

Where are we going?

In the past two months, we’ve worked hard, with the help of readers, advisors and our board, to update our strategy. Here are three main areas we are going to continue building:

1. Content: we want to increase our content of relevant, quality articles along with topical handbooks. It also includes updating our website content to make it more user-friendly. We want to tell more stories and continue to share the overall impact that FABMs have on couples and families.
2. Advocacy and visibility: we want to start being more vocal through the media and take the CDC petition to its term. We will not stop until the CDC changes its website. We also plan to promote our tools and presentations more aggressively.
3. Community building: we are going to grow our social media reach, add more blog stories that resonate with women and couples and explore new ways to create local support for those who practice these methods.

Our project is still fairly new. When we’re in full-running mode, we intend to be a reference for FABMs and a voice in the media and to provide more extensive tools to keep women informed of up-to-date technology, good social science on relationship issues as well as practical tools. We also plan to have chapters all over the US, unifying FABM users and attracting those intrigued by it.

Eventually, our work will impact policy and public awareness significantly, and as a result grow the number of FABM users significantly.

In the long term, we hope that we’ll put ourselves out of work because this science will be passed on by well-informed parents, embraced and prescribed by doctors, and taught in school. But we have a long way to get there.

What we need to get there

We can use your help. Misinformation or lack of education are hurting women and families.  We need people like you to stand with us and bring a new breath of hope and fresh (natural) air to them.

Our next task is to build a small team of staff who can dedicate their time to growing our content, promote our petition, our speakers’ bureau and our tools, and start chapters.

It will not happen without funding. That is why we are asking you to consider making a monthly donation of $5, $10, or $25 or of any amount so that Natural Womanhood can continue and expand. A recurring gift, as small as it is, is of great value because it helps us budget and plan. Of course, we take one-time gifts too!

Here is our goal by the end of this year: to add 500 new monthly donors of at least $5 a month. Here is what we promise to them: a copy of our DVD, free access to our first handbook, and exclusive access to a webinar with a nationally recognized expert in FABMs. But you have to respond by December 31! Click here to support our work.

In closing, I want to quote Patrick Fagan again: “This is the great difference Natural Womanhood brings to the world: it offers a superior world, a world all women wish was accessible to them, a world of unity between husband and wife, where communications are great; where confidence in parenting is very high; where children thrive.”

We value you and appreciate your support.

Be well,

Gerard Migeon