A Guest Blog from Plumb Blossom – “common themes and how therapies can help you conceive.”

What effect does stress have on the reproductive system?

Not falling pregnant is stressful, and the body doesn’t differentiate between the emotional baby-making stress from adrenalin fuelled ‘chased by a sabre tooth tiger’ stress, it still causes the same physiological response. We know that in times of stress the reproductive organs aren’t considered to be vital and resources will be diverted to the more essential organs.

You will probably have been told by friends to ‘just relax and it will happen’, but each month when your period arrives you may feel an all consuming grief or fear that your longed for pregnancy will never happen.

If we can acknowledge some of the buried emotions and look at how you can support your nervous system with the appropriate exercise, rest and nourishment for your particular constitution then that will be one less stressor for your body to deal with.

You are not alone

After working with couples who are trying to conceive for nearly 20 years I have found some common themes that tend to arise.

It is not uncommon for your sex life to morph from spontaneous love making to timed, functional baby-making sex. This can put your relationship under strain, particularly if you feel a volcanic rage inside you when your partner has been out for after-work drinks, or has forgotten to eat his Brazil nuts.

You may also start to pull away from your friends as one by one they breezily announce their pregnancy. All of this can contribute to you becoming disconnected from your partner or disassociated from your own body.

How therapy can help you conceive

Together, and without judgment we will look at how your external environment may be having an effect on your biology, how you can keep a loving connection with your partner, how you can reconnect to the parts of yourself that you may have lost faith in, how you can apply self care in-between therapy sessions and how to build your resilience so you have enough resources for the journey ahead; to sustain a 9 month pregnancy, the 3 months of the fourth trimester and the years of the post-natal period.

Enhancing your fertility requires a multi-faceted approach and these body-mind therapies are here for anyone who wants to improve their physical, psychological or emotional health, or to improve their general vitality so they can cultivate their baby while they are in the best possible health.

Although there are common issues that can arise along the journey to parenthood each couple brings their own specific story and so every treatment will be unique to each couple.

Plumb Blossom Clinic provides Acupuncture, CranioSacral Therapy and Physical Therapy. Alison will be at Wickford’s first Fertility Fayre on Saturday 27 October 2018.