Tag Archives: fertility

Alicia Silverstone’s Clueless, Anecdotal Pregnancy Advice Leaves us Saying ‘As If!’

The Kind Mama - alicia silverstoneAlicia Silverstone is known for many things, like being an actress, star of Aerosmith videos, vegan, and champion for the environment. She is not, however, a licensed physician or even a wise shaman, though in her new book, The Kind Mama, she’s giving advice that has our experts seeing red and shouting, “As if!”

A few eyebrow-raising comments from the book include, “Bananas are a naughty food for a baby,” “Dairy leaves toxic sludge in your baby house (uterus),” “The diaper industry is fueled by corporate-backed pseudoscience,” and also, pretty much everything she talks about in the book is “yummy.”

We’ve been HERE before

This is not the first time the Clueless star has been in the news for her nontraditional parenting style. Wait, I didn’t mean to call her clueless, I meant she was in the 90s cult classic movie, Clueless. Actually, come to think of it, either way that sentence works. Anyway, there was that time she chewed up her toddler’s food and fed him from her own mouth, baby bird style. Then, she admitted to eating her own placenta after his birth. She didn’t just reach down, grab it and munch on it. It was in pill form, so it’s totally not weird.

Did she really just go there about infertility? Yep, she did.

I believe Alicia had good intentions when she wrote this book, but she has to know that some of her claims will be challenged. It’s widely known that our managing editor, Brandi Koskie, had infertility issues before giving birth to her daughter, so when she read Alicia’s one-size-fits-all fertility rule about simply “cleaning up your baby house,” “having lots of yummy sex,” and avoiding fertility drugs, she had a swift response:

“Doesn’t that just sound delightful and peachy keen? Well, I’m here to tell you that Alicia is delusional. (more…)

Posted on April 25, 2023 by Dani Stone

Why it’s Crucial to Eat Right Before You Conceive

By Emily Wade Adams, CNC at PrimingTheBump.com and Natal-Nutrition.com

Eat Right Before You ConceiveWhy It’s Crucial to Eat Right Before You Conceive

Some people get pregnant without any preparation, it’s true. So what’s the point of undertaking a fertility preparation program? Why can’t you just sit down with a tub of ice cream and watch Jersey Shore instead?

Well, aside from the obvious explanation that in most cases, watching Snooki isn’t going to get you pregnant, there are two crucial reasons to eat right before you conceive:

EASE OF CONCEPTION. Speaking of ‘reality,’ not everyone is as fecund as TV shows may have you believe (see: 16 and Pregnant; 19 Kids and Counting). In fact, about 10-15% of couples now experience some form of infertility, and that percentage is steadily rising.

To conceive with ease, your reproductive system must be in good working order. Which means that your body must have all the necessary nutrients on hand – and in sufficient quantities – to feed the cells, hormones & processes of the reproductive system. In addition, any compounds that interfere with fertility must be avoided.

A nutritional preparation period helps stock your body full of healthy, fertility-boosting nutrients while eliminating anything that could block reproduction. Not only does this improve reproductive health, but it also puts you in control of your journey toward conception. (more…)

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charlie Smith

Dirty Details of What Soda’s Doing to Your Body and Checkbook

In this infographic, developed by Term Life Insurance, you’ll see a few of the many health issues that soda plays a large role in. Heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis, reproductive issues…the list goes on and on. I’m sure you’ve heard these warnings before, but have you really thought about what that can of Coke is doing to your insides? By consuming soda on a regular basis you’re basically asking to be miserable and sick. (more…)

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Danielle

Eat a Clean Diet and Aimee Raupp Says, “Yes, You Can Get Pregnant”

Like so many women, Jan found herself in her thirties with a career, a husband, and a strong desire to get pregnant. At 33, this corporate attorney had already had one miscarriage and two unsuccessful IUIs (intrauterine insemination), and she was “very upset and unsettled,” as described in Aimee Raupp’s new book Yes, You Can Get Pregnant: The Diet That Will Improve Your Fertility Now and Into Your 40s.

Jan is a real-life client of Aimee’s, a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and author of Chill Out and Get Healthy, who is included as a case study in this new book. Jan is described as arriving at Aimee’s office with a diet iced tea and a story of “fertility reducing eating habits,” a nutritionally void diet of low-fat, sugar-free, processed foods. Jen is probably not unlike a lot of women visiting Aimee or fertility specialists across the country; in fact, she’s probably more like the average infertility patient than not.

Where Jan may take a left fork in the road is in the diet she now follows, as prescribed by Aimee and outlined in the Yes, You Can Get Pregnant book. Today, Aimee excitedly told me that Jan is pregnant, and she did it naturally without the invasive IVF she was prepared to do. Aimee explained that Jan cleaned up her diet, took liver pills, and did eight acupuncture treatments. Then, after two menstrual cycles, learned she was expecting.

So is another of Aimee’s clients, a 43-year-old woman pregnant with her second child. “She followed my diet to a T, better than I do sometimes,” said Aimee. “She’s 20 weeks pregnant with a clean amnio.”

So what is Aimee prescribing that’s helping these women achieve the pregnancies they so desire? Just like Jan and the 43-year-old mom, they’re laser focused on what they eat as much as what they don’t. (more…)

Posted on August 16, 2023 by Natalie K

Eating Avocados and Olive Oil Could Triple Your Chances of Fertility

A diet high in monounsaturated fat has been found to increase fertility in women trying to get pregnant trough IVF treatments, finds a new study.

The results of this study were presented at the annual meeting of ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) by Dr Jorge Chavarro, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, USA.

“Different types of fat are known to have different effects on biological processes which may influence the outcome of assisted reproduction – such as underlying levels of inflammation or insulin sensitivity. However, it is not clear at this moment which biological mechanisms underlie the associations we found,” said Chavarro in the press release.

The study took place among 147 women having IVF at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center. According to the press release, they had preclinical assessments including oocyte development. They were also categorized into tertiles of fat intake, with outcomes compared in relation to the lowest tertile. Results were controlled for other sources of energy, infertility diagnosis, ovarian stimulation protocol, body mass index (BMI) and smoking status.

The study also found that women who ate polyunsaturated fat or the “bad fat” had more poor quality embryos. The connection of a diet high in saturated fat and lower sperm count has already been discovered. (more…)

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Kristina

Foods Rich in Isoflavones Are Known as Natural Birth Control

If you are frequently forgetting to taking oral contraceptives at the same time every day, you are increasing the chances of becoming pregnant. If you don’t want to switch to another form of birth control are there any foods that might help or hurt your contraceptive chances?

I spoke with our resident expert on all things food-related, Mary Hartley, RD, and this is what she told me. “Foods that are high in isoflavones have been called ‘natural contraceptives.'”

Isoflavones are plant-based estrogen-like compounds that could, in theory, create hormonal imbalances that affect ovulation and interact with birth control. Genistein, the most potent isoflavone, is found in legumes, and so soy foods, peas, peanuts, chick peas, and fava beans have been thought to influence fertility. Wild yams (not to be confused with sweet potato yams) contain the isoflavone, diosgenin, but it has a very weak effect compared to the body’s own reproductive hormones. At this point, the potential health benefits and risks of the various isoflavones are under investigation, but there is no current data to suggest that normal intakes are likely to cause hormonal imbalances. (more…)

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Sarah

Maya Abdominal Therapy Helps Women Gain Better Overall Health

Women who partake in activities that involve repeated jarring or bouncing such as running, tennis, or high-impact aerobics may be putting themselves at risk for worsened symptoms of pre menstrual syndrome, or even infertility. When a woman’s body experiences whiplash or sudden jerking, the uterus can swing out of alignment. While often unnoticed or overlooked, this misalignment may just be the cause of female woes and discomforts. Thankfully, there is a technique that offers a natural and holistic remedy to assist in a variety of gynecological issues in women.

In the early 1990s, Brazilian native Dr. Rosita Arvigo developed the Arvigo Technique of Maya Abdominal Therapy. After ten years of apprenticing with Don Elijio Panti, an internationally acclaimed Mayan healer and shaman, Arvigo created her unique style of healing massage to readjust the position of the uterus and relax other abdominal organs.

Arvigo’s late mentor and teacher used to say, “If a woman’s uterus is out of balance, so is she.” Arvigo took these words of wisdom and added them to her decades of training in holistic modalities, and founded a system that has helped women all over the world. (more…)

Posted on April 28, 2023 by Jill

CDC Reports Unmarried Couples Having More Children Than Ever

The CDC reports that unmarried women living with partners having more babies than ever.

Between 2003 and 2024, 27 percent of births were to unmarried couples. This increase is triple from 1985, researchers from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention found.

“It’s thought that in births outside of marriage, one parent isn’t present. But our data is showing that a large proportion do have two parents, even though [they’re] not formally married,” said report author Gladys Martinez to Healthday, a demographer in the CDC’s Division of Vital Statistics.

In addition, not only are many older women giving birth, but many also are having more then one child, Martinez said.

The report showed there is actually an increase in the number of older women having more than one child. Women who tend to delay childbirth have usually received a secondary education.

Nearly 60 percent of women who did not complete high school had their first child as a teenager, according to Healthday, compared with only 4 percent of women with a college degree.

The CDC’s data was from over 22,000 interviews done between 2006 and 2024 with men and women aged 15 to 44. The data was compared with similar data from 2002.

“It’s surprising that so many unmarried couples are having children,” Dr. Christine Mullin, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Manhasset, N.Y., told Healthday. She also noted women typically delay giving birth for education and career reasons.

The report also included:

  • Forty-three percent of women aged 15 to 44 had never had a baby.
  • Among men aged 15 to 44, 45 percent had fathered a child.
  • The average age at which women had their first child was 23; for men it was 25.
  • Almost 40 percent of women whose first birth occurred between the ages of 35 and 44 had at least two children; it was 26 percent in 1995.
  • Women between the ages of 40 and 44 had an average of 2.1 children.

Also Read:
Yoga for Babies
Pregnant Women Don’t Exercise Enough
Number of Children with Eating Disorders on the Rise

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Kristina

The Doctors Dish About Babies, Conception and Contraception

The Doctors are at it again. They are promising another episode loaded with revitalizing tips. Monday’s episode is titled, “Shrink A Dress Size, Increase Your Fertility & Get Sexier Skin!”

The doctors are asking viewers to give them an hour to transform them into a new person. The cast will be giving tips about how to go down a dress size and the latest ways to better your health and body.

Much of the episode will be devoted to babies, conception, and contraception. The doctors will discuss Beyonce and Jay-Z’s parenting style of their infant, Blue Ivy. Specifically, the cast will discuss if they think the new parents are too protective.

While the topic is on babies, the topic of a controversial training method meant to give babies super strength will be covered. Hear what the docs have to say about these “super babies.”

(more…)

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Lacy

Vigorous Exercise May Hurt Your Chances of Getting Pregnant

We know that exercise is absolutely essential to having a healthy body and the benefits of regular exercise are numerous. A recent study has shown that exercise can even help the impact of fertility functions in women of all shapes and body types.

Moderate levels of physical activity for any length of time appeared to give a decrease in the amount of time it takes to conceive for women. The study, conducted by researcher Lauren A. Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, looked at 3,000 different women that were actively trying to conceive with no outside fertility help or treatments. Each woman’s activity level was tracked through one self-answered questionnaire that was completed after the study began. The key to achieving the improved conception time was to keep the activity levels moderate.

When engaging in five or more hours of vigorous exercise per week, women of a healthy weight dropped their likelihood to get pregnant by 42 percent when compared to women that did no exercise. With women of a normal weight, the more vigorous the exercise, the lower the chance for conception was. “We were surprised to find that even relatively small amounts of vigorous activity seemed to impact fertility,” Wise said. Vigorous exercise didn’t delay conception for women that were obese or overweight though.

“The take-home message for overweight and obese women is that any exercise seems better than none. Being overweight is a risk factor for infertility, and these findings suggest that exercise may improve fertility in these women,” said Wise. (more…)

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Descygna

Alison Sweeney Introduces The Mommy Diet

Moms are a special breed. They do it all, and then some more, and rarely complain and hardly ever ask for anything in return. What happens in all of this psuedo-superwoman-esque-ness is that they give up a lot of themselves in order to care for a household, the children in it, the spouse, and the hundred other people and things that demand their attention each day.

Alison Sweeney is one of those moms. She has two kids, two jobs, an adoring husband, and, let’s be honest, what from the outside appears to be a pretty fabulous life. But brass tacks, she’s still a mom trying to do everything she can to maintain and manage. So, she wrote The Mommy Diet.

The book is supposed to help all these superwomen do it all AND do some for themselves, too. It’s all about getting fit and staying that way before, during and after pregnancy… even if it’s several years after.

I had a chance to speak with Alison about her new book, during a break from Biggest Loser 10 finale rehearsals. She’s excited about the book, and should be, because there’s a lot of information in there women… moms… need to hear.

(more…)

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Natalie K