Resources

These are resources that I loved and returned to again and again during my fertility journey.  I strongly recommend each of these, and truly believe that they each assisted me in getting pregnant naturally.

I’ll be blogging in more detail about many of these, but it seems like it might be helpful for you to have a starting place to work from if you want to do more research yourself. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out and contact me!

It All Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett.

This book absolutely hands-down helped me get pregnant.  It had information that no one on the web did (or at least no webpage I could find in my googling), especially about clearing away toxins from your life.  The best part about this book is that every single piece of it is based on research.  The author is a scientist who needed to produce top quality eggs for IVF for a surrogate mom.  She gathered all of the research on optimizing egg quality, presents the evidence, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the associated studies. I think the highlight of this book is learning about the science behind a diet for egg health and about eliminating and reducing toxins from your life.  She also has an entire chapter devoted to PCOS and fertility. If you buy one book, make it this one.

The Infertility Cure by Randine Lewis

This book provides a detailed look at how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can cure “infertility.”  This book is NOT a substitute for treatment by a TCM practitioner- an absolute must in the To Make A Mommy Mind & Body Fertility Plan- but it does both explain why and how the treatment works, and provide you with additional ideas for self-healing.  For example, once your TCM practitioner tells you what your diagnosis is – maybe Kidney Yang Deficiency, for example – they will probably give you some diet advice, perhaps “avoid cold foods.”  You can go home and pull out your copy of this book and read everything about cold Kidney yang.  You find detailed diet guidelines, exercises that are helpful, visualizations, etc.  This is your TCM encyclopedia during your baby quest.

Inconceivable: A Woman’s Triumph over Despair and Statistics by Julia Indichova

I LOVE everything by Julia Indichova. She is quirky, uses bizarre psychotherapy language, has a slight Czech accent, and discusses the metaphysical more than many people are comfortable with.  But, almost everything she says resonates with me, and I absolutely believe that her Fertile Heart OVUM mind-body practice was fundamental to conceiving my “miracle” baby.  This is not the book that talks about her practice, this is the book that talks about her personal quest to get pregnant.  Even though she was struggling with secondary infertility (she already had a daughter), her quest seemed like mine, her anxiety sounded like mine, her desperation felt like mine.  Then- she wins!  She beats all the odds and gets pregnant.  Read the book; feel the hope.  You can also read her book The Fertile Female, but much of the information is in Inconceivable and on her website. Read my full review of Julia’s Fertile Heart Program here.

Restoring Fertility: Yoga for Optimal Fertility

Ladies, I must have bought $200 worth of fertility yoga DVDs and this was THE ONLY ONE that was really amazing.  This practice is fantastic for two reasons:

1) It has a different practice for the different times of your cycle, e.g., menstruation, follicular, ovulation, and luteal phase. This is the only yoga DVD that I tried that did this.  This is important because you are trying to do very different things energetically during the different parts of your cycle, so it doesn’t make sense to do the same yoga practice all throughout.

2) It incorporates self-acupressure!  This is so cool.  They have incorporated acupressure into the yoga routines to stimulate energy to the ovaries and womb.  It.is.so.cool.

Yes, You Can Get Pregnant: Natural Ways to Improve Your Fertility Now and into your 40s by Aimee Raupp

I love this book! Unfortunately I didn’t find it til this past fall!  Aimee Raupp does a beautiful job of discussing the diet, the toxins, and the mind-body work.  Her links to eastern medicine are also fantastic.  She even talks about the “fertile habits” type of information that I discuss on my website!  This might be my new go-to number one book for overall fertility information!

Fertile Heart

Julia Indichova’s website is a great resource primarily because it is filled with stories of hope. Every page seems to have testimonials from women who miraculously conceive naturally after being “infertile” for years, and having multiple failed IVF attempts.  Just take some time to browse around and enjoy the stories. There is also a private message board you can join and chat with others who are on a similar journey. Also, Julia is an activist for taking control out of the doctors hands and putting it back in the hands of the women themselves.  I completely believe in empowering women to manage their bodies and their baby journey themselves, and I love Julia’s political work.  Finally, I love Fertile Heart for the OVUM practice.  I will devote an entire blog post to this practice in the future, but this practice helped me get happy, healthy, and absolutely it helped me get pregnant.  It also supported me all through my pregnancy.  Buy the CDs, sign up for a teleconference, or plan a trip to Woodstock, NY for one of her All-Day workshops today! Read my full review of the Fertile Heart Program Here!

Circle + Bloom

I.love.circle+bloom.  LOVE.  These are tailored guided visualizations/meditations that help me fall into the deepest most relaxing sleep.  That isn’t their purpose of course, their purpose is to help get you pregnant!  They have multiple series, including a month long program for Natural Cycle, IUI/IVF, Frozen Embryo Transfer, Donor Egg, and PCOS Fertility Healing.  They even have a new one for embryo donation! They each cost about $59- a great price for what you get. I used the Natural Cycle program every day the month I got pregnant.  When you visit the website they have free samples you can listen to. The way it works is there are 28 different meditations (about 15-20 minutes each) for each day of an average cycle.  Each meditation starts with progressive relaxation to either fully relax your body and mind.  Then, once you are really “in the zone” there is a short visualization of what is happening with your ovaries, eggs, and, after ovulation, the little embryo.  It is just beautiful, and is 100 times better than some random meditation you might be doing.  The best part is – you don’t have to do anything!  Just find 15 minutes to sit or lie down and listen to it!  I would always listen before bed to help me fall asleep. After I got pregnant I had a hard time sleeping without a nightly meditation, but luckily they had developed a pregnancy series so I immediately bought that and was soothed to sleep again.  They have a completely Free Fertility Relaxation program in case you just want to try it first, and a free Healing and Recovery from Miscarriage program.

Natural Fertility Prescription

Although I didn’t do any coaching (honestly I didn’t know there were such a thing as fertility coaches when trying for my first), I think that they can be super useful for some people. I think a big package- where you get the works, including additional testing and tailored supplement and diet guidance is pretty wonderful. Dr. Iva Keene’s team has walked me through their program and it seems just about perfect. Just know that testing is often ADDITIONAL to the cost of the program if your insurance doesn’t cover it. Start by checking out her report on Restoring Fertility Naturally. 

Fab Fertile Coaching

I don’t do any coaching myself, but I love Sarah Clark of Fab Fertile. Her approach to coaching is to work with both partners and do full functional testing to figure out a perfect diet for YOU, plus advise on specific supplements, etc. She also teaches mind-body work and helps you through the grief and trauma of infertility. She does everything I would do if I was qualified and able! There are many fertility coaches out there, but Sarah is the only one I have worked with personally so she is the only one I can personally recommend! You can book a free Discovery Call with her here!

Garden of Life Organic Prenatal Multivitamin

This is the fantastic whole-foods prenatal with natural folate that I used to get pregnant with my second miracle and during this second pregnancy.  It looks more expensive, but it is really 2 months worth of vitamins.  I switched because this one is organic. You can use Amazon Subscribe & Save like we do to save 15% each month on the order!

The Environmental Working Group

The Environmental Working Group is THE source for consumer guides for safe, toxin free products.  They have special areas for cosmetics, sunscreen, cookware, cleaning supplies, and food.  Bookmark their page and come back to them when you need to check a product and make sure it is safe, or when you want to find a new product that you know will be safe. All free information, online, easy to access.