How to increase chances of a successful pregnancy

[SoFullofHope]

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[Throwaway_panther]

I know there's a lot we think we can control for implantation that ultimately is beyond us, but --

I do know pineapple core is supposedly able to help natural conceptions as well. I know being healthy in the first place is a big factor.

[SoFullofHope]

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[Throwaway_panther]

Dear Throwaway_panther,

Thank you ever so much!!

I am endlessly sorry for your losses; it must be absolutely killing every time :''-(
I'll keep my fingers crossed that your DD will get a little brother very, very soon xx

Thank you, I really appreciate it! This last loss really gutted me for many reasons, so I'm hoping all my dedication gets me a blue-tinged rainbow ;)

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

Please don't start taking a bunch of stuff. Trust me on this, I see people all. the. time. who are taking these things and inexplicably not getting pregnant. The FIRST thing I do is have them stop taking them.

The human body knows how to implant a baby. The stuff that isn't actively harmful is useless. All they do is thin your blood a little (and that can actualy be a BAD thing because having your blood be too thin as a baby is burrowing into your uterus, is just as bad if not worse.)

Please just follow the PCOS-type diet that I think I posted for you. It's very healthy and beneficial for fertility (follow the variation for swayers who are going HT) OR, if you prefer you could follow something like South Beach Diet, the Zone, Perfect Health diet - a diet with healthy carbs, not too many, good protein and healthy fats in it.

Melatonin - I only recommend this for HT ladies doing a frozen transfer. It has been proven to cause developmental delays in babies whose mothers took it during pregnancy, and since it is needed in early pregnancy, you cannot just stop taking it, you have to wean off, and so this means you WILL be taking it while pregnant and that is too risky to me.

DHEA ONLY for people who have had their DHEA levels tested and found that they are low. If you take it when you don't need it, it can mess up your cycle and harm your eggs.

Coq10 is fine, if you want to take it. I was using it for a while but stopped because it's $$$$ and did not seem to be helping anyone at all. 400-600 mg a day (less is fine too) and then wean off gradually at BFP by spacing doses till down to one per week, then drop.

The ice cream is simply the dairy fat in it. Ice cream is not your best bet, just have some full fat milk or yogurt instead, loading up on sugar is not great for egg quality. It's fine in moderation but there are better options.

Do you even have any evidence there is a problem with your lining? Why would you take RRLT and lady's mantle?? Lining is something tons of people worry over but unless you are anorexic or on high dose fertility medication your lining is almost certainly fine and all these herbs have side effects that we don't fully know about.

You cannot control when your embryo implants and I think you should try to erase that from your brain since a healthy baby will implant perfectly fine with absolutely no help on your part. There are 8 billion humans on earth and 99.99% of their mothers never gave a single thought to when their embryo implanted. This is stress for absolutely no reason.

If you would like to eat a spicy dinner or some pineapple and avocado and nuts that is fine. But please be REASONABLE about this. It is NOT NECESSARY and I have seen too many people take this way, way too far, using supplementary, medicinal doses of these things. Please don't do that.

[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

I totally and completely understand the worries (I had a baby at 39 and at 42!) but the stuff they say about our fertility plummeting are NOT TRUE for the vast majority of people. You just had a baby a short time ago and you are very likely equally fertile or only slightly less fertile than you were then. The data is skewed by the number of people who have legitimate fertility issues that increase with age but you do not even know this is you!!! We are having people getting pregnant until about 43/44 and you still have plenty of time for this to happen for you.

But we need to be smart about it. What we want to avoid is what I've seen happen so many times (and it's heartbreaking) where people think they need to fix a problem that doesn't even exist, start off taking gobs of herbs and supplements with side effects that we honestly DO NOT KNOW. They aren't harmless, they affect cycles and may even prohibit conception for people or even cause or contribute to miscarriage. And people lose precious months or even years with their cycle gone crazy or suffering losses that did not need to happen. So all I'm saying is, please let's skip that step and just do the things that are going to help you get and stay pregnant!

Full fat dairy, folate, prenatal or multivitamin (if you want to take that, remember it may sway blue), coq10 if you want to take it - skip the rest! :)

[atomic sagebrush]

Okay, just to prove me wrong, it is working again now ;-P

We moved to a different server and that created a few wrinkles we needed to iron out. :)

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

Does that make sense to you, though? Do you ever see anyone eating oranges and gaining massive amounts of weight vs. someone eating glucose or sucrose? It's one of those things that is going to come and go like the wind. The warnings against "fructose" are in the form of high fructose corn syrup (a cheap sweetener that is in scads of foods in the US anyway, like soda pop) or people drinking gallons of juice a day (much of which is also sweetened with HFCS in addition to the natural fruit sugars and is devoid of the fiber that slows down the rise in blood sugar) and not the eating of fresh fruit which all sensible people everywhere agree are good for you.

PLEASE EAT FRUIT for the PCOS Diet. You will not be able to keep weight on without it. It will not be a massive amount but it is super handy for keeping weight on.

Totally fine not to skip prenatals, follow your heart on that. You could also take them 3x a week instead. I do hope it's obvious that I would not be making recommendations that I had not fully investigated and believe to be sound. Many government science organizations around the world do not recommend prenatals for healthy women eating a well-rounded diet even DURING pregnancy let alone before and the only nutrient ever proven to prevent birth defects or other health issues with a baby when taken prior to pregnancy is folic acid or folate (which we already take.) Just want to be clear on that - I would never compromise the health and well being of any child for swaying.

[SoFullofHope]

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[squigglepink]

Why are prenatals a no no?

[SoFullofHope]

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[squigglepink]

I see..
How about Pregnecare before conception? Only started them 3 weeks ago. Id like to take something other than FA

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

No, I know, I understand that (and I did the exact same when I swayed for my 4th boy, I was too concerned about a healthy baby to give it up) just that when people phrase it like that I always like to explain that I'd not suggest it if I hadn't done the research in those years since he was born and I am convinced that we may be causing more harm than good by these massive doses of things that are in some prenatals.

[atomic sagebrush]

I see..
How about Pregnecare before conception? Only started them 3 weeks ago. Id like to take something other than FA

Well, for starters they probably sway blue, but I don't think that's what you are asking me.

We are all part of the "Great Vitamin Experiment". We evolved in a world where we got nutrition from the foods we ate, it is what our bodies are designed to do, we have a healthier diet than at any time in human history, and it has really not been studied as to whether we are even benefitting from those nutrients or if they may be harmful. This is especially true of megadoses of things and when we are pregnant, it's not just our own bodies but our baby's bodies that are getting loaded up with nutrients that they may not need. Only folic acid (or folate, which is better) has ever been proven to prevent birth defects taken before pregnancy (let alone during) and even during pregnancy they are not shown to help Do women really need all those prenatal vitamins? - CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/prenatal-vitamins-study-questions-effectiveness/) (with exception of folic, iron, Vit. D and Iodine and the last 3 are only for those who are truly deficient in them)

I am not a fan of Pregnacare. It has absolutely massive doses of many of the B Vitamins. These have delayed and even stopped ovulation for people and made LP get really short. Considering that at the same time prenatals came into wide usage, autism and food allergies have both exploded exponentially it makes me very nervous to see you guys taking massive dose prenatals.

I'd suggest good ol' trusty orange Women's One a Day, I take it daily, did for my last 3 pregnancies and I really, really believe in it! It's just a good formula and it's affordable too.

If you like to compromise between vitamins and swaying, I'd take them 3x a week instead of daily. That way you're still giving your body a little boost without having them every day. I use this for lots of people who have been swaying as long as you have, Squiggle. :)

[atomic sagebrush]

I see..
How about Pregnecare before conception? Only started them 3 weeks ago. Id like to take something other than FA

Well, for starters they probably sway blue, but I don't think that's what you are asking me.

We are all part of the "Great Vitamin Experiment". We evolved in a world where we got nutrition from the foods we ate, it is what our bodies are designed to do, we have a healthier diet than at any time in human history, and it has really not been studied as to whether we are even benefitting from those nutrients or if they may be harmful. This is especially true of megadoses of things and when we are pregnant, it's not just our own bodies but our baby's bodies that are getting loaded up with nutrients that they may not need. Only folic acid (or folate, which is better) has ever been proven to prevent birth defects taken before pregnancy (let alone during) and even during pregnancy they are not shown to help Do women really need all those prenatal vitamins? - CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/prenatal-vitamins-study-questions-effectiveness/) (with exception of folic, iron, Vit. D and Iodine and the last 3 are only for those who are truly deficient in them)

I am not a fan of Pregnacare. It has absolutely massive doses of many of the B Vitamins. These have delayed and even stopped ovulation for people and made LP get really short. Considering that at the same time prenatals came into wide usage, autism and food allergies have both exploded exponentially it makes me very nervous to see you guys taking massive dose prenatals.

I'd suggest good ol' trusty orange Women's One a Day, I take it daily, did for my last 3 pregnancies and I really, really believe in it! It's just a good formula and it's affordable too.

If you like to compromise between vitamins and swaying, I'd take them 3x a week instead of daily. That way you're still giving your body a little boost without having them every day. I use this for lots of people who have been swaying as long as you have, Squiggle. :)

[atomic sagebrush]

I see..
How about Pregnecare before conception? Only started them 3 weeks ago. Id like to take something other than FA

Well, for starters they probably sway blue, but I don't think that's what you are asking me.

We are all part of the "Great Vitamin Experiment". We evolved in a world where we got nutrition from the foods we ate, it is what our bodies are designed to do, we have a healthier diet than at any time in human history, and it has really not been studied as to whether we are even benefitting from those nutrients or if they may be harmful. This is especially true of megadoses of things and when we are pregnant, it's not just our own bodies but our baby's bodies that are getting loaded up with nutrients that they may not need. Only folic acid (or folate, which is better) has ever been proven to prevent birth defects taken before pregnancy (let alone during) and even during pregnancy they are not shown to help Do women really need all those prenatal vitamins? - CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/prenatal-vitamins-study-questions-effectiveness/) (with exception of folic, iron, Vit. D and Iodine and the last 3 are only for those who are truly deficient in them)

I am not a fan of Pregnacare. It has absolutely massive doses of many of the B Vitamins. These have delayed and even stopped ovulation for people and made LP get really short. Considering that at the same time prenatals came into wide usage, autism and food allergies have both exploded exponentially it makes me very nervous to see you guys taking massive dose prenatals.

I'd suggest good ol' trusty orange Women's One a Day, I take it daily, did for my last 3 pregnancies and I really, really believe in it! It's just a good formula and it's affordable too.

If you like to compromise between vitamins and swaying, I'd take them 3x a week instead of daily. That way you're still giving your body a little boost without having them every day. I use this for lots of people who have been swaying as long as you have, Squiggle. :)

[squigglepink]

Hmmm, i wonder if they are messing with my cycle this month - as you mentioned they shorten LP - i started spotting on CD21 and full flow CD23 - never in my life has this happened, that's very early for me.. i started taking them 2 pills short of a month ago.. dont know if they could have done anything in that time.

Is the orange Women's One a Day a muliti-vitamin? (Dont think we get them in UK)
I didnt take prenatals for any of my pregnancies. This is just me trying to give myself a 'boost'! I will keep up with the folate.. I probably should take something with iron, considering my cylcles and the on and off spotting/bleeding and my iron levels are always low in a pregnancy.

Interesting article, thank you.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes absolutely they can act that fast!! I'd wean off of them and see if it helps, but please understand it's not a miracle cure, it can take time for your cycle to repair itself.

Yes the One a Day is a multivitamin, you can get them in the UK but maybe have to order? Not sure. Anything is fine provided it is just 100% DRV of everything but Vit. D (and that is ok to have up to 1000 IU, 250% DRV I believe)

Or, if you want to we could forgo all that stuff and simply supplement with the things that are typically in short supply on LE Diet:

Iodine 150 IU daily unless you have thyroid issues, in that case discuss with doc before starting.

Iron 18-60 mg (avoid the kind that come in hundreds of mg, they are not well absorbed and are murder on your stomach) daily for 2 weeks and then reduce to 3x a week

Zinc 8-15 mg 3x a week

Lowest dose Vit. D you can find 2x a week

Lowest dose B12 you can find 1x a week.

[squigglepink]

You the best, thanks!