Infertility has forever changed Mother’s Day for me. It is a hard day. I know that is not shocking to anyone who is infertile…but I just feels better to say it out loud.  I know that it should be a great day of celebration, love, adoring mothers, and so much more.

I know…I know.

But guess what? It is still hard.

Mother’s Day seems to be a day when my infertility becomes more pronounced and a bigger elephant in the room, a bigger mountain to climb, a bigger hurdle to jump over, a bigger whatever-you-want-to-call-it. This year, Mother’s Day comes on the heels of finding out that I have premature ovarian failure. For those who are counting, this would be strike three of reasons I am infertile…which means: I am officially OUT of the game!! So this year, Mother’s Day is a bit more tender for me.

For some reason, Mother’s Day has become a day when I pause and think of all the ways I am not the mother I pictured. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Festivus…remember, from Seinfeld? Feats of Strength, the Festivus Pole, and the Airing of Grievances (when we think of all the ways we disappoint each other).

But, guess what? To heck with Festivus and disappointments. I have decided that I am going to think outside of the box. This year is going to be different! I have decided that I am going to focus and celebrate all the ways that I have contributed to the world, the ways I have nurtured and inspired, and the many ways I have been a mother (remember that dictionary.com says that to mother is “to acknowledge oneself the author of, to give origin or rise to, to care for or protect like a mother”). We all know that mothering is so much deeper, so much more eternal than the number of children that we have.

Instead of allowing Mother’s Day to be a day of somber reflection and painful moments for my grief and the grief of so many others. I am not going to let my grief overshadow that I truly have reason to celebrate. How about you?

What have you done to touch the life of another?
What is beautiful about you?
What is unique about how you live?
What have you been the author of?
What have you protected or cared for?

I picked up a greeting card years ago at a little boutique in Breckenridge, Colorado (one of my favorite places) which now sits in a window sill above my kitchen sink. It says…”There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone, the light remains.”

What light do you bring into the world? Today…let’s celebrate that!

———–

For more ideas about coping with Mother’s Day, click here.

Image from Curly Bird Designs

Next Saturday, April 21st, marks the 3rd year of the Utah Infertility Awareness Event. For those who have been…it is fantastic. It is a great opportunity to learn a few things, to network (and be among others who KNOW what you are experiencing) and make new friends, to meet professionals who support couples dealing with infertility, and to possibly win a cool prize.

This year’s event is BIGGER and BETTER with more seats to fill, a full day of speakers with amazing topics, and so many prizes that we might just have one for everyone.

If you haven’t been…this is the year to come.

If you have been before…come again.

New topics and new speakers are always great…acupuncture, male infertility, eating for fertility, miscarriage and PCOS, etc.

And, this year we are doing a Lunch/Mingle with doctors and other professionals…you don’t want to miss that.

It is still FREE, but registration is required.

So, if you are in Utah (or close by), come. If you aren’t…please pass the information on…

Visit the website for more information and to register:
www.utahinfertilityawareness.com

If you didn’t read September Baumgartner’s first two posts, read them here and here. She has some very intriguing thoughts that are helpful as you consider changing your lifestyle in order to enhance your fertility. Perhaps her experience and knowledge will be helpful to you…

Why am I not getting pregnant?

(Continued)
By September Baumgartner

In my previous two posts I discussed reducing/eliminating gluten and sugar in order to stop causing damage to the digestive tract and the body. I also suggested adding in a lot of leafy greens, omega-3 fatty acids, and bone broth to help heal the body and unlock the reproductive system.

In this final post I want to discuss reducing stress as well as ways to support good mood.

Why stress locks up fertility

We live in a society today that is go, go, go. We never seem to stop and smell the roses. We drink energy drinks and use other stimulants to keep us going when our bodies beg us to slow down. We have work deadlines to meet, school tests to study for, family demands, social demands, and church callings, it just never seems to end. And yet, making it all stop is absolutely critical to unlocking fertility.

The purpose of adrenaline is to get us out of life threatening situations. Adrenaline is only your friend when it’s a matter of life and death. If you’re not being chased through the woods by a bear, you do not want adrenaline being pumped through your system. Yet, most of us don’t seem to be able to turn it off.  When you’re in a life threatening situation your body stops caring about its reproductive responsibilities. At that moment, it cares about getting you to safety. That’s it. If your body is convinced that life is an emergency it is going to take the resources that it should be sending to your reproductive organs and use those resources to simply keep you going from day to day.

Best relaxation exercises for fertility

In order to turn off the adrenaline and convince your body that everything is okay, that there’s no life and death emergency, there are relaxation exercises you should be doing every day.

The number one thing you can do is breathe! It sounds so simple but it’s essential. In your lungs, you have your upper lobes which contain stress receptors, and your lower lobes which contain relaxation receptors. Imagine this scenario: you’re in the woods foraging for berries (okay, silly I know, but stay with me) when all of a sudden you see a bear. He sees you, stands up on his hind legs, and opens that mouth as wide as he can, letting out a loud, ferocious roar. The second you see and hear it the adrenaline starts pumping. Now, imagine the quick sharp breath you would take. It would be so quick and shallow that the oxygen would only make it into the upper lobes of your lungs to signal the stress receptors. You do what you need to do to get away and make it to safety. Once you realize the bear is gone it’s time to tell your body everything is okay, the emergency is over. So, you sit down and you begin breathing very deeply. These deep breaths make it down to the bottom of your lungs signaling the relaxation receptors. After you breathe deeply for a while the adrenaline gets out of your system and your body is restored to normal. The problem for us is that we live our lives in a mild state of this stress response day in and day out.

Keeping in mind that oxygen that makes it to your lower lobes promotes relaxation, try this: anytime you feel stressed about anything, doesn’t matter what it is, just start breathing as deeply as you can. Also, take time out every day to consciously breathe this way, at least a couple of time throughout the day.

Another important thing to add in is relaxation exercise. Many people believe that we need to push our bodies to the limit during exercise, but consider the amount of stress that causes an already over stressed body. Instead, try things like yoga and tai chi. Things that require movement and promote relaxation. If you choose to do aerobic exercises breathe through your nose throughout your workout. Research has shown that nasal breathing during exercise puts the brain into a meditative state, rather than a stressed out, neurotic state. It’s difficult at first but it gets easier.

What nutrients support good mood

Most people don’t completely understand just how closely their mood is connected with what they’ve been eating. For women and couples who are struggling with infertility it is absolutely critical to eat food that will support healthy levels of serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, all the things that make a person feel good about themselves, their lives, support lovey dovey feelings, and just feel more at peace with the world in general. Each of these has precursors which you have to consume so your body has the building blocks to keep them at optimum levels. Many of these precursors are found in lean, healthy sources of animal protein such as fish and bone broth. Other essential nutrients are folate, Vitamin C, all the B Vitamins (including B12 which many people, even meat eaters, are severely deficient in), selenium, and Vitamin D.

To support good mood and get you through this incredibly difficult time it is so important to keep your stress levels to a minimum as well as consume nutrient dense foods so your body can make all of its “feel good” substances.

I hope that these posts have given you some insight into just how important it is to eliminate damaging foods from your diet and to flood your system with nutrients so your body has the resources it needs to be able to create a new life. Not all women will be able to conceive without modern medical help even with these dietary changes. However, keep in mind that even if you are one of those women you will still benefit so much from making these changes. You will increase your chances of the medical help being successful, that your pregnancy will be significantly easier, and you will also greatly increase your chances of giving birth to a very healthy baby. I hope you have enjoyed these posts. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you are interested in receiving more personalized help.

———

To learn more about September Baumgartner, visit her website.

If you didn’t read September Baumgartner’s first post, read it here. It is quite intriguing and you won’t want to miss it. Then you will up to speed…

Why am I not getting pregnant?

(Continued)
By September Baumgartner

In my last post I strongly encouraged reducing/eliminating gluten and sugar from your diet as well as adding in lots of leafy greens. If you’ve started doing those things chances are very good that you are already well on your way to unlocking your fertility. Today, I want to talk about how to speed things up—help your reproductive system kick into gear much faster.

How an unhealthy digestive tract can lead to infertility

First, I want to discuss what gluten does to the body. As the word suggests, gluten is a gluey substance. It causes incredible irritation to your digestive tract which is forced to work overtime to digest it. The irritation leads to inflammation. When the digestive tract is irritated and inflamed a couple of things happen…

1) It becomes permeable, kind of like having tiny little holes. Your digestive tract is your first line of defense against pathogens, and any toxic substances. When it becomes permeable, that means it’s allowing particles to escape into the bloodstream that should be kept safely inside the digestive tract and eliminated from the body. These escaped particles can wreak havoc on every different organ system in the body, including the reproductive system.

2) Inflammation means swelling. Inside your digestive tract you have tiny little hairs called villi. These villi have the responsibility of extracting good nutrients from your food and sending it out into the bloodstream to be utilized, as necessary, by the body. But, when the digestive tract becomes inflamed the villi are “swallowed” up. They’re inaccessible. When a body isn’t able to get nutrients to support it, it’s not going to have the necessary building blocks to create a new life.

How do you heal the digestive tract?

In one study that followed women with celiac disease for 10 years, they found that many of the women who adhered to a strict gluten free diet were able to restore regular menstrual cycles after 6-8 months on the diet. Keep in mind that these are women who had true celiac disease, an extremely severe form of gluten intolerance. That means the average woman who has a much milder form of gluten intolerance will heal her gut, and restore regular menstruation as well as possibly unlock her fertility, much faster by adhering to a gluten free diet (remember from the last post that this means switch to sourdough, NOT gluten free products). Be aware that gluten can lurk in unexpected places, including many prenatal vitamins and even lunchmeats.

Your best line of defense against any inflammation in the body is omega-3 fatty acids. This is an absolutely essential nutrient that most of us are simply not getting anywhere near enough of. Typically when we think of omega-3 fatty acids we think of fish, which is indeed an excellent source. However, the reputation of fish has been tainted due to mercury and other toxins in the ocean. One thing to understand about this is that a nice, tight digestive tract does not allow these toxins to make their way into the bloodstream. There are also several specific nutrients which hold the responsibility of ridding heavy metals from the body. Sadly, most of our modern diets don’t contain enough of these nutrients so we can end up with heavy metal toxicity.

Personally, I take a fish oil supplement everyday but there are also vegan sources of omega-3. Things like walnuts, flax, chia, and even some vegetables such as cabbage are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Keep in mind that vegan sources need to be converted into useable forms of omega-3 and some believe the conversion rate to only be about 10%. This is why I’m not a fan of veganism or vegetarianism. The animals have already converted many fatty nutrients from the unusable to the usable forms. Why make our bodies work harder than they already do?

The omega-3 fatty acids will help to reduce the inflammation in your digestive tract but to “seal up the holes”, I strongly suggest bone broth. Nearly every civilization throughout history has acknowledged the healing power of bone broth. The reason it works so effectively is because it contains very specific amino acids as well as minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and zinc, among others. When all these nutrients work together synergistically they are able to repair damage, reduce inflammation, and close up the little holes that are allowing unwanted particles into the bloodstream. Your digestive tract is your protector but you have to provide it with shields and weapons to be able to defend itself and fight off enemies.

What are some other fertility superfoods?

Now that we’ve talked about eliminating gluten and sugar to prevent further damage to the body and adding in bone broth to speed up the healing process, let’s talk about some other great foods to include in a fertility diet.

• Figs-great for increasing sperm count
• Avocados-strengthen the uterus
• Camu berry-it’s not clear why it’s so effective but it is among the world’s most potent fertility foods (available in powder form)
• Maca-promotes healthy eggs and sperm, can help increase progesterone if you’re low
• Royal jelly-the queen bee is the only fertile one in the colony, she is also the only one who consumes royal jelly
• Spirulina and chlorella- these are super greens
• Wheatgrass juice and barley grass juice—another super green that oxygenates your cells and brings them back to life. (There is no gluten in these grasses).

The first suggestions of avoiding gluten and sugar and adding in leafy greens, omega-3 fatty acids, and bone broth are much more important than these super foods. Do those things first, get comfortable with the changes, then consider trying some of the super foods.

———–

To learn more about September Baumgartner, visit her website.

I will admit, I know only a few things…

I know that what we eat can make us infertile.

I know that improving diet can increase
the chance of getting pregnant.

I also know that changing diet does not
get every infertile couple pregnant.

Believe me…no matter what I do with my diet, I am not growing new fallopian tubes.

With that being said, though, I believe that knowledge is power and can open our minds and our lives to different possibilities. September Baumgartner contacted me not too long ago and shared with me what she does: she heals with food. I have been intrigued with her knowledge and her perspective. Do I think that adopting all that she says will get my body pregnant? No. Do I think it could help another woman’s body pregnant? Yes. Does this information make me want to change my diet no matter what? Yes. Yes it does.

I will share her information in a few posts because there is a lot of information to share. Enjoy…I would love to hear your responses as well as your personal experiences with eating for fertility.

Why am I not getting pregnant?

By September Baumgartner

Far too many women today are asking themselves this question month after month. If you are one of these women I want to assure you that there is hope. Your body was designed to reproduce. My goal is to help you make changes that will bring your body back into balance so you can conceive and carry a baby. If you dream of hearing the pitter patter of little feet running across the floor, I invite you to come with me on a journey. A journey for greater health, a greater sense of peace, calm, and wellbeing, and a significantly greater chance of conceiving your baby.

What’s wrong with our diet today?

By far the biggest problem with our modern diet is that we have lost touch with our food. Throughout history people knew their food intimately well. They prepared everything from scratch, they knew every ingredient, they knew how to prepare each individual ingredient in order to reduce any possible anti-nutrients and they knew what needed to be done to extract all the nutrients that specific food had to offer. If health suffered, they knew immediately to look to their food. Were they eating something that wasn’t so good? Were they not eating enough of something that would offer them better health? They constantly asked themselves these questions and they figured out the answers so their people would experience health and fertility. The goal was always to have strong, healthy babies who would carry on the civilization. They ate for this purpose.

Today, we let factories prepare our food. Most of us have no idea what is in there. Some, who consider themselves to be “health conscious” check the numbers on the label to be sure there isn’t too much fat, sugar, or carbs and that there’s enough protein and fiber. Those numbers tell you nothing about the individual ingredients. Nor do they tell you how the ingredients are processed. When people start to pay attention to what’s going on with their food, most are absolutely horrified to learn what’s really being done.

I’m not suggesting that you make everything you eat from scratch. We do live in the modern world, after all. We’re all busy and overly stressed. I am suggesting that you get to know your food, even if it comes in a package. Read ingredient lists. I cannot stress that enough.

What are the biggest dietary culprits when it comes to fertility?

Really, if a food reduces fertility it reduces overall health. If your health is compromised, your reproductive system is often the first thing to shut down.

The number one food I recommend my clients get off of is gluten. As much as 60% of infertility is related to gluten sensitivities. In fact, much of the time this is the reason behind “unexplained infertility”. And don’t be fooled thinking that you’ve been tested for an intolerance and it came back negative. Many experts argue that those tests are nowhere near sensitive enough. I’ve even seen one study that tested cells from individuals with celiac and individuals with no known sensitivity and every single cell reacted to the gluten it was introduced to. The researchers concluded from this study that everyone is gluten intolerant. I believe this to be true because, going back to traditional cultures—the cultures that used gluten grains fermented them, which gets rid of the gluten. In other words, they ate sourdough. I love spelt, which is an ancient strain of wheat that has much less gluten to begin with than modern wheat. We always have some spelt starter going and I use it as a base for my breads, pancakes, pastas, etc. It’s delicious, much easier to start and keep going than most people realize, and switching to it from wheat products can have a profound effect on both overall health and fertility. I don’t recommend switching to gluten free products since most of them contain starches and gums which can clog intestines and are really no better for health than gluten is. You can find spelt sourdough breads and other good products if you don’t want to learn to make it yourself, but always read ingredient lists carefully.

The number two food is sugar. Sugar first came into the scene in 1689. 10 years later the average person was consuming 4 pounds per year. Today, we consume156 pounds each!!! Absolutely insane! Every time you eat sugar your body responds by releasing insulin. Insulin’s job is to open up your cells to allow glucose inside. Glucose is what fuels your cells. The problem here is that after a while your cells stop responding to the insulin, so you put out more to give the cells an extra nudge. Insulin is a hormone that puts your body into storage mode. The more insulin you put out the more your body is being told to store. This is why insulin resistance causes weight gain. To further complicate things—a body that is in storage mode is an acidic body. Now, you have two strikes against your fertility. 1) Insulin resistance goes hand in hand with PCOS, which means your hormones are out of balance. Without a proper balance of hormones conception becomes infinitely more difficult. 2) An acidic body creates a very hostile environment in the uterus for sperm. Meaning, they may not even survive long enough to make it to the egg. This absolutely does not mean you have to give up sweet foods. Humans love sweets for a reason. They satisfy the fun, “life is to be enjoyed” side of us all. It simply means…find an alternative way to sweeten your foods and treats (no, I am NOT referring to artificial sweeteners; don’t get me started on those!) What I mean is things like dates—have you ever just eaten a date? They’re absolutely delicious! Other options include real maple syrup, raw, unfiltered, and unstrained honey, and stevia. Some of these still cause a rapid rise in blood sugar which brings me to chromium. Chromium is a mineral that is sorely lacking in today’s modern diets because it’s destroyed in the processing of foods. So, the more processed food you eat, the less chromium you have. The role that it plays in the body is to help insulin work more effectively. If you have sufficient chromium in your body you will put out less insulin. This brings me to my final point for this post, Good Food!

What foods increase fertility?

The number one food that is lacking in modern diets is leafy greens. Leafy greens are your multi-vitamins, they’re alkalizing, and they’re balancing, and yes, they give you chromium. Green foods help your body perform pretty much every function more effectively. They breathe life into your tired, over insulinized cells. When your cells are breathing, your whole body relaxes. A relaxed body is much more fertile. If you strive to do nothing else with your diet—strive to eat more leafy greens, a lot more!

If you follow the 3 recommendations I’ve given in this post—reduce/eliminate gluten, reduce/eliminate processed sugar, and eat a lot more leafy greens—you will be well on your way to looking into your newborn babies beautiful little eyes. But, I promise it doesn’t end here. In upcoming posts I will discuss ways to speed up the healing process to unlock your fertility faster, super foods that help increase fertility, and ways to support good mood throughout the struggle of infertility.