Sami S. David - Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility

O ne in eight couples in the United States has trouble getting or staying pregnantone in three couples in which the woman is over 35 and one in two in which the woman is over 40. And these figures have been on the rise for decades. Right now, more than nine million American women seek treatment for fertility issues every year, and their partners need treatment, too.

If you are reading this book, you are likely one of them. Or maybe youre just planning to get pregnant and want to be as well prepared as you can be. In any case, you are certainly not alone, and you are facing an amazing frontier. Western medicine is standing by, eager to assist you with every technological tool available, spare no expense. Just about everyone else in the world, from your grandmother and your neighbor to your yoga teacher and the celebrity you read about in People, has helpful advice for you: Do it every day. Do it every other day. Douche. Dont douche. Drink chaste tree berry tea. Drink Mountain Dew. And, the classic, Just relax! (Right, no problem.)

You want to do everything you can, but you want to be smart about it. You dont want to rush into expensive treatments with their inherent risks and side effects. You dont want to waste your time any more than you want to waste your money. You dont want to be guided by unproven old wives tales, but you dont want to dismiss something that just might work either. Truth be told, youd try just about anything if it meant having a baby.

This is just the position our patients are in. No matter whether theyve sought out a reproductive endocrinologist and microsurgeon (Sami) or a Chinese medicine practitioner and integrative medicine expert (Jill), they need both optimistic messages (there are simple and effective strategies you can use) and word-to-the-wise advice (dont get drawn into in vitro fertilization, or IVF, too quickly). And whether a patient is 32 (or under) or 42 (or over), together we can help her get pregnant.

Our joint approach is uniquely complementary. We draw on the best of both Eastern and Western medicine, and the lessons learned from forty years of collective experience in guiding our patients (and their approximately four thousand pregnancies). This book brings what we do face-to-face in our offices in New York to women everywhere, who can now benefit from the same careful, individualized attention and personally tailored action plans. Making Babies is a three-month program designed to help any woman get pregnant as naturally as possible.

Infertility medicine today is all about aggressive surgical, pharmacological, and technological intervention. Its a high-stakes, high-pressure world. But making babies is still best as a natural process. So we aim to support a womans ability to bear a child with just enough help to get nature to do its thing. What constitutes just enough varies from person to person, from a simple douche, a course of antibiotics, or the shedding of five or six pounds, to a few months of Chinese herbs, precisely decreased doses of fertility drugs, or acupuncture in conjunction with IVF. Whats always the same is the fact that minimizing harsh intervention is better for the mother, better for the baby, and better for the couple. There are hundreds of thousands of families out there that exist thanks to intensive and aggressive medical interventionand heres to them!but for many women, there is a better way.

The Making Babies program is valuable for all would be parents in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. It has all the answers you need (as well as all the questions you need to ask), whether you are only beginning to wonder what is taking so long, are just stepping into the whirlwind that is fertility medicine, or are already battle-scarred-veteransor even if you have been turned away from advanced treatments, having been told that youll likely never bear children.

If you are trying to get pregnantor are thinking about trying to get pregnantyou will benefit from the Making Babies program. If you have been having unprotected sex for six months but still arent pregnant, you need it. If you are a woman over 35 trying to get pregnant, or if you are trying to get pregnant with a man over 40, you need it, too. Making Babies provides you with a clear path to getting pregnant with as little medical intervention as possible. We estimate that as many as half of the women who use IVF could get pregnant without itif they receive carefully individualized care. We have absolutely nothing against using every trick of technology available to help you get pregnant. Were just against using reproductive technology unnecessarily and unwisely.

So before you make the huge investment (financial and otherwise) in IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), invest three months in the Making Babies program. We know that, like a lot of our patients, you probably feel pressured to make this thing happen. So it is our solemn promise that taking these few months will be well worthwhile.

The Making Babies program is designed to prepare your body for healthy, natural conception. Using strategies that are best for you, you can prime your body to do what comes naturally and identify and overcome common roadblocks that may be getting in the way. Detailed but easy-to-follow instructions show you how to implement lifestyle changes and early-intervention strategies. For many women, this may be all it takes: within ninety days, theyll be pregnant.

Some couples will need to continue with professional help for more intensive intervention. The program will still be a boon, optimally preparing the body for any further fertility treatment, increasing the chances of success as well as the ease with which it is achieved. These couples will enter (or reenter) the technological path to conception with their bodies physically prepared to be most receptive to the appropriate medical intervention(s), their minds open to letting nature and medicine work together without undue stress, and a step-by-step plan to pinpoint preciselythen safely, efficiently, and effectively solveany problems blocking their way to biological parenthood. The Making Babies program expands to support the various ARTs, ensuring the best chances of success.