Let’s not keep Fertility Awareness weird

About 30 years ago, if you were a vegetarian, most people considered you rather strange, and your doctor would probably have tried to talk you out of it. You would easily be labeled and ridiculed like in the picture above. Today, all airlines and many events systematically offer a vegetarian option.

Today, when a woman says she’s practicing a fertility awareness based method, a lot of people think she’s weird, and her OB/GYN most likely will try to talk her into using contraception. That’s why Natural Womanhood exists. So that in 10 years, most people will see Fertility Awareness as totally legitimate and even a preferred option for women and couples.

Does it matter? You may be committed to any number of great causes, from improving women’s physical and mental health, helping families and marriages succeed, helping children have a better life. The cause of Fertility Awareness is in fact at the heart of these issues:

  • Most women are at risk when using contraceptives, but it is especially the case of women who have high risk factors for blood clots and cancer. That’s pretty important when about one in eight (12%) women in the US will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. These women need to know they have an alternative: it can be a matter of life and death.
  • Two studies, one in the US and the other in Austria, show that couple practicing Fertility Awareness Based Methods are much less likely to divorce than other couples, and another study shows that most of 670 Fertility Awareness based method users reported it improved their relationship.
  • In turn, with more solid families, the future of children is brighter. It is troubling to learn that the rate of kids born in an unmarried family has grown from 6% in 196o to 40% today!

You can wonder: is Natural Womanhood making a difference in people’s lives? Are we generating a buzz, are we getting people engaged? I only have anecdotal information so far, but here is what I know:

  • A young lady who came to our documentary premiere with a friend decided to learn charting as a result of seeing the movie. I wonder, did we save her life?
  • At our presentation to a church group last month, we were able to convince several young couples to take an NFP class. It happens every time we speak to couples. I wonder, are we saving their marriages?
  • “I love the work that you are doing, and am interested in being a part of it,” wrote a young woman a couple of weeks ago who wants to blog for us. She’s one among several this year. I wonder, are we getting engagement?
  • “YES YES YES. Women who know themselves can think for themselves and hold on to the truth and beauty of what they are. No one could manipulate them. The world would change completely I think. That’s why I’ll do my best to spread this everywhere. Thank you!” wrote a Facebook follower on one of our posts that was shared 80 times and seen by 18,000 people. I wonder, are we impacting our society?

Natural Womanhood has started changing the world in small ways. Our work is saving lives, saving couples from breaking up, as well as helping those who struggle with infertility, likely reducing abortions, and changing society.

Love birds
Love birds by Herbert Johan

Now it needs to be spread further and we have a plan for that. In the past year, we have grown our audience from fewer than 3,000, previous to Sept. 2014, to 48,000 readers, 23% of which are from outside the US. We are going to take this work to the next level and reach several hundred thousand next year. Our plan includes sophisticated digital marketing, the launch of our documentary in January, the translation of our site and social media in Spanish, and more. As you can imagine, we are in the process of raising support to implement this plan.

We have a great start: a generous donor has pledged $50,000 to NW and is sending a challenge to all our followers to join her in taking this work further!

This donor, whose daughter died from a pulmonary embolism as a direct result of a contraceptive in November 2011, also wrote this to us a few months ago: “As we said…wow…you are an inspiration!  It is so wonderful to hear that your excellent article has reached so many women! We just know you have saved lives through your efforts. I have shared your website with many, many people – (women AND men!); all of whom are most grateful for what you and Anna are doing on behalf of women.”

Most of you are faithful readers of our blog. Many of you are actively spreading the word of Natural Womanhood.  Can you help us take this program to the next stage?

In the next few days, you will get messages about #GivingTuesday from many other great organizations. We invite you to consider helping organizations that promote or teach Fertility Awareness or NFP first, because they are all saving lives and helping build strong families. We’re just one of them. We are grateful for gifts of any amount. Will you help us with $10, $25, $50 or even $100? You can donate now by clicking here. You can also follow us on Facebook to find out how the #GiveTuesday campaign is going. If you are interested in making a larger gift, please contact me and I will be glad to discuss our plans in more details. If you are a physician and would like to join Doctors for NW email me as well.

Know this: every dollar will be used to get the Natural Womanhood message out to the world. And we have a lot of catch up to do, as working as part-time volunteers against large, well-organized corporations is a slow process, but together we can get there. If we can get 48,000 readers within 14 months with very little time and resources, imagine what we can accomplish when we have funding.

We are very grateful for all of you, our readers and social media followers, for our board and donors, for our bloggers, and for all those who are contributing to this work as a volunteer or partner. You are making this world a better place and are entrusting us with playing an important part in it.  We thank you for your passion and your support!

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