ancient fertility wisdom

I recently heard the story of how the celebrity Iman who was married to David Bowie struggled to conceive.  In a bid to speed things along Iman consulted the elder women in her family and they advised her to carry a baby around for a day which is an ancient African fertility ritual.  Iman carried Christie Brinkley’s then 14 month old baby and she reportedly conceived suddenly afterwards. Reflecting on this story and many of my clients who are wanting to get pregnant, it got me thinking, many years ago we would have all been living in larger groups / communities and would’ve been surrounded by children. We’d have been used to holding them, changing them and babies being a major part of our lives.  Nowadays many women are living great distances from their families and almost all have demanding careers/jobs.

Many of my clients struggling to conceive also tell me that they often avoid spending time with their friends who have babies because it feels so emotionally difficult to be around them.  I can completely understand how difficult it can feel when you are constantly reminded of what you desperately want but don’t have.  But I’m wondering if that very avoidance of being in the presence of friends children might actually be hindering them from conceiving.  A friend of mine when pregnant who was over her due date actually went into labour after holding a new born baby for a few hours and she was convinced that holding the new born was what triggered her labor to start. The hormone oxytocin is the hormone of love, labor and lactation and was undoubtedly released in my friend as she held the baby.  Oxytocin isn’t the only hormone of love. As you hold or cuddle a baby, you get a rush of dopamine, the main provider of pleasure in the brain.  Could this actually be hormone balancing for women……?

So next time you find yourself making an excuse to miss your friends babies 1st birthday party try and put your feelings to one side, enjoy the moment, cuddle away and it may just have a hormone balancing affect on you too!