Amy's Guide to Getting Pregnant

(No snarky comments on the title, please. I realize it sounds rather salacious, but it was better than all the alternatives I typed up, and the topic isn't bawdy in the least.)

I have no experience personally with infertility, though I have friends and family that have. I realize that there are many reasons why infertility happens (one woman I knew was born without a uterus; another had a uterus tipped just enough that the sperm couldn't reach it—she simply had to flip onto her stomach after the marital act, and was pregnant within a month). So I hope this post does not come across as insensitive or cruel to the very real, deep hurt that accompanies infertility.

That said, were I to have problems getting pregnant, here are the steps I would take, to give myself the best chance possible.

First step: stop all hormonal birth control (aka "the Pill" and its ilk). Because the Pill has extremely high levels of hormones, compared to a normal body, do not be surprised if it takes your body two years to get pregnant. It takes a while to regulate. Also, actively try not to get pregnant the first six months you're off the Pill; the residual hormones can harm the baby. (I've always wondered if that's why I miscarried after getting pregnant a few months after stopping.)

Next: cut out the "big three" really obvious bad foods. Trans fats, the manmade fats found in most fried foods, margarine, and other spreads, have no place in the diet at all. I have read even one exposure can significantly reduce the chance of conception that month. Instead, eat the healthy whole fats: butter, extra virgin olive oil, good quality coconut oil.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the second. This almost eliminates soda and other processed foods. No one knows how HFCS is made: its an industry secret. It's also a health nightmare. Check your labels, too: standard ketchup contains this, as do many salad dressings. You can find legitimate substitutions, though—no need to deprive yourself entirely.

Avoid all artificial colors and flavors. If it doesn't look like a natural color, avoid it. The strange chemicals industry uses to make food taste and smell more appetizing aren't worth the health problems.

To sum up: rid the diet of really awful industrial chemicals. "Shop the store perimeter," or, better yet, buy from local farms.

What to do: Add in high quality cod liver oil (high in vitamin A, which traditional cultures recognize as important for pregnancy—those cultures consume ten times the amount of vitamin A that we do; also high in vitamin D).

If you can access raw milk, drink raw milk, especially if you can find a grass-fed dairy. It'll be a bit more per gallon than grocery milk because grass-fed cows, and all the raw dairies I've heard of, do not feed hormone supplements to their cattle (the infamous rBGH, or recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone). No one should be drinking the rBGH milk—it's led to a generation of daughters with precocious puberty (I heard in a lecture recently that 50% of American girls menstruate at age ten). It's not good to add hormones to the body, when the body produces hormones in parts per trillion, an incredibly small amount.

Anyway, the rBGH cows do produce twice the milk that a non-treated cow produces, but the high-production cows also suffer many illnesses and shorter lifespans.

For me, it's worth it to pay a little extra for my milk and get an unadulterated product that is good for the cows and good for me.

And that's not touching the disaster of milk pasteurization, but that's another topic. Drink raw milk if you can find it. But back to the topic at hand....

I would check my general health. I really like Julia Ross's The Diet Cure, though the numerous supplements she recommends can get a bit pricey. Great results, though.

I would also do my best to make sure I was in hormonal balance. Do you ovulate regularly, and experience a menstrual cycle without cramps or discomfort? That's how it should be. The best resource I know for hormonal issues is Dr. Sherrill Sellman's book What Women Must Know to Protect Their Daughters from Breast Cancer. (You can also purchase this for only a few dollars, used, on Amazon. If I wanted information tailored to me, specifically, I might even pay for a phone consultation with her, which seems very reasonably priced.) Really, this is just an excellent book overall.

I would also want to make sure I know when I ovulate each month, to give myself the best possible chance of conception. You track your mucus and track your temperature on waking, and that should give you an accurate picture of when you are the most fertile. I learned this in the Couple to Couple League's class (through the Catholic church), but I have heard good things about Toni Weschler's book Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

I hope this is helpful, and if you are struggling with infertility, I am also happy to pray for you, that the Lord would bless your womb.