Fertility Meditation for Couples >
Why Us?
All this stress plays a part in infertility. Indeed, research has shown that stress can impair fertility in men and women by interfering with the production of hormones involved in ovulation, implantation and sperm quality. Not only can the stress hormone cortisol shut down ovulation in some extreme cases, stressed-out women may also have irregular periods and ovulation times which makes getting pregnant harder. In men stress can reduce sperm count and quality. Alice Domar, a leading fertility expert at Harvard Medical School says "believe it or not, women who can't easily conceive have the same level of distress as do women with cancer, heart disease, or who are HIV-positive. The impact of infertility is huge. It affects every aspect of the couple's life". What this means is that infertility is not just a physical condition, it can be a psychological one. But too often the psychological aspects are ignored as couples stampede towards the IVF clinic for expensive, stressful and intrusive physical interventions. Healthy couples become medicated patients in a clinic before they have even tried any kind of psychological help.
Unexplained infertility
Now of course, there can be many factors in infertility but the most common diagnosis (accounting for up to 25% of all causes) is "unexplained infertility" which means that there is no identifiable medical cause. It's a bit of a cop-out diagnosis but it's good news in the sense that it means there is no apparent physical impediment to conceiving. And if it's not physical then it's most likely psychological and that is something you can do a lot about.
Stress, in particular, is something you can do something about. And it follows that if stress is an obstacle to fertility, then relieving stress can increase your chances of conception.
That's why some specialists are now recommending psychological help before couples embark on expensive and stressful IVF treatment. It's also why relaxation and stress reduction programs are becoming more and more a part of mainstream assisted fertility treatments.
For example, The Fertility and Reproductive Center at Stanford University has a comprehensive mind-body support program running alongside its IVF clinic. While across at Harvard, Alice Domar notes that "women who hit rock bottom psychologically during their infertility can feel normal and healthy within weeks of learning mind-body techniques. And about half get pregnant within six months".
At Mind Body Baby we take this broader view of infertility - as a mind-body issue - recognizing and treating the human and psychological elements with specially written mind-body programs.
Mind-body programs
The kind of mind-body techniques that reduce stress and increase fertility include relaxation techniques, hypnosis, massage, yoga and meditation. Now, of course, nothing is going to take all the stress away - getting pregnant will always have some element of stress - but by learning how to reduce and manage stress, couples can undo the harmful impact of stress and lifestyle on their fertility and give themselves the best chance of conceiving naturally.
