Preparing for Pregnancy
As a bodyworker and educator of abdominal therapy, I’m dedicating this article to fertility from a bodywork perspective. Whether you have fertility challenges, or you’re preparing to get pregnant, you should plan at least three months prior to trying to conceive. The body starts to recruit the eggs at least three months (actually 100 days) prior to ovulation. So, everything you do or don’t do during that time will affect the health of the eggs. The same is true for men; the sperm takes about the same amount of time to mature (about 72 days from start to maturity), so everything men do or don’t do during those three months is just as important. For instance, greater than 200mg daily of caffeine is toxic to sperm and is linked to chromosomal abnormalities. Zinc is important for spermatogenesis and promotes sperm motility. Vitamin C has been found to increase sperm count, motility, and viability. Preparing for conception is shared between both you and your partner. Supporting each other in this journey by consciously planning for pregnancy together can be a beautiful bonding experience.
Think of your womb as a nest for your future baby. Nurture and prepare your womb with the loving attention a bird would put into building a nest for her eggs. Think of your blood and body as the soil that brings nutrients to your womb. Give it the loving attention a seasoned gardener would give to the earth before planting a seed.
Step #1 Try Not To Get Pregnant
It’s my experience that couples learn about abdominal massage after they have exhausted all other options. They have been trying to conceive for years, they may have tried IVF or IUI with no luck, and may feel pressure from their physicians because of their age. So it’s easy to understand why they look at me like I’m crazy (you know, the “Whatcha talkin’ ’bout Willis” look) when I tell them to try not to get pregnant for three months. That said, I still see women on occasion get pregnant after one treatment. My best guess is that the abdominal massage corrected a kinked fallopian tube in those cases. The reasons I ask women to try not to conceive during those three months of treatment include: 1) giving your uterine lining time to cleanse and rebuild give you the best chance of conceiving, avoiding miscarriage and having a healthy baby 2) three months is an ideal time to make uterine positional corrections 3) you can’t do the self-care massage if you might possibly be pregnant (in the first 20 weeks anyway). Trying to conceive during the first three months of treatment means that you lose about two weeks of self-care each month, possibly pushing your conception time further out than if you just waited the three months to try to conceive. 4) having an aligned pelvis and uterus while pregnant can help prevent low back pain, constipation, hemorrhoids, poor circulation, incontinence, and difficult labor and delivery. I’ve included the whole fertility protocol in the Womb Care online course.
In the Womb Care course, you’ll learn self-abdominal womb massage for uterine, ovarian, and digestive health, herbal remedies to address painful and heavy periods, and energetic techniques for moving emotional holding patterns out of the pelvic bowl, abdominal, and womb space. You’ll also learn pelvic alignment exercises and nutritious movement for a ‘tipped’ uterus, prolapsed uterus, and uterine health in general. But most of all, the intent of this abdominal womb massage course is to connect you to the beauty and wisdom of your belly.
How Abdominal Therapy Helps With Fertility: The Five Systems of Flow
Your body already knows what to do and is constantly working to maintain homeostasis (balance within), but because of poor physical alignment, emotional or physical trauma, lifestyle and dietary choices, and environmental pollution, our bodies struggle to maintain that internal balance. Homeostasis relies on unobstructed flow of the arterial, venous, lymph, nerve and chi (energy) channels. Bodywork can be a valuable way to help ensure unobstructed flow.
The arterial system brings oxygenated blood, nutrients, and hormones to every cell of the body. If the uterus is out of position or if we have poor pelvic alignment and tight muscles, we most likely have poor circulation in the pelvis. This could result in poorly nourished reproductive organs and their supporting ligaments.
The venous system carries deoxygenated blood, waste and carbon dioxide away from the tissues. If the venous circulation is impeded, carbon dioxide and waste products accumulate. As a result, harmful acids build-up, resulting in pain and poor function of the organs. Venous congestion leads to varicosities in the uterus that can result in heaviness in the pelvis and undiagnosed pelvic pain. Ovarian varicosities can lead to disturbance in the communication between the ovaries and the hypothalamus, resulting in less than optimal levels of estrogen and/or progesterone.
The lymphatic system carries away toxins, excess fluids, and cellular debris and is our major line of defense against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. Like the arterial and venous systems, lymph can be affected by the mal-aligned uterus, tight muscles, poor structural alignment, and tight clothing. Restriction in the flow of lymph allows pathological debris to accumulate, causing acidity, pain, swelling, and inflammation.
The nervous system coordinates all bodily functions. Muscle spasms, mal-positioned or enlarged organs, and scar tissue can obstruct the nerve channels. Basically, if there is congestion, toxic accumulation, or restriction, the hormonal feedback loop can be compromised.
Chi (energy) flows through the blood and energy meridians of the body, as well as around the outside of the body. Chi is restricted when the other systems of flow are restricted, or from emotional and physical stress.
More than Belly Massage
I also offer treatments on the back, hips, sacrum, and ligaments of the coccyx (tailbone) to reduce congestion around the pudendal nerve, and to ensure proper alignment of the pelvis. I may also massage the low back and the muscles around the lumbar vertebrae. The suspensory ligaments of the ovaries attach to fascial connections of L3 (the third lumbar vertebra of the low back). The suspensory ligaments of the ovaries contain blood and lymph vessels, so if you have a tight quadratus lumborum (the muscle that attaches from the posterior iliac crest to the transverse processes of L1-5 and the 12th rib) this could affect the blood flow and/or position of the ovaries!
Uterine Positions.
Abdominal therapies will help create an unobstructed flow of the five channels so the body can maintain homeostasis, making it easier for you to get pregnant.
In my online Womb Care course, I will teach you self-care massage and other techniques for uterine health. The course consists of over 8 hours of video and 10 ebooks!
Clearing and Building – Preparing your body for pregnancy
As mentioned above, these techniques have a clearing and building effect on the uterus. Usually, in the first three months of starting the abdominal self-care massage, a woman may experience a change in her menstrual flow. Women have reported their menstrual blood looking like coffee grounds or darker brown blood, which could be dried or old toxic blood from prior months. Usually, by the third month, women experience bright red oxygenated blood with less cramping.
With proper flow, the uterus is able to build a nice fluffy bed to nourish a growing embryo. Dr. Rosita Arvigo put it this way: think of it as preparing the crib with loving intention for your newborn baby. Your uterus is going to be the crib for your baby for nine months or so. The cleansing and building may take time, which is another reason to give yourself at least three months to prepare your body for pregnancy.
“How can a healthy fruit grow on a sick vine whose supply of nutrients and water has been consistently poor? There are multiple factors to be considered during pregnancy that determines the health of the infant. A major contributing cause to weak newborns is the weak, undernourished uterus.”- Dr. Rosita Arvigo.
Massage therapy improves in vitro fertilization outcome in patients undergoing blastocyst transfer in a cryo-cycle “Conclusions: The research team’s results suggested that andullation therapy prior to blastocyst transfer in a cryo-cycle improves embryo implantation, most likely due to a reduction in stress (ie, a relaxation effect on patients), a reduction in uterine contractions, and, probably, an enhancement of the blood flow in the abdominal region. These findings provide support for use of andullation as a complementary therapy for ART.”
My period blood is always dark red/brown. So that’s bad? I guess I never thought about it. Is that a sign of a retroverted uterous?
Hi Jenna, on it’s own I wouldn’t say it’s a sign of a retro uterus. Sometimes brown blood can be old blood that didn’t shed from the month before. Sometimes it happens with anteflexed uteri as well as, the blood from the top portion of the uterus can’t shed properly because of the flex in the body of the uterus. But I’m sure there are other explanations depending on if you ask a Chinese medicine practitioner or Ayurveda practitioner. Most women start to see bright red blood within a couple of months of doing their self-care massage.