Natural fertility management is about improving the general health of everyone. This includes male and female partners and ideally will include the family who may be related.
Leah Hechtman ND is a highly regarded natural health practitioner with a special interest in natural fertility management. This article is based on the principles she advocates in her practice and the video interview with her at the end of this article. Leah Hechtman will present at the Mindd International Forum 2019 23-24 March
A healthy body is a fertile body, so if prospective parents are at their peak health, they are also at their most fertile. It’s important to support everything that optimizes health.Natural fertility management looks at the healthy development of both the eggs from the woman and the sperm from the man.The principle of natural fertility is that you can influence these final stages of healthy development. A woman is born with all her eggs, but a male goes through generations of new sperm on a continual basis. The final stage of egg development is a 100-day period, so you can significantly influence the quality of that egg during a three and a half month window. For sperm, it’s a 72-76 day period. So, for two and a half months, you can make a huge impact on the quality of the sperm. If, for example, a male and a female meet and make a baby, their egg and their sperm reflect their health, for the female, three and a half months ago, and for the male, two and a half months ago. There is a lot that can be done to optimize the health of the egg and the sperm in the lead up to conception.
Diet and Lifestyle Changes Can Improve Natural Fertility Management
It can be as simple as “I just want to clean up my diet and my lifestyle.” It is important to get rid of all the alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, and any other obvious toxins. And it is ideal to be more detailed or more specific. You could, for example, see a naturopath with additional skills and training in natural fertility, and they’ll be able to help you get all of the body systems as optimally healthy as possible. They can also identify nutritional deficiencies and suggest ways to manage these.There are a number of nutritional deficiencies that have a direct relationship with the quality of the egg and the sperm, and the subsequent health of the child.There are also correlations that show the number of carbohydrates that a mother ate prior to conception may correspond with the incidence of obesity in a child up to the age of seven years. Very important benefits to the health of a child can directly flow from the health of the parents pre-conception.
Integrative Health Care Practitioner Resources for Natural Fertility Management
When you’re wanting to see a practitioner in the natural fertility realm, there are lots of modalities that you can be pursued. The most important thing is to identify both a practitioner that you feel comfortable with, but also a modality that you want are confident to use.Naturopathic Support for Natural Fertility
The naturopathic approach is about taking self-responsibility, and making yourself really healthy, and taking charge of your health again. A naturopath can help identify nutritional deficiencies or may use herbal medicines to improve your cycle if you’re female, for example.Traditional Chinese Medicine Support
A traditional Chinese medicine practitioner may approach natural fertility management by using acupuncture and acupressure to improve the flow of energy through your body, as well as herbal medicines to restore body systems. Different modalities can be appropriate for different people. It’s about identifying what works best for each person.There are some couples that may need IVF which can have an important place in the fertility realm.It’s not about saying that everyone should conceive naturally because there are some people that may need IVF support. Absolutely, if you are heading in direction of any assisted reproductive technology, the natural methods of fertility management will improve the health of the baby.
Influence the Health of the Child by…
- Improving the quality of the egg
- Improving the quality of the sperm
- Optimising IVF processes if they are engaged in
The Role of IVF and Natural Fertility Management
Remember that IVF is about conceiving. It’s not necessarily about the health of the child, or the health of the mother throughout the pregnancy. Whereas natural fertility takes those factors into account – and the health of the child is really the result at the end of it.Leah Hechtman, Naturopath, Herbalist, and Natural Fertility Practitioner
Leah shares some of the great results she has achieved in her natural fertility practice…“It’s beautiful. I mean, I’ve got cases of women where they’ve had years of infertility, and then they’re pregnant, or they’ve had years of infertility, years of IVF infertility, and just this whole messy process, and then they just conceive naturally. And it’s why I do what I do”