billings Mentor®
New Internet and Mobile Intervention for the Billings Method

Internet intervention for the Billings Method has been available in the form of charting systems for more than ten years.

Services promoted by the World Organisation of the Ovulation Method Billings (WOOMB) were introduced on www.woomb.org in 2004 and later on www.nfpcharting.com . These services require the woman to describe her fertility symptoms and then interpret them by using the Billings Method stamp/symbol classification of fertility patterns. The systems construct the chart and facilitate shared access to the chart, and printing.

Internet intervention systems can be completely self-guided, or offer resort to expert guidance, or be a combination. The services referenced above allow the user to seek the assistance of a fertility educator by using the internet to share her fertility data, and communicate with the educator.

A long standing criticism of all NFP methods is that while the observation of fertility symptoms is intrinsically simple, the methods appear overly complicated to many women. The stamps and symbols involved in charting are undoubtedly a stumbling block. These artefacts code fertility in a way which is confusing to many women, and unnecessary.

There is only one activity that the woman must perform in order to follow the Billings Method when using the latest internet intervention. That is to observe and record her symptoms accurately and sufficiently. This can be learnt under the guidance of an internet intervention system, with the option of assistance from a fertility educator via the internet. This is one feature of the recently developed internet intervention service known as billingsMentor^®.

Bar Chart

In addition billingsMentor^® applies the rules of the Billings Method without encoding fertility in stamps or symbols. Instead billingsMentor^® displays fertility as a bar chart in which the rules and the underlying fertility model of the method are the dominant features. The bar chart is a key educational module in an e-learning experience for the Billings Method.

In order to maintain continuity with the past, the bar chart of billingsMentor^® can be automatically transformed to a traditional stamp or symbol chart on request. There is information loss because the bar chart conveys more information than the traditional charts.

Mobile Access

All day to day activities on billingsMentor^® can be conducted from mobile phones and other hand held devices.