Enhancing Fertility Naturally: Holistic Therapies for a Successful Pregnancy by Nicky Wesson Purchase at:  Amazon.com  Paperback - 191 pages (April 1, 1999) Inner Traditions Intl Ltd ISBN: 0892818328

Description from Amazon.com

Book Description 

A guide to safe and inexpensive natural alternatives to often hazardous and extremely expensive conventional medical treatments for infertility.

Provides guidelines for using alternative therapies, diet, exercise, and relaxation techniques.

Explores acupuncture, reflexology, homeopathy, cranial osteopathy, aromatherapy, and herbalism.

Includes the personal stories of couples who have successfully conceived using these methods.

Enhancing Fertility Naturally outlines ways in which you can improve your fertility through alternative therapies, diet, exercise, and relaxation techniques and avoid some of the hazards associated with conventional treatments. It discusses the most common causes of infertility and explains how to determine which therapy is most appropriate for you. In vitro fertilization, conventional medicine's most prescribed remedy for infertility problems, is expensive, dangerous, and has a success rate of only 14 percent, yet few of the one in six couples that experience infertility are aware of the effectiveness and safety provided by the wide range of alternative treatments.

Thoroughly researched and packed full of invaluable advice and tips, the book explores such therapies as acupuncture, reflexology, homeopathy, cranial osteopathy, aromatherapy, and herbalism. The author includes case histories for each of the therapies discussed, showing how the therapies helped couples overcome both primary and secondary infertility in order to have the baby they longed for.

The author

Nicky Wesson , November 7, 1999 
Natural conception is possible with alternative medicine This book is for couples who feel uneasy about medically assisted conception - or who have found it unsatisfactory. It is comprehensively illustrated with the case histories of people who tried alternative therapies after long periods of infertility and had the baby they wanted as a result. The book covers the drawbacks of assisted conception and explores the ways in which you can help yourselves. There are guidelines on healthy eating and suggestions as to when vitamin supplementation may be useful. It also examines environmental and work hazards and looks at the effects of stress on fertility. The book looks at the philosophies behind alternative therapies such as acupuncture, aromatherapy, cranial osteopathy, healing, herbal medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, reflexology and relaxation techniques. This information will help you decide which therapy might suit you and there is further advice on how to find a practitioner. My experience of running an infertility support group has shown me that complementary therapies can have impressive results in improving the quality of couples lives, reducing stress and helping them to become parents.

About the Author 

Nicky Wesson is a member of the Association for the Improvement in Maternity Services, a National Childbirth Trust teacher, and the author of Natural Mothering. She lives in England.

Description from BarnesandNoble.com

From the Publisher

Enhancing Fertility Naturally outlines ways in which you can improve your fertility through alternative therapies, diet, exercise, and relaxation techniques and avoid some of the hazards associated with conventional treatments. It discusses the most common causes of infertility and explains how to determine which therapy is most appropriate for you. In vitro fertilization, conventional medicine's most prescribed remedy for infertility problems, is expensive, dangerous, and has a success rate of only 14 percent, yet few of the one in six couples that experience infertility are aware of the effectiveness and safety provided by the wide range of alternative treatments.

From Library Journal

Wesson (Natural Mothering, 1997) uses anonymous personal narratives to illustrate alternative medical treatment for infertility. The narratives are striking, but the evidence supporting them is uneven at best. To her credit, Wesson admits this; discussing the adverse effects of biomedical treatment, she states: "The lack of research [in alternative treatment] means there may be drawbacks too." More troubling is Wesson's failure to support her tone of authority. Medical citations are scattered throughout the text, but numerous extremely strong statements (e.g., that there is a "higher incidence of spina bifida" in IVF babies) are left completely unreferenced, perhaps with good reason; the source for this particular quote turns out not to be a clinical study but a 1987 letter to the editor of Lancet! Readers are better served by Judith Steinberg Turiel's Beyond Second Opinions: Rethinking Questions About Fertility (LJ 6/15/98), which will assist them in navigating the medical literature for themselves. Not recommended.--Catherine Arnott Smith, Predoctoral Research Fellow, Ctr. for Biomedical Informatics, Univ. of Pittsburgh Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: The Background of infertility

• Causes of male infertility
• Causes of female infertility
• Unexplained infertility

2: The Emotional Effects

3: Medical and Surgical Fertility Treatments

• Drugs
• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
• Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT)
• Superovulation with Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

4: Coping Strategies

5: Improving Your Chances of Natural Conception

• Diet
• Guidelines for healthy eating
• Vitamins and Minerals
• Weight
• Drugs
• Smoking
• Chemicals (estrogens and toxins)
• Everyday considerations
• Ovulation detection

6: Alternative Therapies

• Why try alternatives?
• Choosing a therapy and finding a therapist
• Acupuncture
• Aromatherapy
• Cranial osteopathy
• Healing
• Herbal medicine
• Chinese herbal medicine
• Homeopathy
• Reflexology
• Relaxation

7: Becoming Pregnant

References

Further Reading

Useful Addresses

Glossary

Index