John Marshall describes how he developed and for 40 years ran a correspondence service teaching and supporting couples in the use of natural family planning.

In this book he has gathered together a unique collection of the confidences and experiences of over 10,000 couples using natural methods of birth regulation.

It provides a well-balanced picture of both the joys and sufferings experienced.

It high- lights the fact that few women, properly taught, find difficulty in identifying the rise of temperature or the changing mucus pattern.

Abstinence is the stumbling block, and so is the difficulty of finding a "safe" way of showing love and affection during times of abstinence.

The vast majority of the couples were both Roman Catholics, who with varying degrees of conviction accepted the official teaching of the Church that the use of contraceptives was intrinsically evil.

It can only do the promotion of natural methods good to have this balanced account of the human, practical, emotional and psychological aspects of them from the actual users to counteract those who dismiss the method as unreliable and those who, in trying to promote it, portray it as a panacea.

The book explains briefly the scientific basis of the method and the emergence of the correspondence service provided through the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council but dealt with entirely by John Marshall.

It gives the results of a field trial of the Basal Body Temperature method of regulating births, involving 502 couples.

It then moves on to the couples' personal attitudes, feelings, experiences and observations. Up to this point it has been factual, reporting what went on, written with empathy and compassion but without question or judgement.

Then comes the last chapter, "The ethics of contraception".

Here Professor Marshall boldly faces the present abyss between the teaching the Church and the practice regard contraception.

He does this from his perception as a member of the original Commission on Birth Control set up by Pope John XXIII, and his experience of research and teaching natural methods over at least 40 years.

He traces how the teaching came to be, and presents clear, well founded arguments as to why this needs to be re-examined. He tells us that, despite the need to try and bridge the gap by further exploration of arguments, the commission, over three years of study, concluded that the intrinsic evil of contraception could not be demonstrated.

As the teaching was based on natural law and not on revelation, it ought to be possible to put forward a reasonable case.

Argument now, Marshall says, has turned away from contraception to authority.

He strongly challenges the cerebral, celibate, authoritarian approach that ignores the scientific, and the experience of married people.

What makes this book so compelling is the great love, respect and compassion the author has for couples, marriage, and the Church.

His is a small book but it could have an enormous impact.

Jean Judge

Book Review from "The Tablet" 25th May 1996.

Jean Judge was previously Chief Executive of 'CMAC' (now "Marriage Care").

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