Rural and remote infertility

I've been mulling over issues of conception, pre-conception care and pregnancy care recently, looking at my very bouncing baby son and thinking how different the whole experience has been this time around.

When he was conceived, we were living in a major regional centre - where we had also received our years of infertility treatment which led to the conception of our first child. I started to wonder: how do women in remote and rural areas access infertility treatment? How do they manage the months of injections, the critical timing of sperm collection, treatment and use. Could the complimentary methods I have tried be of more use to them? Less invasive? Easier to manage themselves?

This is an issue I will be looking into further!

Morning sickness

Some of my last few posts were on the topic of morning sickness - something I unfortunately suffered quite badly.  A good friend recently went to a public lecture by renowned health researcher and activist Phillip Day.  Apparently he commented that morning sickness was often related to dehydration.

I was interested to hear that.  I have been struggling with hydration in these first few months of breastfeeding.  A checkup with my naturopath 4 weeks after my son was born showed I was suffering dehydration quite badly.  I have been trying to drink a lot more filtered water since then and am becoming much more aware of my hydration levels.  By that I mean I am better at reading the signs and symptoms of dehydration.  Better at listening to my body.

I have noticed that when I increase my water intake, the baby is much more satisfied with his feeds.  A great reason to stay motivated to drink and drink and drink!  I have also felt less hungry, and I notice I get a slight headache if I do not drink while he is feeding.  

I recently bought a nice SIGG water bottle which holds just under half a litre.  If I drink one for every feed at 3 hourly feeds its keeping my fluid intake at a good level.

Maybe if you are suffering morning sickness, try drinking more water and see if it helps!  My naturopath suggested adding a tiny pinch of celtic sea salt to the water to help its absorption at a cellular level.  Glad I have the Sigg bottle though because I remember hearing somewhere that salt increases the absorption of aluminium and the glass lining on the Sigg bottle will prevent this. 

New post, new baby

Well, its been a while since I posted to my blog - how time flies!  I have had a bit of a break to have a baby (a very healthy bouncing baby boy) who is thriving.  He is now 3 months old.  There is nothing like the joy of a new baby and we are grateful and thankful for his health and beautiful nature.

7 years ago I was told I had a less than 2% chance of conceiving a child naturally and years of infertility treatment eventually resulted in our first beautiful boy.  It was after his birth that I met a wonderful lady called Chris who introduced me to many of the issues about chemical exposure and related health issues.  At first I was shocked into action -for the sake of our only child who was so precious to us and had cost so much in every way to bring into the world.

We never expected that the changes we brought into our house to reduce our exposure to potentially harmful chemicals would lead to a spontaneous pregnancy and give us a second child in our 40's.  Both of our children are precious gifts and it is a joy to continue to care for them and for ourselves by finding safer alternatives to protect our health.

There is so much to post on infertility, on our general health and chemical exposure.  I hope there are lots of families out there on similar journeys but perhaps I can inspire you by telling some of our story too.

If I can help you with any information, in any way, please contact me at the Health Highway.