We are happy to share with you a guest blog post from one of our customers who has turned her pain into creating a Fertility Wellness Workshop in NYC this coming Saturday. So if you are live in the area then please be sure to check out the details. Read her story below, and find more information about the workshop at www.babystepstomotherhood.com
Jessica’s Story
After trying to have a baby on our own for 2 years with no luck, my husband and I went to see a specialist. I was shocked and saddened to learn that our best chance, really our only chance, of creating a family was to go straight to IVF because of our diagnosis, male factor infertility. It took me a couple of months to warm up to the idea, but once I was in the cycle, the stress of the “unknown” began to wane and I could imagine the possibility of motherhood. We were lucky and fortunate to become pregnant with our first IVF cycle. However, at 12+ weeks we lost our daughter, who we nicknamed Sprout. For the next 3 years we went through 4 more IVFs and one more pregnancy loss. At some point I began to retreat inward and feel as if the world was conspiring against me. Everyone of my friends from childhood were mothers, even those that didn’t want to have children ended up deciding and getting pregnant with ease. Friends I had made in online or in-person infertility support groups came and went and crossed over to motherhood. Here I stood with no answers, no baby, only lists of questions for the 8 doctors I ended up seeking out for their “professional” advice. The conclusion? We just had bad luck.
The last IVF transfer we did was August 2010. I would say that sometime in the Spring of 2010 I turned a corner. Not an abrupt corner, more like a slight arch. Things were changing inside of me and my perspective on life, my life, my marriage, friendships and dreams of how I would create a family began to shift. When the August cycle failed I was devastated, but I didn’t hit rock-bottom. I knew that darkness well, but the place I found myself in looked and felt different. I began to seek out alternative methods to help me navigate through the stress and disappointments of the many failed cycles. I practiced more yoga and found myself feeling more calm and centered. A friend told me about Circle + Bloom meditation CDs and we liked them so much that we told everyone in our infertility support group. My diet changed and I began to really pay attention to the food that gave me more energy and helped me lose the weight I had gained while cycling. Slowly but surely, like a young seedling about to break through the crust of the earth, I found myself feeling more human, more joyful, fulfilled and calm more so than I had in the previous 3-5 years. The anxiety and sadness was still there. The disappointment and frustration still had a place at the inner-table of counsel, but they all had less of a roll. Something else was fueling me, driving me and keeping me steady. I had reached out of my isolating shell and was delighted to see who and what was available to me.
Through this out-reach and discovery, I found a community of alternative practitioners that offered helpful tips, tools and information that have helped to guide and support me while on this journey to motherhood. I found a profound need for this kind of information and support in the infertility community and I am passionate and dedicated to providing and this information to as many women as possible. I came up with a Fertility Wellness Workshop idea to provide women with such information. I gathered some of NYCs best alternative practitioners that have thriving practices in the community. They are knowledgeable, compassionate and strong, empowered advocates for the well-being and health of those of us on this path. The practitioner specialties that will be presented at the event are: Acupuncture and Reproductive Health, Fertility Yoga, Reiki Healing, Mind/Body Meditation and Visualization and Fertility Nutrition. I felt that bringing together a group of practitioners at one time would provide the participants with enough information about each category of health and wellness that they would leave the workshop with helpful tips and tools that they can apply to their lives to help them better navigate through the stress of fertility treatments.
The event will be held at Om Yoga Factory in NYC on Saturday, June 18th from 9:45-3pm. We will have gift bags, nutritious snacks, an opportunity to connect with other like-minded women and each guest will have a chance to win free services, CDs from Circle + Bloom, jewelry and a signed copy of “Making Babies” by Jill Blakeway and Dr. Sami David.
I hope to not only offer support to other women facing infertility, but I also hope to be an inspiration for those on this journey. The path to motherhood is not how I had imagined, but the strength, resilience and life-long friendships I have found have proven to aid myself and others in weathering this storm. I assure you that this storm will pass, I can’t say when, but it will. We may not have the answers to why we are faced with this struggle, but I assure you, we are all in this together and no one should ever feel alone.
For more information on the event or my story, please visit my blog: www.babystepstomotherhood.com
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