John and Evelyn Billings

For the American surgeon and librarian and first director of the New York Public Library, see John Shaw Billings.

Dr. John Billings, AM, KC*SG, FRCP, FRACP (5 March 1918 – 1 April 2007) was an Australian physician who pioneered the natural method of family planning known variously as the Billings Ovulation Method, the Ovulation Method, or the Billings Method.

Billings was born in Melbourne and was educated at Xavier College, and at the University of Melbourne where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree.

He married Evelyn Livingston (8 February 1918 – 16 February 2013) in 1943, and they had nine children. He served as a medical doctor with the Australian Imperial Force in New Guinea during World War II.

In 1947, Billings was awarded a Nuffield Fellowship for postgraduate studies in London, where he specialised in neurology. On his return to Australia, he was made Head of the Department of Neurology at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, and Dean of the Undergraduate Medical School within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Melbourne.

In 1953, he and his wife, Dr. Evelyn "Lyn" Billings, began work on a method of natural family planning, involving observation of changes to cervical mucus. The couple founded the World Organisation of the Ovulation Method Billings (WOOMB) as the center of teaching the method throughout the world. Although Billings maintained his career as a consulting neurologist to St Vincent's Hospital, he and his wife spent a large part of each year travelling to other countries, and training teachers in the Ovulation Method, lecturing to doctors and students, and establishing teaching centers. The method pioneered by the Billingses' was approved by both the Catholic Church and used by the World Health Organization. It was the only natural method accepted by the Chinese Government.

Honours

In 1969, Billings was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great (KCSG) by Pope Paul VI. In 2003, Pope John Paul II added a star to this papal knighthood (KC*SG). In 2003, Dr. Evelyn Billings was made a Dame Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great. Billings was also made a member of the Order of Australia in 1991.

Death

Dr. John Billings died, aged 89, on 1 April 2007, at a Richmond aged care centre, survived by his wife, children and large extended family. His widow, Dr. Evelyn Billings, died on 16 February 2013, aged 95, following a brief illness.