|
Natural Conception Program
Offers you a program of preconception care for conscious conception
and to address fertility problems using holistic natural medicine,
nutrition, detoxification, stress control and timing techniques.
This program when complied with can improve your chances of a healthy,
successful conception, pregnancy, birth and baby.
You will learn to recognise the fertility signs that occur with
each menstrual cycle. By combining this with your personal bio-rhythmic
lunar cycle you can learn how to optimise the timing of conception.
Where there is a fertility problem, a holistic approach is used
to explore its origins, and natural therapies are used to assist
normal reproductive functioning for both men and women.
Conceiving a child is a very special event. If you are planning
to have a child then the methods and understanding that you will
gain will enrich your whole experience, physically, emotionally,
intellectually and spiritually.
After the birth of your child you can use Natural Fertility Management
methods confidently for safe, natural contraception until your next
conscious conception.
Natural
Fertility Management Conception Kit offered as part of the programme
includes:
* personal consultation, preferably for both parents, CD and comprehensive
printed material.
Included is a copy of Natural
Fertility by Francesca Naish which covers:
* Instruction in optimising fertility timing at mid cycle through the
observation of body symptoms, with monthly charts to record observations
* Instruction in the use of the bio-rhythmic lunar cycle, with your
individual computer calculated charts showing potentially fertile
times
* Instruction in how to combine these methods to make the most effective
use of fertile times
* Relaxation CD for stress control, confidence and motivation, synchronisation
of lunar and hormonal cycles for optimum fertility, and a healthy
conception, pregnancy and birth
* Your kit includes a current year moon calendar, basal thermometer
and time zone calculator.
Check out our products page for more
publications and other products
:: top
Women's Health / Reproductive Health
All practitioners work in the area of general reproductive health for
women from puberty through to menopause e.g. painful, heavy or absent
menstruation, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, genito-urinary
infections, candida, PMS and menopausal symptoms.
They work in partnership with women to help them gain health, using
herbal medicine and dietary supplementation. Lifestyle and nutritional
advice is also given.
Educating women on their health conditions and the choices available
to them is a role the practitioners take very seriously. They see
this as facilitating women to feel empowered and so be able to take
control of their own health with guidance from a natural health
practitioner.
Natural Contraception
Natural Fertility Contraception Program is the safest and most empowering
method of avoiding conception currently available. The program teaches
you to understand and cooperate with your fertility cycles, through observing
body signs such as cervical mucus and basal body temperature, and combining
this knowledge with your personal biorhythmic lunar cycle. You can then
choose what to do for the few days a month you are fertile.
Natural Fertility Management has a 97-99% success rate compared
to the pill at 97-99.5%, the condom at 97-99% and the diaphragm
(with spermicide) at 97-98%. (Statistics taken from a number of
different studies.)
Natural Contraception Program can be used by all women whether or
not their cycles are regular and at any stage of their fertile life.
All that is required is motivation and a healthy curiosity about
your own body.
Pregnancy
and Post Natal Care
Generally when couples have undergone the preconception care program
they experience their pregnancy and labour as healthy and happy
events. Their newborn are also beautiful big healthy babies!
However, if this is not the case naturopathic care and advice is available
for any problems that arise in pregnancy or post naturally such as morning
sickness, constipation, haemorrhoids, genito-urinary infections, fluid
retention, hypertension, toxemia and pre-eclampsia, anaemia, gestational
diabetes, cracked sore nipples, mastitis, lactation problems, post natal
depression, reflux, eczema etc. Dietary and lifestyle advice is also given
for pregnancy.
Pregnancy, pre and post partum tonics are available as are herbal labour
kits.
:: top
Useful Links
Natural Fertility and Women's Health Practitioners
|
|
Other links
* Francesca Naish's clinic, Natural Fertility Management and Holistic Medicine www.fertility.com.au
* Association for the Promotion of Pre conceptual Care, Foresight.
* A world wide network of Holistic Centre's supporting and empowering
Women through life transition. Vital
Peace
* www.nfmcontraception.com
Natural Fertility Management is a unique combination of methods providing effective contraception without compromising your health.
At www.nfmcontraception.com we have information about the NFM methods and others, and help you choose the appropriate contraception methods for your needs and lifestyle.
The NFM Contraception Kit can be purchased securely on line and has been developed to provide you with the easiest and most thorough way to learn these methods. Like driving a car or riding a bike, once learnt these methods become an automatic part of what you know about yourself and the way you manage your fertility. The NFM Kit is a once off purchase that offers great value and will save you money.
* Our NFWH Questionnaire
Save it to your disk and print it out first, then complete.
(Please do not send your questionnaire in - bring it along with
you to your first appointment.)
* Our NFWH Booking
information sheet
* Seminar Powerpoint Presentation click here
(2.2Mb)
:: TESTIMONIALS ::
Andrea
My husband and I were on the terrible roller-coaster of fertility problems and miscarriages, all unexplained.
I had several months on fertility drugs, and was mentally very low at the time we visited Jo Barnett.
She provided some possible answers and hope to us.
I was tested for several medical conditions
(that the fertility doctors had never tested for), which indicated a gluten intolerance (and hence low trace nutrient levels),
thyroid markers and a bacterial uterus infection. All or any one of these, combined with my stress levels could have been responsible for our problems.
I was treated with antibiotics for the bacteria (2 courses via my GP), started a gluten-free diet, and changed to organic foods where possible and less toxic cleaners.
As well as these health and lifestyle changes, I felt Jo actually listened to me and gave me ways to help myself, including seeking help for my mental issues as well
(through visits to a positive thinking therapist). The hardest thing for us was to accept Jos advice and take a break from trying (and a break from the drugs),
as we could not imagine a month going by without trying.
After 2-3 months of healthy eating, clearing up the infection, and getting my cycle into moon sync, we were given the green light to try. We were so surprised and happy to actually succeed first time! This was the first time I had become pregnant naturally without some sort of fertility treatment. I was very worried about miscarriage, but Jo provided herbal support in the first trimester. I am now 22 weeks pregnant, and can hardly wait to meet what will be a most beloved and wanted baby. The lifestyle changes we have made will be forever.
Alison
Thank you so much for all the wonderful support and expert advice.
It was definitely worth all the effort. My baby was finally born
and he is a beautiful, alert and thriving baby - just perfect in
every way. He is settled and happy and best of all is sleeping through
the night at 4 weeks. All I am sure thanks to you and all that preconception
advice.
I would also like to thank you for your "birth pack". I
had very intense labour contractions every minute - yet to my own
surprise coped easily - partly due to my real excitement at finally
getting my baby but mainly due I believe your pain relief herbs. Thank
you - the whole process IVF, pregnancy, labour and my baby have far
exceeded my wildest dreams in how easily and well they went. I am
so very grateful for all you have given me. Thanks for the priceless
gift of a healthy perfect baby.
Brenda
We would like to thank you for all your help in achieving this pregnancy
after so many years. We especially liked the way you had confidence
in my ability to get pregnant.
:: top
Caroline
We have decided that being childless is OK for us. It is a great
relief to have made the decision and be able to move on. There will
always be a part that will not stop longing for a child, but we
have moved on now. I want to thank you so much for making our final
attempts such a positive and healthy experience.
Paula
There are not words big enough to thank you!Hannah
Thank you for your help and encouragement. Now that it has actually
happened we are a bit frightened at what we may be like as parents
but there is no turning back now. I am now a firm advocate for natural
fertility management, although I knew in my heart it was the right
thing to do.
Sandra
Thanks very much for your help and advice with the preparation for
conception and also during the pregnancy. Thanks again, we are absolutely
thrilled with our beautiful perfect girl!
Wendy ( now pregnant with second child, conceived naturally)
After nearly 5 years of hell trying to have a baby the realisation
that I am now 29 weeks pregnant, having conceived naturally is unreal,
but its true! Way back in 2000 aged 30 we thought we'd get on with
the 3 children by age 35 plan we'd devised during the 9 previous years
of marriage.10 months later it seemed on track, a natural conception,
but sadly a miscarriage at 8 weeks while in London on work. No natural
triumphs followed so thought we'd check things out at the local fertility
specialist . All seemed fine, regular relatively painless periods,
I wasn't too old, my FSH levels fluctuated a little but were within
reason; so I took Clomiphene & reacted badly. From that moment
on I was cursed with endometriosis. My busy life was a struggle from
here on. I had to get the pain under control & balance the flare
ups caused by treatment, with my own management. I was very disciplined,
I followed a wheat & dairy free diet, as organic as possible,
exercised 5 days a week alternating between swimming & running,
saw a naturopath every 2 weeks, took supplements & herbal medicine,
had acupuncture & eased back on the workload. The reward was a
definite improvement in terms of pain & well being. We also travelled
to London twice to bring fertility drugs back to NZ which were suggested
I might respond better to. We had high hopes! Coinciding with this
we did 6 IVF cycles & improved each time gaining increased numbers
& quality of embryos, but to no avail. We only ever achieved one
pregnancy for all our efforts which miscarried at 5 weeks. I eased
back on the diet & exercise, kept up the acupuncture & just
stayed healthy for a few months. It was a horrible time for us as
we still couldn't accept we couldn't do it! We'd managed to achieve
everything we wanted in life through shear hard work, but not this
goal. My husband quit his career & started a business, I continued
with my business, but employed staff to help. Our life got even busier,
but in a different way. We still didn't have a lifestyle but we were
happy working together & we were still trying. I went to see Jo
Barnett who had to listen to my whole sad story. I felt it worth a
shot even though I'd seen a naturopath before. Jo's approach was similar,
but the herbs & doses she used were different. She ran tests which
made sense, but had never been done before & treated accordingly.
I did as she said & 7 weeks later when I phoned her to ponder
the 2 blue lines on the home test we both went into cautious raptures.
It wasn't easy, I still had lots of pain & some bleeding which
just didn't equate to a viable pregnancy in my mind. Jo was realistic
but very reassuring that the pain was OK. A scan revealed a haematoma
to be causing the bleeding which resolved. If I had to do it all again
I would "back myself" & go with the natural approach
seeking advise from a expert in NFM practitioner along the way. My
medical based training/career lead me in the other direction first
& then I tried to combine the two approaches but it wasn't until
I went with NFM that a continuing pregnancy resulted.
:: top
Helen
I have lost five babies in the past five years.
that four of the deaths of my babies may
have been preventable. A shocking statement to be able to make but
nevertheless, true.
I would also like to stress that I am the proud mother of two gorgeous
children. Hannah has just turned four and, the baby I at times never
thought I'd have, Toby who is nine weeks old today.
As you would have gathered I had no problem conceiving
as however certainly becoming
at there is absolutely no value in
being able to conceive if you can't sustain the pregnancy or are seriously
compromising the health of your baby.
Each miscarriage ripped my heart out. Each time I was told to "try again
straight away7'. If I'd followed that advice Toby would not be here and I
hate to think what state I would be in.
I fit into the ever-increasing statistic of the older woman wanting to
complete their personal strategic plan by having babies - after 15 to 20
years or so of Ml-time work. I married seven years ago having kissed an
awful lot of frogs before finally finding my prince and a father for my
children. Work was still important to me - too important - but, like many
other women I know, I had convinced myself l needed it to keep me sane,
cerebral and part of the "real world.
Our first attempt ended in miscarriage at eight weeks. My mother and
sister had both miscarried their first and had gone on to have four and five
children respectively so, while it was devastating I "sort of' expected it.
The scan of that pregnancy revealed a fibroid. With my second pregnancy
Hannah grew very healthily, along with the fibroid, which was 9 by l cm
by the time she was born.
The Caesarean was one to remember (or forget!). Hannah was a transverse
lie. In technical terms the fibroid had "replaced the lower segment of the
uterus and severe dextrorotation of the uterus which necessitated a left
paramedian incision."
In my words the fibroid had pushed everything sideways requiring two
surgeons nearly an hour to complete an internal classic, extracting
Hannah and do the fairly comprehensive embroidery required to patch me
up again. I lost about 1.5 litres of blood. Recovery was difficult which led
to declining milk supply and consequently cracked and bleeding nipples
with breastfeeding which I was eventually able to overcome. I now
however have a whole new understanding of pain!
Hannah was nearly 18 months when I was pregnant a third time. I started
bleeding at around 7 weeks and a scan showed a live foetus. I continued
to bleed until I requested a scan at 10 weeks that showed the baby had
died two weeks previously.
In March 2003 we conceived again however the pregnancy only lasted
four weeks. My GP described it as bad luck and told me to try again
and if anything went wrong this time we'd look into it. I was not
happy. Something was up. The miscarriage times were getting shorter.
I was also feeling absolutely crap and pale as a ghost and constantly
lethargic. I had been forced to lay off all my clients and was depressed
without knowing why.
By chance 1 ran into a midwife on the island who, when I had told
her what had happened, took on my case to help me out. She told me
about Loula
Georgeand the Natural Fertility Programme and the Foresight research.
She lent me the book entitled Natural
Fertility by the Australian author Francesca Naish and I bought
the next in the series The
Natural Way to Better Babies. Both books outline the impressive
results achieved in the UK through a proper pre-conception health
care programme. My investment banker husband and I went to see Loula.
I had never been to a naturopath before and I have to admit I needed
him there for a second opinion. We were both very impressed. Here
at last was somebody who said that yes, something did appear to be
amiss and described how we would check it out. It was basic common
sense, easy to understand and involved and empowered us in the way
forward. We felt good and will be forever grateful to Loula for her
response.
The first things we did was to begin charting my basal temperature
and following my cycle, pin pointing ovulation and checking that oestrogen
and progesterone levels were in balance. We also did blood tests,
including a 21 - day progesterone test. The results were very low
progesterone - so low I got a call from my GP who had received a copy
saying he was surprised I even managed to conceive at all. We also
ordered a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis and Ralph and I both sent off
hair to be analysed by one of the Inter Clinical Laboratories in Sydney.
The results received two weeks later were dramatic. Copper and lead
levels were "off the charts". Things were starting to fall into place.
Excess copper and zinc deficiency had made me unable to absorb iron.
I was anaemic. Combined with the lead, the high copper and low zinc
were also likely to have contributed to the development of the fibroid
and the "bottomed out" progesterone levels. The elevated lead levels
were quite capable of affecting foetal health, my immune system and causing
arthritis and hypertension. Basically I was a wreck. On the one to
four stress scale my metabolic rate was showing "four" - as a result
of long term chronic stress. By comparison, my husband was "one".
Where I had got the lead from, I have no idea Whether it was the painting
jobs as a university student, a house I'd lived in here or overseas,
or the substantial amounts of very bad wine consumed at the time,
who knows. The important point was that we had an idea of what could
be causing the miscarriages and I knew we had to get it out - for
my health and to enable me to reach my dream of having a second child.
The most likely source of the copper was drinking water. I embarked
on a homeopathic detox programme and serious but manageable changes
to the diet. l felt awful for weeks as the flushing out began and at
the same time, watched my husband transform. He lost 10 kilos and
more than trebled his energy levels in 12 weeks. I was also losing
weight (we both needed to). After another tissue analysis I was assigned
another 12 week detox programme. The lead levels were dropping slowly
- it had obviously been there a long time. Each time meant a three-month
wait before being allowed to try again.
Sadly we conceived while I
was still on the detox treatment This pregnancy ended in miscarriage
at eight weeks in August 2003 which led to yet another three-month
stand down. I cried floods of tears in Loula's office each time I found
out we'd have to wait yet again but by now I knew absolutely it was
the right thing to do. I ran into a traditional miscarriage specialist
when I was booking in for my third D&C who said "there's no reason
why you can't start again right away". This time this actually made
me angry. I knew from past experience that those three months of recovery
are vital to a healthy pregnancy - and mother.
You actually feel your
body recovering during that time - periods get clearer and healthier,
you feel progressively stronger while also having the time to get
into a much better head space - less anxious and a lot less tendency
to get into the victim syndrome. I was learning just how sick I had
been. I was now feeling healthier than I had for the past 15 years
- physically, psychologically and emotionally - despite the turmoil.
We were given the Christmas present of being able to try again in
December 2003. We conceived twins in March last year. My HCG levels
were monitored weekly and showed a good increase. The morning sickness
was very manageable - better than any other pregnancy and I'm sure
this was down to my healthy state, diet, and herb and vitamin supplementation.
Unfortunately the nuchal fold scan at 12 weeks showed one of the twins
at a 1 in 2 likelihood of Downs Syndrome. Fortunately we were saved
an horrendous decision and the twin died naturally at 14 weeks. The
joy was seeing Toby jumping around the screen like a jack rabbit.
He progressed healthily and born by another exciting Caesarean in
mid- December last year. The fibroid had hidden for most of the pregnancy
- including the amnio scan and process - by stretching itself across
the uterus in a very fine band. Surprise! My obstetrician hit a very
large unexpected blood vessel on the way in and I lost 1.8 litres
of blood in about 5 seconds. I escaped a transfusion and, unlike with
Hannah, recovery has been significantly faster. Six weeks later my
iron and haemoglobin levels were good and breast feeding has been
easy. Most importantly Toby is a healthy, alert and easy to care for
baby.
My obstetrician who also delivered Hannah has asked to be allowed
to retire before we have any more children. I try to compare this
with what might have been and I shudder. Maybe synthetic progesterone
support would have enabled me to conceive and sustain a pregnancy.
I have no doubt I would have continued to feel as sick as a dog. I
would have been on continual iron supplementation, which I wouldn't
have been able to absorb. Yuck I would have felt continually on edge,
inadequate, confused and very depressed.
Instead for the first time since
I was 12 I don't have a weight problem. I feel vital, empowered and
truly blessed.
As an aside we became worried about Hannah who was getting pale during
the ups and downs and had developed allergies. We knew she had absorbed
same of the lead and copper from a hair tissue analysis. She has a
similar brown skin patch as I do courtesy of the copper excess and
was very prone to eczema as a baby. Her immune system was obviously
compromised. It took about two months of vitamins and a herb tonic
which smelt like blackberry nip and looked like liquid velvet - and
she was positively bouncing around The allergy disappeared and her
colour and energy levels revived. I was ecstatic.
:: top
Janine
After four years of trying to get pregnant, with assistance from Clomiphine (and I managed to get every side effect going) and gonal-F and intra uterine inseminations - all with no conception, Todd and myself were feeling pretty low. We had finally got on the IVF waiting list so were just waiting for time to pass.
After nearly a year of fertility treatments and investigations, they finally came up with a reason for our infertility - the morphology (shape) of the sperm was the issue.
We went to a Fertility Associates seminar day, and there we heard Jo Barnett talk about her practise and the advantages of natural fertility. Having been brought up in a very strong 'medical model' both by family and by training, we thought long and hard about doing this, however we decided to bite the bullet.
Jo was great at letting us do what we were comfortable with - anything that she offered that we declined was fine. Some people push hard to a point where things are uncomfortable - Jo didn't do that.
Apart from not being allowed to try to conceive (very difficult to 'let go' after years of trying, however I have to say incredibly freeing in the end to be a normal woman getting her period and knowing it was ok and there were no tears!), the rest was easy. The herbal detox was physically barely noticeable for either of us, and while some of the herbal tinctures I took were foul, it was all part of the package.
Jo let us try again the month before we were starting IVF, and miracle of miracles, we achieved a conception - our first! Interestingly the fertility clinic's response was 'you're pregnant' when I had the blood test - Jo's response was enthusiastic, encouraging and more like our own reaction had been.
I am currently 22 weeks pregnant, and feeling really positive. Jo was supportive, coped with my various issues with different things, always the professional and continues to give advice and treatment to keep both me and the baby healthy, and also to keep Todd drew on track for the next conception!
I have already referred several people I know to Jo who are having concerns. I am incredibly grateful that I went to her at the point I did, and I know that we will be going again if baby number 2 doesn't come easily - well before we go down the medical route again.
|
|
|
|
