FertilehealthyAiming for success, not perfection…

Since I’m still busy settling into my new home, I haven’t had a chance to work on a Fertile Friday post regarding nutrition this week.  So I thought I’d introduce you to someone who really brought the concept of holistic fertility home to me - Julia Indichova.

This amazing woman overcame infertility and has documented her journey in her book Inconceivable:  A Woman’s Triumph Over Despair and Statistics. 

When trying to conceive her second child at the age of 42, she found out that her levels of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) were so high that no fertility clinic would even consider helping her.  FSH stimulates the growth of the egg, but an elevated level inhibits ovulation.  Time after time Julia was told that she had reached the end of her reproductive life, had no more viable eggs and should consider doing IVF with donor eggs.

I don’t think that anyone just makes that decision right off, and Julia was no exception.  Something was telling her that there had to be an alternative and thus started a truly inspirational journey of discovery.

She consulted with healers from a variety of disciplines and found that not all were above board!  But eventually a picture started to emerge.  Over a period of time the family changed their way of eating to a plant-based, whole foods diet with plenty of freshly extracted vegetable juices.  Julia also took a variety of herbs and incorporated yoga into her daily routine.

More than anything this was a journey of emotional healing.  When it comes to health and fertility, we can no longer discount the mind-body connection and Julia really opened my eyes to this aspect (which we will still come to in our Fertile Friday posts).

Slowly but surely her FSH levels started to come down, but the medical establishment were still too wary to try IVF.  This didn’t matter, because less than a year after receiving the initial diagnosis she conceived her second daughter naturally and had a healthy, uneventful pregnancy.

In the 15 years since the birth of Adira, Julia has devoted herself to helping women get fertile.  Her approach is truly holistic and include advice on diet, emotional healing and providing support for couples struggling with infertility.  Her approach also gives couples who are planning Assisted Conception a much better chance of success.

Her second book The Fertile Female:  How the Power of Longing for a Child Can Save Your Life and Change the World tells the stories of so many of the women she’s worked with through the years. 

I have read both these books many times and always find something new and inspiring in them.  If you struggle with fertility, I strongly recommend you read them.  Also please visit her amazing website, Fertile Heart, which is a great source of information.  There are also testimonials and message boards.

Here’s a video about Julia and her Fertile Heart work:

I’ll leave you with some of her words of wisdom…

-  Our children are on their way:  they’re simply taking the scenic route, giving you a chance to remember that you too once arrived here on earth bearing a parcel filled with gifts.  Your sons and daughters are making sure you get to unwrap and deliver a few more of those gifts before they show up.

-  I follow my protocol religiously, the way one takes an antibiotic.  I wouldn’t dream of missing a day…  I need to prove to myself that I’m serious and show my body I can be counted on.

-  If the body can’t handle the workload, or if it’s the heart that’s frightened, or the soul that wishes to soar, we must stop, pull up a chair, and find out what the trouble is.  Otherwise we can blast our ovaries with stimulants, produce caravans of embryos of the highest grade, and still go home to an empty nursery.

-  If you let your body speak, one day it will start to sing.

-  … I realized that my body needed mothering before I could move on to parent a child.  This is pretty much true for every woman I’ve worked with over the years.

-  “No, no, no!  Don’t talk to me about love,” [your body] says.  “Show me that you care through your behavior.”

-  Our fertility cannot be taken away from us.  It is not based on our estradiol levels, or our ovarian reserve.  It is based on our willingness to live a passionate, fruitful life, and to stay “busy being born”.