Personalised Support for the Fertility Journey
With any fertility journey comes a whole range of challenging feelings like sadness, stress, pressure, obsession, lack of control, guilt, anxiety, isolation, resentment, comparison and inadequacy. These are huge feelings to process on a daily/weekly/monthly basis for months or years on end.
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To make things harder, we've been raised in an era where we've been led to believe that if you want something, you need to work hard, push through, be tough and keep your chin up. This leads many women taking a masculine approach to an innately feminine journey - searching for answers, questioning themselves and what they are doing wrong, doing anything and everything possible to unlock the mystery of their conception. And when that doesn't work, they end up feeling worse than ever and further away from the goal and completely loosing a sense of their former selves in the process.
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Despite our understanding of the impact and affect of mental health on the fertility journey it's often overlooked or ignored.
Women deserve better.
​​Women experiencing fertility challenges need good support from practitioners who deeply understand the complexities and struggles and can provide genuine emotional support as well as helpful techniques and strategies for the journey. Mental health and emotional wellbeing during the conception period matters shown in the research, yet it's usually an area overlooked by medical practitioners. ​
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What the Research Says...
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Approximately 1 in 5 couples experience fertility challenges with 1 in 4 pregnancies ending in miscarriage.
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1 in every 18 babies in Australia are conceived through assisted fertility treatments and these rates are increasing (rates of IVF have risen by 32% between 2018 and 2022).
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​In a 1993 study, it was found that women experiencing infertility have global anxiety and depression scores equivalent to = cancer, cardiac & hypertension patients.
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A 2006 case control study found that hypnosis during IVF embryo transfer more than doubled the success rate (in terms of increased implantation and clinical pregnancy rates). Furthermore the patients attitude toward treatment was more favourable. Dr Levitas hypnothesized that hypnosis helps a womans uterus to remain relaxed allowing the embryo to implant more easily.
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Written in the Journal of American Medical Womens Association (1999, vol. 54); 'Infertile' women who utilise mind and body techniques have a 42-55% higher conception rate.
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A 2012 study found that women with lower stress hormone at the time of artificial reproductive technology retrieval and transfer had increased pregnancy and live birth rates​​​.
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​In a 2014 study, it was found that hypnosis was effective in dealing with the emotional stress and depression associated with assissted reproductive technology.
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A 2015 study found that women who participated in mindfulness based interventions revealed a significant increase in coping strategies, had increased pregnancy rates & were more able to adapt and regulate their emotions.
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Studies have found that women who have experienced recurrent miscarriage (3 or more losses), who sought professional support had significantly higher pregnancy success rates than those who didn't.
This Support is Best Suited to Women...
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Who have been trying to conceive for more than 6 months
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​Diagnosed with; unexplained infertility, PCOS, endometriosis, hypothalamic amenorrhea or another fertility related condition.​
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Planning or in the midst of assisted fertility treatments like medicated cycles, IUI, IVF, ICSI and immune protocols etc.
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Seeking guidance to make lifestyle and mental health changes to support their fertility
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Feeling like their conception journey has taken over their life
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Feeling anxious, hopeless, helpless & miserable on their TTC journey
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Feeling like they are 'getting in their own way' and somehow blocking conception but don't know how to change the situation
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Who are willing to use their journey as a stepping stone to personal growth.
As a Fertility Therapist, I see myself as your emotional support person, confidant, coach, guide and cheerleader helping you to reduce emotional burn out and foster hope and trust on the journey (whilst breaking through the unconscious barriers to conception at the same time).
My Story
My own fertility journey started in 2008 when my husband and I decided to start a family, we were both young and healthy and assumed we would conceive quickly and easily. But when I didn’t conceive that first month I was honestly surprised and confused. The story I was led to believe growing up was that if you had unprotected sex, you were certain to fall pregnant!
Each and every month I didn’t conceive became harder and harder emotionally, I spent countless hours researching, trying to figure out what I had done wrong. I spent a fortune on products, supplements, appointments and tests. I became reclusive and stopped doing the things I use to enjoy. I put my life on hold ‘in case’ I conceived or so I could conceive. I turned our life upside down making every effort to fall pregnant and the only result was me feeling more miserable and stuck.
People told me to ‘stop putting pressure on yourself, it will happen!’, ‘go on a holiday’, ‘stop trying’. And honestly, I knew that they were right, but it wasn’t helpful because I had no idea how to make that change.
After a year, we decided to put conception on pause for a month as I’d been unwell, which of course was the cycle we finally conceived, but unfortunately it ended in miscarriage along with our next 4 pregnancies which included 2 sets of twins. Conception was now the easy part…
The emotional and physical toll on my body and mind was unbearable, it was like being on a never-ending roller coaster.
Eventually I changed my care provider and after extensive testing was told nothing was wrong. I conceived again, anxious as ever. This time I did something different though, I opted for an early pregnancy monitoring program and got professional emotional support and made it through the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy.
In February 2011, my daughter Mia was born (Mia meaning ‘longed for child’).
We attempted to conceive a sibling for Mia but had another devastating miscarriage. I again changed care providers, requesting copies of all previous test completed and there highlighted was the answer we’d been searching for (Mia really was a miracle). I was finally treated correctly, had phenomenal support and went on to conceive my 2nd daughter Lilly in April 2013 and Phoenix (my son) in December 2019.
My journey has taught me so much. From creating trust and belief in my body’s ability to conceive, to knowing when to ask for help and emotional support, how to harness the incredible power of the mind for health, healing and happiness, who’s who in the Fertility Industry and how to advocate for myself.
And now I’m here! Older, wiser, further educated with a passion to help others on their journey to parenthood.