March 27, 2008

Spring has arrived

Each year at Spring I feel a sense of renewed hope and energy for everyone I work with going through a fertility challenge. It is the time of rebirth and fertility. Silent, frozen, seemingly dead earth roars to life with vibrant color and warmth as the snow melts and buds and blooms burst into aliveness.

Our bodies have also been quietly resting and restoring themselves during the long winter months if we have listened within and allowed them this respite. Now, as we begin to move and venture out into nature again we find ourselves feeling our blood flowing, our hearts beating our inner voice reflecting a sense of hope and renewed faith again. Take this moment as Spring approaches to set your intention and look forward to this season as the time to plant the seeds for that which you plan to grow this summer.

As you look toward enhancing your fertility and recommitting to your dream, consider a series of massages with Susanne to get your blood really moving, your muscles relaxed and your lymph system draining. Plan to take a Conceiving Health Yoga class with Ellen at any of our three weekly times throughout Madison. Make an appointment with Karin to begin a program of nutrition and relaxation to improve your health, release some of that winter stagnation and begin the journey toward real fertility.

It's time. You deserve it. Together, we can bring your dream to Life!

March 6, 2008

The Hope of Spring

We here in Wisconsin will be celebrating Spring with even greater enthusiasm than usual this year. To say that Winter has been long this year, cold this year or harsh this year is an understatement. And yet, the Seasons when they are this distinctive are such wonderful teachers.

As you walk down the street on a below zero day in January, feet slipping as you try to manuever down a sidewalk covered in three inches of ice, it is hard to imagine that the sun will soon be warming your face, that the yards around you will be bright green with lush grass and the gardens will be filled with vibrant colored flowers. And yet, you trust that will happen.

In essence, trust and acceptance are perhaps the hardest part of the fertility journey. The very experience of month after month disapointment and grief, of not experiencing the part of our life dream that we have counted on since we were small children in many cases, leaves us with a feeling that we can no longer trust or have faith and that acceptance of the issue is unacceptable. But, if we look at the seasons as a reminder of why it might be possible to restore our trust in life and accept where we are right now, hope may be restored.

The time for different experiences in our life may not be readily apparent, but there is no question that timing is a contributing factor in our outcomes. Of course we know about things like the timing of intercourse and ovulation, but I am referring to the more invisible parts of our lives. Think about how many families you have known where the kids all have birthdays around the same time. In my mind, there is no question that many women, and perhaps even men, have times of the year that their bodies' are more fertile and receptive to conception.

When you are doing everything you can to enhance your natural fertility through nutrition, relaxation, support and treatment, and yet still not conceiving, there comes a point where our only option is to let go. None of us will get there until we get there, no matter how many times some "well meaning" friend with three kids (!!!) tells us that is what we need to do. But we will get there! For me, remembering the seasons, remembering the wisdom of nature, was a comfort and a help when I was walking the fertility path. I could remind myself that MY time had not come YET, but that didn't mean it wouldn't and it didn't mean that this was hopeless.

As you walk down the street in the next few weeks, especially if you live somewhere that it snows, look for that first daffodil poking its head through the ice, ready to reveal it's bright yellow bloom of hope. Remember, your Spring will come. And when it does, you will treasure it all the more for the time you have prayed for its arrival.

November 27, 2007

Thanks to WORT Community Access Hour

Karin Clark Edmiston from The Center for Conceiving Health really enjoyed hosting the Community Access Hour at WORT on Monday evening. If you missed the show but would like to hear it, and hear the interviews, the program is archived at http://216.153.251.197/parchive/. It is the Monday, November 26, 7PM program. You can play it or download it as an MP3 to listen to later! It is called the community access hour, so you will know you have the correct thing when it loads.

Public Radio, Community Radio, is a great thing isn't it? I sometimes forget how fortunate we are to have access to such a great vehicle for communicating and discussing ideas, opinions and issues as well as for hearing artists we might never hear in the mainstream. Just today, before going on the air myself for the first time in my life as a Host, I heard a speaker talking about the hours and hours of taped speakers and interviews Pacifica Radio, the Queen of Community Radio stationing, has archived. I heard a speech by Robert Kennedy that made me long for the political passion of the late sixties and a speech by Martin Luther King that made me cry with the memory of what a profound leader we lost in him. Thank Goodness there are people who are committed to salvaging those memories in audio form! But I digress.

I want to thank WORT FM, 89.9, right here in Madison, WI for providing the community with great programming and providing me and others with the opportunity to hold our own shows on subjects or music or poetry that is important to us. I felt so honored to be able to offer an hour of information and interviews on fertility challenges tonight. My only regret is that it went by so quickly and I was unable to take calls and questions from people. I do hope if you listened and you did have questions for me or any of my guests that you will call me at 608.236.4888 anytime and I will be delighted to answer your questions or pass them on to the person you hoped to have answers from. You can also email me at Karin@ConceivingHealth.com.

And please, before you leave the site, go to the mailing list and add your name and email to the list so I can keep you in the loop when new workshops are offered or the next retreat comes up or when I find a great new article to put on the site. I promise I don't ever give away or sell your information, and on top of that, I rarely even send things out. Once a month is unusual; it is usually more like once every three months!

As promised, here is a list of all the people interviewed, their clinic information and their contact number.

Dr. Elizabeth Pritts, (and Dr. David Olive) OB/Gyns and Reproductive Endocrinologists, Wisconsin Fertility Institute. 3146 Deming Way. Middleton, 608.824.0075

Dr. Ann Stanger. Integrative Family Practice Physician. Women's Health and Anti Aging Medicine. Innovative Health Clinic, University Avenue at Whitney Way. 608.233.2378
www,annstangermd.com

Dr. Holly Crook, Naturopath Specializing in Reproductive Health Concerns. 2158 Atwood Ave. Suite 205 Correct Phone Number will be up by Wednesday! Sorry for delay
608.

and finally ...Susanne Benton, Massage Practitioner Extrordinaire!
Center for Conceiving Health. 608.236.4888

I hope you will find hope and health as well as peace and solution from any one or all of these practitioners, and I hope that I may be of service to you as well along the way.

Thanks again to all of you who listened. I hope you got questions answered or felt supported or felt as though you learned something new and helpful. And my deepest thanks to the incredible group of dedicated volunteers at WORT that make the programming there happen. Ken, you are a soothing balm to a nervous hostess' and you make a new and somewhat daunting experience fun and almost easy!

If you are experiencing stress or sadness this season, and you would like to be with people who really GET IT!, remember there is a Holiday Survival Group every Tuesday evening throughout the season, except Christmas and New Year's of course! We meet from 6:00PM to 7:30 and the cost is only 25.00 per group if you pay for more than two during this season! The location is the Wisconsin Fertility Institute - 3146 Deming Way, Middleton.

Here's to a happy and healthy holiday season for all, with dreams come true throughout the world!
Love, Karin