The majority of people don’t know where to start when trying to conceive. Contrary to what you might think, it’s not as easy as a little romance in bed. Fertility coaching exists to help you navigate the path to parenthood. Between alarming costs and uncertainty, fertility treatments can create a lot of stressors.
A fertility coach is someone you can trust with the physical and emotional aspects of conception and pregnancy. Fertility coaching offers a safe space to navigate fertility challenges and take back your story.
As a Doctor of Naturopathy and Holistic Health and Fertility Coach, I’m extremely passionate about helping women conquer their health challenges and step into who they are meant to be. This article will explore all aspects of fertility coaching like:
- What is fertility coaching?
- Benefits of fertility coaching
- When should you hire a fertility coach?
- How fertility coaching works
- Different types of fertility coaching
- Finding a fertility coach
Ready to learn more? Keep reading!
What is Fertility Coaching?
The aim of fertility coaching is twofold. First, to help reduce infertility’s negative effects on your life. Second, enhance your body’s natural fertility using mind-body techniques. Fertility coaching impacts egg health, improves sperm motility, reduces endometriosis and PCOS, brings hormones back into balance, and a whole lot more.
Fertility coaching is meant to encourage and guide you on your fertility journey. You’ll learn how to implement daily habits, self-care routines, and nutritional and lifestyle changes that will all increase your natural fertility.
Not only that, fertility coaching will assist your body and mind to be in the healthiest place possible and teach you relaxation tools and stress-reduction techniques that you will use for the rest of your life.
Benefits of Fertility Coaching
Infertility showed up in your life uninvited. Month after month nothing happened. Your friends were all falling pregnant and having children. You couldn’t talk about it – it’s a sore subject and deep down you were wondering ‘what’s wrong with me?’
There is nothing wrong with you. In fact, about 10 percent of women in the U.S. have difficulty getting or staying pregnant. With that in mind, here are some of the benefits of fertility coaching.
A fertility coach is someone you can trust with the physical and emotional aspects of conception and pregnancy. Fertility coaching offers a safe space to navigate fertility challenges and take back your story.
Enhances Natural Fertility
The most obvious benefit of fertility coaching is that it enhances your natural fertility and increases your chances of conception. Nutritional deficiencies, exercise, sleep, hormone imbalances, and many more borderline health issues can acutely influence fertility. This is true even if you are not experiencing any serious health symptoms.
A fertility coach helps you implement lifestyle changes that may have a positive impact on your physical body and reproductive health.
Individualized Support
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to starting a family. Everyone’s journey is unique, especially if you suffer from infertility. Fertility coaching provides one-on-one attention. This type of support protects your privacy and allows you to talk through fertility and emotional concerns, vent your frustrations in a safe environment, and have an accountability partner for lifestyle improvements you’re working on.
Advocate
If you struggle to stay or become pregnant your choices can look very daunting. There is a lot of new technology that supports parents in their desire to have children. However, there is also a hefty price tag for a lot of fertility treatments.
You may have a lot of questions like how do you know the right next step for you? When is it time to seek fertility treatment? And how do you know what to ask your medical team?
Your health coach will become your biggest advocate helping you process and understand all the information and options you receive.
Provide Your Baby with the Right Start
Data from the field of epigenetics shows that lifestyle choices even in the pre-conception period are critical to the health of your child. They can set in motion genetic influences that will follow a baby into adulthood, such as the likelihood of obesity, immune response, and susceptibility to certain diseases. With the right support, you can find increased well-being, emotional balance, and positive ways to move forward as you become a parent. At the same time, you are setting your future child up for the best start in life.
When Should You Hire a Fertility Coach?
Fertility coaching can be beneficial at any stage of your fertility journey. Keep in mind that your health leading up to conception is just as important as your health during pregnancy. A fertility coach can help as you process emotions and make guided decisions.
Moreover, research does suggest that at least a three-month period of positive nutritional and other lifestyle interventions will be the most influential pre-conception.
Fertility coaching is meant to encourage and guide you on your fertility journey. You’ll learn how to implement daily habits, self-care routines, and nutritional and lifestyle changes that will all increase your natural fertility.
How Fertility Coaching Works
Fertility coaching combines multiple techniques and often depends on the credentials of the coach you choose. Further, fertility coaching involves a mind-body approach where you address both your emotional and physical needs.
A professional fertility coach will provide support in a wide range of areas such as miscarriage, IVF support, emotional support, endometriosis, infertility/sub-fertility, irregular periods, ovulation, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
They will draw on a variety of skills to create a personalized plan to improve your fertility such as:
- Lifestyle plans
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Motivational interviewing
- Guided relaxations
- Visualizations
- Positive psychology
- Goal setting
- And more!
Additionally, most fertility coaches will work in conjunction with a naturopath, nutritionist, or whoever else is part of your health team. You can expect coaching to take the form of one or a few of the following methods:
- 1:1 coaching in person
- Video calls
- Phone calls
- Text messaging
- Group Coaching
- Online programs
Different Types of Fertility Coaching
As you navigate your fertility journey, it can be hard to know what kind of support is best. As a matter of fact, there are a few different types of fertility coaches depending on each individual’s background, however, the main difference you will see is between fertility coaches and fertility therapists.
In a nutshell, a fertility therapist will apply specific modalities such as psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc. to assess, diagnose, and treat mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and more. Therapists tend to be more focused on helping you acquire knowledge through thoughts and past experiences.
On the other hand, a fertility coach tends to focus more on building toward goals through behaviors. They are more focused on looking toward the future and providing a framework for self-reflection, coping mechanisms, and tools to help manage emotional stress and reach specific goals. A fertility coach will likely seek to help you heal from physical ailments and optimize your physical health while also supporting the emotional component.
RELATED: SEVEN WAYS LIFESTYLE CHOICES CAN AFFECT YOUR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
Finding a Fertility Coach
Each fertility coach brings a unique perspective based on their education, training, background, personality, and life experience.
Consider these questions to help you determine what type of fertility coach you are looking for:
- What would I like to see in my coach’s background?
- What type of education, training, or experience is important for my coach to have?
- Am I looking for emotional support, lifestyle recommendations, or both?
- Do I want my coach to have experience with a specific fertility-impacting condition like PCOS?
- Do I want my coach to have experience with a specific type of fertility treatment like IVF?
- What type of support am I looking for: one-on-one, a program, or a group?
- What type of personality do I hope my coach will have?
- Is my coach’s location or time zone important?
- Do they offer virtual support?
Fertility coaching is the perfect choice for you no matter where you are on your fertility journey. Whether you have been trying for years or are just beginning to consider pregnancy, this is a great time to cover essential topics for your fertility and wellbeing.
If you’re interested in learning more about fertility coaching reach out to me. As a Doctor of Naturopathy, Certified Holistic Health Coach, and Fertility Coach I’m dedicated to helping you achieve success on your fertility journey.
Not to mention, I’m a mom of six so I’ve got plenty of experience to share! My goal is to help you feel prepared and nourish your physical, emotional, and mental well-being as you work to achieve a healthy pregnancy.
Mandy Patterson
