When we realize how amazing our bodies are and how much we can trust them, we gain an incredible peace.
We want to give thanks to the pioneers who have brought to us the science of fertility awareness as we know it today:
- Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (Dutch gynecologist) who in 1905 told us that women only ovulate once per cycle
- Kyusaku Ogino, a Japanese gynecologist and Dr. Hermann Knaus, from Austria, who in 1920, working independently, each made the discovery that ovulation occurs about fourteen days before the next menstrual period
- Johannes Smulders (Netherlands) and Leo Latz (USA), two Roman Catholic physicians who designed the Rhythm method as a natural way to plan pregnancies in the 1930s based on Ogino’s discovery
- Rev. Wilhelm Hillebrand, a priest in Germany, who developed the temperature method for avoiding pregnancy
- Drs. John and Evelyn Billings, who in the 1950s discovered the relationship between cervical mucus and fertility, designed a method based on this observation and founded a worldwide network of teaching centers.
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Erik Odeblad, who contributed work on the science of the cervix, different mucus types, and sperm survival, and who in the 1970s collaborated with Drs. John and Eveyln Billings and Professor Brown to validate the Billings Method
- John and Sheila Kippley, and Dr. Konald Prem, who in the 1970s formalized a method based on temperature and mucus called the Sympto-Thermal Method and created the Couple to Couple League, an international network of volunteer teachers.
- Dr. Thomas Hilgers, OB/GYN, who developed the Creighton Model FertilityCare System and applied the science of charting to the treatment of infertility and other reproductive disorders in a body of research and treatment protocols under the name of NaProTECHNOLOGY® (Natural Procreative technology)
There are many others who deserve to be mentioned for their dedication to helping women and couples: from Dr. Richard Fehring of Marquette University’s Institute of Natural Family Planning, to Mercedes Arzu Wilson, founder of the Family of the Americas, to Toni Weschler author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility and many more.
Thanks to all of them, there is now a vibrant and diverse community of people who are seeing how important and hopeful fertility awareness is for this world.
We also give thanks to all of you who are reading, sharing, and supporting Natural Womanhood. You are an encouragement every day.
