Hope for Waiting Arms – Infertility Support Group

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Thank you to Emily from Hope for Waiting Arms for contributing her knowledge and sharing with us about her fertility journey. I happily refer many of my Fertility Tranquility patients to her support group and they love the support and group of women they meet. – Dr. Whitney

My husband and I live in Minesing, we have been married for 7 years and unexplainably “infertile” for 6 of those years. We tried to conceive for a few years with no success, then my extreme impatience led us to quickly pursue adoption. We felt strongly that if we weren’t able to conceive then we would adopt. Our biggest dream was that we would become parents and it was ok with us if we weren’t biological parents. When we were “tested” after our official year of trying, we were told that everything was fine (right) but we felt strongly that we didn’t want to wait any longer without moving forward with the adoption process. If God allowed us to become pregnant, we could always stop the process. Fast forward 6 years and we have never seen two pink lines on a test. The adoption process wasn’t easy but it made me feel like I was able to move our situation forward by filling out some paper work or making a phone call.

Adoption as an Option

Adoption brought us on a whole other emotional rollercoaster but in the end it was so worth it. We now have two beautiful, miracle adopted children that we were able to bring home from birth. They are now 3.5 yrs and 1.5 yrs. We also have a teenage foster daughter that recently joined our family.  We gave up control of building our family a long time ago and we are grateful to receive the children that God brings to us. We have open adoptions with our children and it has opened our eyes to what a beautiful thing it can be when two families come together through their love for a child. There is a mutual gratitude for the gift that we have both received in different ways. We always prayed that through our difficult situation, we would be a blessing to someone else. We now also get to love on our birth families, who have had a broken road lead them to placing their child for adoption.

Supporting Others

I was inspired to start Hope for Waiting Arms to provide encouragement, resources and support to women who are struggling with infertility and the family-building challenges that follow. I found that all of the specialists that we dealt with to be great in their designation but everywhere we turned seemed to be lacking in emotional support. I started to feel sorry for my husband that he was the only person I had to lean on, and that he had to see me cry SO often.

I hope this community helps to fill that need for support. We need each other when we are going through this. We need to surround ourself with people who get it, people who have been there and have persevered to build families.

Blogging as Healing

I found the blog to be a great way to share the resources, our adoption experience and encouraging articles that I found on our path to parenthood. The blog is great but I still felt that there was a need for a more tangible support. I started to meet people that were also struggling in this area and thought that it would be better if we could all be there for each other and not just pass on my own experience.

Our In person support group “Waiting Arms Community” was started November 2017 and is held in Midhurst once a month. It has grown quickly in the last 6 months. We get together and share our experiences, our ups, our downs and everything we are learning along the way.

Fertility Wellness Retreat

This fall we are hosting our first Fertility Wellness Retreat in Muskoka. We have an amazing weekend planned, full of fertility resources, professionals in the naturopathic and counselling industry, a fertility focused menu, workshops,  coping strategies and guests who are sharing stories of hope. Its going to be incredible and there are a few spots left. If you are interested in coming, click here to visit our website for more information.

We are also launching our newest group this fall, Adoption Play Group which will be a place for adoptive families and anyone interested in adoption to share about the process, openness, raising adopted children and anything else that comes up related to adoption.

I hope that in some way Hope for Waiting Arms can support you on your journey to becoming a parent. I’m so sorry that you are here, but I’m glad you found us.

For more about my story, encouragement for you and info about our meet ups go to our website www.hopeforwaitingarms.com

Emily

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Acupuncture improves your fertility

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Acupuncture treatments are one of the biggest reasons women and men struggling to get pregnant come see us at Rooted for our Fertility Tranquility Program. They’ve heard from a friend or read online that acupuncture can help them get pregnant.

It’s true. There are studies to support the use of acupuncture during your fertility journey.

I’ve got patients who’ve only just started trying to conceive and they want to help manage their stress and anxiety during this time. They also want to increase their chances of it happening naturally for them.

I also have couples that come to see me who have started working with a medical fertility clinic. The traditional fertility clinics are great at diagnosing problems and then putting the egg and sperm together and working on timing. What they’re not great at, typically, is egg and sperm quality as well as managing stress, coaching about diet and supplements that will increase their chances of the medical treatments working.

Acupuncture may help in the following ways:

  • relieving stress and anxiety of fertility treatments
  • increasing blood flow to the uterus to help with lining
  • normalizing hormonal function
  • empowering women to know they are doing something. That they are not just waiting for their next period
  • increased success of IVF (invitro-fertilization)

New Hours Available!

We are thrilled to have Dr. Ashley Nelson, ND, join us to expand our acupuncture hours to our patients. She comes to us with a lot of acupuncture experience and a very gentle bedside manner. Click here to book directly with Ashley for acupuncture if you are already a patient of our clinic.

If you aren’t a patient of the clinic yet and would like to know how we can help you with your particular situation, please book a Free Fertility Introduction with Dr. Whitney Young, ND, our natural fertility expert.

How our clinic works

  1. Book your Free Fertility Introduction with Dr. Whitney
  2. Then book your Intake session – either individual or couples with Dr. Whitney
  3. After the intake process you can then start your acupuncture sessions with one of our naturopaths
  4. Please call if you have any questions! 705-792-6717

Wherever you are on your journey to having a baby or another baby, we are here to help.

Dr. Whitney

 

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Recurrent Miscarriages

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When a women loses a pregnancy, it can be devastating.  They want to know why, and want to prevent it from happening again.

Here are a few tests worth doing when miscarriage is a possibility.

1.  Celiac profile – there is a disproportionate number of women who have recurrent miscarriages with latent/undiagnosed celiac disease.  A gluten free diet may be all that’s needed.

2.  Anti thyroid peroxidase antibodies (anti-TPO) – autoimmune thyroid disease can be present without symptoms for years.  There is more to thyroid treatment than meds.

3.  DNA defragmentation of sperm – just because you’re getting pregnant, doesn’t mean that it isn’t him.

4.  MTHFR genetic testing – some people cannot methylate the folic acid that they take in.  Methyl folate is easy to find now.  Taking it ensures more will be appropriately absorbed.

5.  Overall immune testing – ANA, sperm antibodies, inflammatory markers.  Optimizing immune health and managing inflammation is important in prevention.

The naturopathic doctors at Rooted have experience in helping women with recurrent miscarriage.  They will also work with you once you are pregnant again, to help maintain the pregnancy.

Book a free ‘meet the doctor’ appointment to learn more.  Call 705-792-6717 or book online.

 

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Why Oysters Might Not Be a Sexy Food

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When people talk about the aphrodisiac foods, they talk about chocolate and oysters as the two biggest foods to get us in the mood. This may be the case, but you might want your man to avoid oysters and get him going in other ways.

Oysters are one of the foods that accumulates cadmium a toxic heavy metal, which is associated with increased immobile sperm. A study was published in the journal of Environmental Health in January 2011. They found that the presence of lead and cadmium in the reproductive tract of men was associated with increased percentage of immotile sperms. So, there was a correlation between high levels of heavy metals and men’s little swimmers that stopped swimming.

According to the World Health Organization, human exposure to cadmium occurs mainly from consuming contaminated foods, active and passive inhalation of tobacco smoke and inhalation by workers in the metal industry; mining, smelting, refining and fossil fuel combustion.

How can your man reduce his exposure to cadmium?

  • Limit or avoid oysters, scallops, mussels and crustaceans which accumulate cadmium
  • Quit smoking or avoid inhaling it around his friends. The tobacco plant accumulates cadmium in its leaves

Resources:

  1.  Environ Health. 2011 Jan 19;10(1):6. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-10-6. Relationships between heavy metal concentrations in three different body fluids and male reproductive parameters: a pilot study
  2. http://www.who.int/ipcs/features/cadmium.pdf

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Rooted has a new PCOS tea blend

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There are many different hormonal imbalances involved in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome  (PCOS).  As such, different herbal blends work for different types of PCOS patients.

Dr. Whitney and Dr. Kerri show off their new PCOS tea at the Bridal Show.
Dr. Whitney and Dr. Kerri show off their new PCOS tea at the Bridal Show.

Our tea blend is geared to those women with high androgens (high testosterone and high DHEA) which is what often causes the acne and hair growth.

Spearmint tea helps lower the DHEA, the total testosterone and free testosterone.

Green tea helps to increase the sex hormone-binding globulin which helps to mop up the extra testosterone.  Green tea has also been linked to a two-fold increase in fertility.

The studies to reduce the hormones were done over two months so don’t expect to drink just one cup every once in a while to see the changes.  Two cups per day is required for this therapeutic effect.

That said, it’s a tasty tea that can be enjoyed by anybody anytime.

PCOS blend is available at Simply Tea and Chocolate downtown Barrie and at Rooted Naturopathic Clinic

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What you need to know about testing women’s hormones

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When a woman goes to the doctor and says “I think my hormones are all messed up” she may be given a requisition to test her hormones.  When she’s told that her hormones are fine and brings the results to us, we often ask her to do them again.  Here’s why:

  1. The day of your cycle has everything to do with when you go to the lab.  Hormones vary with your cycle and they peak at different times.
  • Day 3 is when you test estrogen
  • Day 21 (or 7 days before your expected period) is when you test progesterone
  • This means that you need two requisitions
  1. TSH (thyroid hormone) can be tested at any time during your cycle.  If it is a repeat test, go at the same time of day as you went last time as the hormone can vary during the day.
  2. FSH (follicular stimulating hormone) should also be tested on Day3.
  3. Androgens, like testosterone and DHEA are tested to determine if PCOS is an issue.  DHEA and Testosterone can be tested at any point in your cycle.  We want to see free testosterone though as bound testosterone isn’t actively causing symptoms.

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