Increasing fertility the natural way

by Susun Weed | Jun 23, 2010 | Columns, Featured, Wise Woman Ways | 0 comments

Hi Susun,
Do you have any tips on how to increase fertility – are there supplements that can help? I’ve heard of using red clover tincture – is that really effective? I really don’t want to go on any hormone treatments or do in vitro. I’m hoping there are dietary and lifestyle changes I can make to improve my health and ability to conceive and carry a child to term. Deepest thanks.

Susun’s response:
First, before you start taking everything possible to help you conceive, go read the page on the Six Steps of Healing.

So, start with Step 0: Do Nothing. In your case, that means sleep in the total dark. Light at night is the greatest disruptor of regular menses. You can read more about Lunaception on page 5 in New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way.

It is important to have a time limit for each step. 3-6 months is a reasonable time to work with step 0.

Step 1: Collect Information

Is your husband’s sperm strong? How long does it usually take to get pregnant after stopping birth control pills? Is it necessary to have a period in order to get pregnant? (NO, it is not!! I met a woman who conceived three years after her last menstruation!!) (What other questions do you need to know about?) And gather wisdom. What does you body tell you? What does your intuition say?

You can do step 1 while you are doing step 0.

Step 2: Engage the Energy

In Australia the aboriginal people believe that one must pray to the spirit of the baby to come before intercourse will cause pregnancy. It is important for you to believe that you can do this. Engage the energy that you want to manifest. Don’t direct it, engage it, invite it, seduce it.

You can do step 2 while you do steps 0 and 1. You can do many forms of step 2: prayer, visualization, affirmation, energy work, reiki, etc. As with step 0, 3-6 months is a good time frame for this step.

Step 3: Nourish and Tonify

Here is where drinking red clover infusion (not tincture) helps. And taking chasteberry tincture. Get your vitamins from food. Nourish yourself and your sweetheart with whole grains, lentils and beans, cooked fruits and vegetable soups, organic meats and cheeses, nuts and olives. Avoid supplements; they are drugs and may harm the fetus. (Women who take 10,000 units of vitamin A a day are seven time more likely to have a deformed baby, oh my.)

You can include step 3 with steps 0, 1, and 2. They all work together.

The last three steps are dangerous and are best left until after you have decided that the above steps have not worked.
Step 4. Stimulate and sedate (dong quai, wheat gern oil)
Step 5. Take drugs (evening primrose oil, vitamin E)
Step 6. Break and enter (invasive tests)

Green blessings, Susun Weed

Author

Susun Weed

Susun S. Weed has no official diplomas of any kind; she left high school in her junior year to pursue studies in mathematics and artificial intelligence at UCLA and she left college in her junior year to pursue life.

Susun began studying herbal medicine in 1965 when she was living in Manhattan while pregnant with her daughter, Justine Adelaide Swede.

She wrote her first book -- Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (now in its 30th printing) -- in 1985 and published it as the first title of Ash Tree Publishing in 1986.

It was followed by Healing Wise (1989), New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way (1992 and revised in 2002), Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (1996), Down There: Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way (2011), Abundantly Well - Seven Medicines (2019).

In addition to her writing, Ms Weed trains apprentices, oversees the work of more than 300 correspondence course students, coordinates the activities of the Wise Woman Center, and is a High Priestess of Dianic Wicca, a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and a Peace Elder.

Susun Weed is a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women's Studies, peer- reviewed journals, and popular magazines, including a regular column in Sagewoman.

Her worldwide teaching schedule encompasses herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, ecoherbalism, nutrition, and women's health issues and her venues include medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers, as well as many conferences.

Susun appears on many television and radio shows, including National Public Radio and NBC News.
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