Body & beauty

Health: Emma Cannon on natural pregnancy

Our integrated East-meets-West expert Emma Cannon on boosting your fertility

Our integrated East-meets-West expert Emma Cannon on boosting your fertility
Getting healthy to have a baby is a very natural desire – you may be focusing on your health possibly for the first time. So many patients ask me, ‘What can I do to help myself?’ Well, in my experience there are certainly things you can do, the most important of which is to nourish yourself on all levels.

Keeping things in balance

The period of time before you conceive gives you a key window of opportunity in which to evaluate where you could make small changes to your diet, activity levels and general lifestyle to optimise your fertility, create a perfect environment in which to grow a baby and increase your chances of a healthy pregnancy. Eat well, take time to relax, sleep well and worry less. Put your health and your fertility first, instead of work or other people’s demands.

Fertility awareness

The next thing to do is to understand your menstrual cycle and know how to optimise each phase – it’s the only outward sign of your fertility.

You would be amazed at how many truly brilliant women have little or no idea of their menstrual cycle and rely heavily on ovulation sticks. When women overly rely on these they wrongly assume they can narrow their window for sex down to just a coupe of days in the cycle and sometimes stop having sex outside of those times. This not only reduces the chances of conception but it puts tremendous pressure on the relationship and wrecks sex lives.

In my clinic we have a fertility awareness nurse who goes through the menstrual cycle with each patient. You can do it yourself with my help; make a note in your diary of when you start your period; this is day one. Aim to have sex throughout the cycle but increase the amount of sex to every other day in the more fertile time. For example, if you have a 28 day cycle you are likely to ovulate at around day 14; but you need to increase sex from day 8-9. You will normally (but not always) ovulate 14 days before you have your period, so women with 30 day cycle may well ovulate a little later.

IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES

Listen to and observe your body
Be aware of the changes within your body and make a note
Remember we are actually designed to want more sex around the time we are most fertile
You will produce more cervical mucus around ovulation
You are more likely to spot fertile changes if you are in tune with your body, rather than using ovulation sticks
The only exception to this rule is in women who have very irregular cycles and need additional help identifying ovulation
Remember sperm can live for several days so better to have sex early in the cycle as the sperm has to reach the egg when released at ovulation

TIPS FOR FERTILITY

Make sure you are well rested and calm and that you don’t have too much stress around you. This is not a time to build a new extension; keep things simple
Have sex regularly but increase to every other day around your fertile time
Avoid overwork, but likewise avoid being under-active. Qi needs a nice balance of activity to keep a flow going
Cut out stimulants like alcohol, caffeine and smoking
Try to be a ‘free and easy wanderer’ as we say in Chinese medicine. Teaching yourself to relax is an essential tool for life – and also for parenthood
Sleep is so important. Lack of sleep, like too much stress or overwork can deplete the qi.

FERTILITY STORE CUPBOARD

My general rule is to include lots of seasonal qi-boosting and blood-nourishing foods. These include green leafy vegetables, dandelion, nettle and green tea, oily fish, nuts and seeds for snacks, and beans and pulses. Ginger is the perfect tonic as it aids digestion, settles the stomach, reduces nausea, boosts energy and soothes premenstrual cramps.

Supplements to choose include chlorella or spirulina, which is high in vegetable protien, EPA (essential fatty acids), folic acid, royal jelly which is a good qi tonic, omega 3 and whey protien.

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is the best treatment I know to help support a woman’s fertility – it is extremely helpful at regulating menstrual cycles and managing the symptoms of menstrual problems. It’s also an extremely save and effective adjunct treatment for IVF.

Article by

Emma Cannon

Integrated Health Expert & Acupuncturist