I want to discuss this huge uptick of couples who are struggling to become pregnant. We are seeing this with a lot of our clients coming to us to be a part of our Mercier Therapy Program.
This program is a natural and non-invasive way to boost fertility. It can help increase your chances of conceiving. It can also prepare your body for conception or for more invasive fertility treatments.
As a pelvic physical therapist and Mercier Provider, I am a strong advocate for using natural methods to improve your fertility. This allows our bodies to decide when the time is right to get pregnant. This approach lets our bodies choose the best time to get pregnant. This blog will show you how to create healthy wellness habits to improve your chances of conception.
"Forced" Fertility Methods
First, let's discuss those more “forced” fertility interventions. These would include things like Letrozole or Clomid, or of course, the more invasive things like IVF.
I am thankful for these interventions. They have helped many people have babies who could not conceive otherwise. Or those with medical conditions.
But I believe it’s important to remember that these treatments are an unnatural way to help your body conceive. Our bodies instinctively know when it is a good time to have a baby. If your body feels it’s not a good time to get pregnant, it can instinctively prevent pregnancy to protect you.
Wellness Habits for Fertility
So many things exist that you can consider before taking that next step of trying to conceive. I think its important for you to have the entire picture of what options are available to you. Focusing on wellness habits may be the key to getting pregnant. This can help avoid the need for more invasive treatments.
How can you prepare your body for pregnancy? Here are some things to consider.
Support Your Fertility with Food
To start with, take a look at your diet and see if it needs to be improved. You want to consider good organic food sources for your food. Learn to read labels.
This way, you will know the ingredients in the food you eat and what you give to your baby. Good sources of meat and veggies whenever possible is a good rule of thumb. Get a good variety on your plate with different colors that can help you mix up the types of micronutrients you are getting.
You should also think about getting enough protein. I often see that many people I work with here in the clinic lack it. Protein is a macronutrient that is important for so many reasons, including fertility. General rule of thumb for most females is somewhere between 60 and 100 grams per day.
One way to know if you are getting enough nutrients is to use a kitchen scale. You can weigh your food items to help with this. This is a great way to gain insight into what you are intaking and how much of it.
Eating enough protein keeps you full for a longer time. It also helps balance cortisol and hormone levels.
Try to get at least half of your daily intake of protein by noon , or do what I would call “front loading" your protein. This will help your hormones and support your circadian rhythm. This will also fuel your body, and increase your chances of conception.
Giving your body what it needs can help your chances of getting pregnant. Focus on your macros, like proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbs. Being intentional with these nutrients is important for conception.
Want to learn more about how to support your fertility with the food you eat? Check out my blog post here to learn more.
What Supplements Do I Take?
When someone is trying to prepare their body for a baby, it's important to know what supplements are best to be intaking. Often women just go to a pharmacy and pick up a bottle of prenatal vitamins without reading the label. Taking a prenatal vitamin is good, but check the label for methylated folate instead of just folic acid.
Folic acid is more of a synthetic form of folate, folate being a B vitamin. Folate helps make DNA and supports the formation of red blood cells in your body. This is important for fertility, conception, and growing an embryo into a fetus.
Taking a synthetic form of folate, like folic acid, requires your liver to convert it into methylated folate. There is an extra step that needs to happen. Sometimes, if your body isn’t working well, you ask it to do more. This can affect the benefits of what you take in.
Unlike folic acid, methylated folate does not have to be converted. Studies show that methylated folate has a high bioavailability (which means your body can easily absorb the nutrients).
I suggest making sure that your prenatal has methylated folate in it to take the burden off your liver. Not just the type of folate matters; the amount is important too. You want to be intaking at least 400 micrograms of methylated folate per day.
Tea for Improved Fertility
Many of my clients want to know more about raspberry tea or red clover tea. These are good supplemental actions. Researchers have shown that raspberry tea improves the overall health of the uterus. One way is by improving the quality of the cervical mucus. This allows for an increased chance of sperm survival. This is ideal for fertilization.
Red clover tea can also be a good adjunct for us in supporting the lymphatic system. It helps to improve the efficiency of lymph drainage. This also supports your hormone levels within your endocrine system.
Movement: Less is More
Let’s move onto another important dimension of wellness to consider - exercise. I would say a lot of times, there are mistakes made just not knowing where to start with exercise. We want to meet your body where it’s at.
If you don’t exercise or haven’t thought about it in a while, start simple. Try taking a short walk. Just get your body moving.
Maybe you are on the other end of the spectrum. You might be working out at a high level for 5 to 7 days each week. In this situation, it can help to scale back a little. This way, your body won’t feel as stressed.
You can interrupt ovulation if you are doing too much or intense activity. If your goal is to conceive, you need to give your body what it needs. Sometimes, this means doing less.
Establishing Healthy Sleep Habits
Next, we are going to discuss sleep. Giving our bodies enough sleep and good quality sleep is important. This has become more challenging for all of us over the years. We have a lot of stressors and distractions that lower our chances of getting enough sleep.
We’re all going to bed with our phones and oftentimes, our alarms are on our phones. Our minds constantly receive stimulation. We need to give these things a break if getting good quality sleep is an issue.
For example, turn off your phone, computer, and TV a few hours before bed. This helps your brain wind down and reduces stimulation. This can prepare your body to sleep.
It could be as simple as spending time outside in nature. Just a little sunlight can help you get vitamin D. It can also lower your stress and calm your mind. This can help you get ready for sleep.
Meditation to Quiet Your Mind
You can also try things such as mindfulness or meditation prior to bed to quiet your mind. This is something that I have sort of changed my mindset on a little bit.
In today’s time, we are often so sedentary with our jobs. At first, it didn’t make sense to me.
Why would someone lie on a yoga mat for 15 minutes and seemingly do nothing after sitting all day long?
Thinking about it now, it's important to give our minds some rest. I believe meditation is great for this. It helps us be a bit more introspective.
You can also practice meditation during movement. Take a 15-minute walk where you don’t have music playing or a bunch of stimulating noise. Take this time to quiet the mind. Meditation, no matter the form of it, can be a perfect remedy to calm your mind, make you feel happy, and give you joy.
Unhealthy Habit Management
We also have to be intentional about managing our stressors that we encounter in our everyday lives. Everyday stressors can be physical, mental, or emotional. We have to work to reign those in if we want to have good quality sleep, and overall good quality of life.
One of the ways we can manage stress is by practicing diaphragmatic breathing. I have talked about this in previous posts, but I am a big believer in this breathing practice. I think it is one of the best things you can do to quiet down those stressors. Check out my video here to follow along with diaphragmatic breathing practice.
Then of course, if you’re somebody that is regularly drinking or smoking, it is best to start working on changing those habits. Cutting out smoking and alcohol can improve sleep quality, your overall health, and increase your chances of conception.
Mercier Therapy: Boost Fertility
Our Mercier program is also a natural way to benefit your fertility. We have seen it work repeatedly for our clients. The results can be amazing when we get our bodies moving more and increase physical activity throughout our day.
Movement especially benefits the reproductive organ. We get them to start talking to each other, get the blood flowing, and good things happen. Movement is another natural intervention to consider if you’re trying to conceive and having some difficulty.
We can help you to get your body ready before implantation. Once that fertilization happens, we help foster a successful and healthy pregnancy.
If you’re interested in learning more about Mercier Therapy, we have you covered. Our marketing team has created a Mercier resource page. This page has a lot of good information.
The Fertility Wellness Wrap Up
All these tips are good recommendations whether or not you’re trying to conceive. If you are struggling to conceive, then there may be a reason or something missing that your body needs. Try some of these tips:
Focusing on cleaning up your diet
Being intentional about movement
Improve sleep
Take quality vitamins and minerals
Drink supportive teas
Consider Mercier Therapy
All these tips are to get you into the fertility mindset, which is what we’re all about here.
If you'd like to watch the video associated with this blog post, check out the link here.
Want to learn more about the benefits of Mercier Therapy to improve your fertility and chances of conception? Check out my post here to learn more.
Interested in learning more about this topic or have questions? Feel free to reach out to us at 502-939-8564 or request a consultation here.
Comentarios