The Wisdom Of Fertility Awareness

Several years ago, I learned about a practice developed in the 1980’s called the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), a natural form of birth control that a study in the journal Human Reproduction Today found to be 99.4 - 99.6 % effective.

I became inspired by the possibility of becoming fluent with my natural cycles and rhythms and gaining enough confidence in my self-awareness to say good-bye to artificial barrier methods and pills. I was also intrigued when I heard that this method increases intimacy between partners, by attuning women more deeply to their body’s wisdom and healing gifts.

So I decided to attend a weekend FAM workshop called Womb Wisdom: Understanding Cycles of Fertility, taught by Sarah Bly, a fertility expert and midwife who has been teaching workshops for seven years (graceofthemoon.com)

Much to my surprise, the workshop included both women and men in almost equal number, and all of us were on the edge of our seats as Bly began to explain how to track which times of the month are safe to have unprotected intercourse without fear of unwanted pregnancy. Of course, that’s what we all wanted to know first, but what we leaned is that this answer is different for every woman and every cycle.