Victoria Maizes - Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child

Praise for Be Fruitful

For some of us, the road to motherhood is strewn with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In Be Fruitful, Dr. Victoria Maizes has given us a superb, well-researched guide to help transform our obstacles into health- and life-affirming opportunities.

Julia Indichova, author of The Fertile Female: How the Power of Longing for a Child Can Save Your Life and Change the World

Be Fruitful is the new fertility bible for women looking to optimize their health and fertilityinformative, accessible, comprehensive, and easy to reference! Dr. Maizes sage wisdom, feminine intuition, and commitment to service are a part of every chapter. This is a must read!

Camille Preston, PhD, PCC, author of Rewired: How to Work Smarter, Live Better, and Be Purposefully Productive in an Overwired World

Be Fruitful is a must read for any woman currently attempting or planning for a pregnancy. Dr. Maizes is a leading advocate for womens integrative and preventative healthcare, and her book provides practical, proven strategies for improving the chances of becoming pregnant as well as enjoying a successful pregnancy. The importance of pre-pregnancy planning cannot be overstated. As a reproductive endocrinologist, I see daily how the positive influence of an integrative approach to healthcare can benefit patients. This is a book I will ask all of my patients to read.

Carmelo Sgarlata, MD, Reproductive Science Center of San Francisco and former president of the Bay Area Reproductive Endocrinologist Society

Its clear from the very first chapter of this power-packed guide on maximizing fertility that a hands-on clinician, brainy scientist, holistic thinker, and compassionate, thoughtful woman is offering up the very latest and best that integrative medicine has to offer. Be Fruitful is an eminently readable, warm, encouraging, practical book bursting with a wealth of consequential information, backed up by clinical research and epidemiology.

Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, BCD, author of Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal, and creator of the Health Journeys Guided Imagery series

I will recommend this book to my women patients to help them maximize wellness and fertility years before they start trying to have children. This is a must-have book in my integrative medicine medical reference library.

Roberta Lee, MD, author of The Super Stress Solution and Vice Chair, Department of Integrative Medicine, Continuum Center for Health and Healing, Beth Israel Medical Center

Who knew that low-fat milk might lower your fertility, while hypnosis could boost it? I found Dr. Maizes well-researched book to be a treasure trove of this kind of valuable, but rarely discussed, advice. Be Fruitful is the perfect read for anyone seeking a happy pregnancy and a healthy baby.

Daphne Miller, MD, author of The Jungle Effect and Farmacology

I am delighted that Dr. Maizes has written such a useful guide to maximizing fertility. Her book provides women with a myriad of practical suggestions, as well as solutions to issues that many likely discovered through charting their own cycles, and as such, it is an especially excellent companion for those who are already familiar with the Fertility Awareness Method.

Toni Weschler, MPH, Author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility

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For my children, Gabrielle, Aaron, and Zoe

And for their children, and the generations that follow

May they be fruitful and multiply

And may health and happiness be their path

And for all babies everywhere, may they be healthy and happy

By Andrew Weil, MD

I nfluences on human fertility are myriad. They include genetics, age, general health, nutritional and hormonal status, stress, and exposure to environmental toxins. Modern medicine is good at diagnosing the causes of infertility, treating many of them, and sometimes helping infertile couples conceive with expensive, high-tech interventions like in vitro fertilization (IVF). But modern medicine tends to ignore mind/body interactions that affect fertility and has little to say about diet and the environment; also, it is largely unaware of the usefulness of such complementary and alternative medical (CAM) approaches, such as traditional Chinese medical protocols for infertility.

With its broader perspective, integrative medicine is able to assess all of the factors that affect human fertility. Its emphasis on the whole person and on lifestyle gives it a great advantage. As well as suggesting inexpensive, low-tech interventions to increase chances of conception, a thorough integrative medical assessment can also help people decide when drugs and surgery might be indicated and how to prepare the body for them.

The author of this excellent guide is a thought leader in integrative medicine and an expert on womens health. Dr. Victoria Maizes was an established practitioner of family medicine before she trained with me at the University of Arizona. When she completed her training, I asked her to take the position of medical director and later that of executive director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, now a Center of Excellence at the university. Today she oversees the training of physicians, nurse practitioners, medical residents, and students. She also directs research projects and maintains a clinical practice. Recently, she co-edited Integrative Womens Health, a volume in the Integrative Medicine Library series for clinicians, published by Oxford University Press. I do not know anyone better qualified to advise women about maximizing fertility and achieving conception.

Academic qualifications do not convey a full picture of Victoria Maizes. She is a warm, caring doctor, a compassionate and effective healer. Because she is committed to health promotion and follows her own lifestyle recommendations with great resolve, she embodies good health and is able to inspire patients to work toward it. The advice and information she dispenses are informed by science and drawn from her own experience. She speaks with a clear and strong voice, one that is sure to resonate with readers of this book.

It has been very rewarding for me to work closely with Victoria Maizes to help bring about the much-needed transformation of medicine, medical education, and health care. Without her, the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine would not be as successful and influential as it is today. I am honored to write a few words at the beginning of this excellent book. Rooted in the healing-oriented philosophy of integrative medicine and illuminated by the wisdom of an outstanding physician, it is a reliable and practical handbook for women who want to conceive.

W ith excitement, joy, and perhaps a bit of trepidation, youre considering having a baby. This primal urge is an intrinsic part of being human. What could be more natural or straightforward? Every day, women become pregnant, sometimes unintentionally. On the other hand, many women have difficulty conceiving, which can be emotionally traumatic, exhausting, or frustrating. My opinion is that pregnancy is well worth preparing for. Whether its ensuring that you are immune to chicken pox, taking a multivitamin with folic acid to reduce neural tube defects, or approaching your ideal weight to avoid gestational diabetes, we know that there are things you can do to prepare your body for conception and to up the odds of bearing a healthy child. Those activities, and much more, are the subject of this book.