Embrace and enhance your fertility journey with our Fully Fertile Holiday Package! This gift includes Pulling Down the Moon’s own book Fully Fertile, our new Fully Fertile Companion Yoga DVD, a Universal Fertility Intention Bracelet from SheBeads, our Nourish ARTea blend and one box of 100 tea filters.

Fully Fertile  &  Companion DVD

Pulling Down the Moon Co-Founders Tami Quinn and Beth Heller created a holistic 12-week program for optimal fertility. Newly revised and updated.

After writing our book, Fully Fertile, we had lots of requests for a companion DVD that would allow the reader to move with ease from the written text and photographs into the yoga practice. All you’ll need is your yoga mat to begin this 12-week do-it-yourself in home fertility program that includes both the book and the companion yoga DVD.

ARTeas Nourish with 100 Hemp Fiber, Biodegradable Tea Filters

What better way to nurture yourself than with a warm, comforting cup of herbal tea? Pulling Down the Moon’s exclusive ARTeas are caffeine-free, fertility-friendly, and absolutely delicious.

Nourish is a fortifying blend of partridge berry, raspberry leaves and blueberry may help strengthen and support a woman’s reproductive system.Nourish tea is recommended prior to stimulation.

Universal Fertility Intention Bracelet

Pulling Down the Moon announces a special partnership with renown bead maker and founder of She Beads, Sandy Rueve. She Beads are individually hand-rolled, clay bead jewelry sold at high end retailers all over the world.  Sandy has now birthed a new line of jewelry called, “Intention Beads.”  Working with nationally acclaimed astrologist, Barbara Schermer, Sandy has created give Fertility Intention Bracelets, all created during an astrologically auspicious time to conceive.

Each bracelet is unique, colorful and adorned with silver and Swarovski crystals making it not only meaningful as a good luck charm but also an elegant part of your jewelry collection long after you’ve manifested your intention.
Since bracelets are hand crafted and meant to be unique, colors will vary by bracelet.  Be surprised by receiving the bracelet you are meant to have.  You won’t be disappointed.

Click here for more information.

Karisa Grudi, one of our licensed acupuncturists at Pulling Down the Moon Shady Grove, sat down with us to discuss a little bit about the German Protocol and why it is so important for women who have embryo transfers:

Q. Karisa, can you give us an idea of what the German Protocol is?

A. The German Protocol is a series of two acupuncture treatments that are performed on the day of IVF transfer.  The treatments are scheduled before and after the embryo transfer on the same day.  The German Protocol is based off of a study that was performed in Germany, 2006.  In the study of 160 participants, one group received IVF transfer only while the second group received IVF transfer with two acupuncture treatments (before and after transfer).  The pregnancy results showed 42% in the acupuncture group compared to 26% in the control group.

Q. How does this particular type of acupuncture help increase a couple’s chances of conceiving?

A. In the German study, a select number of acupuncture points were used to help with the efficacy of pregnancy.   Those same points from the study are used in the clinic.  Certain points on the leg have a direct connection to the uterus and ovaries.  Those points help to bring blood flow locally to the uterus to help lessen contractions associated with the actual implantation of the embryo.  Points are also selected to decrease stress and help relax the body and mind.  In addition, points are selected on the ear to further help with relaxation, uterine blood flow and endocrine functioning.

Q. Is it helpful for all types of cycles in which an embryo transfer is taking place?

A. Yes, it is definitely helpful for all IVF cycles, including those with donor egg and/or donor sperm.  Again, the focus is the same on the day of IVF transfer – to bring blood flow locally to the uterus, to help relax the body and mind, and to help with endocrine functioning.

At Pulling Down the Moon Shady Grove, Karisa and our other licensed acupuncturists strive to provide everyone with individualized care, whatever their circumstances may be. The German Protocol is just one of the many ways acupuncture can help you on your journey. We hope you will join us!

Featured Products and Services:

Pregnancy Prep Program

Click here to learn more about our Pregnancy Prep Program, supplements to support optimal nutrition for women who are trying to conceive.

Pregnancy Prep Program

by Beth Heller, MS

In a previous post (A New Understanding of Ovarian Reserve) we outlined an emerging debate in the medical fertility community about ovarian aging.  To recap, the question is whether a woman’s eggs age with her, or whether her eggs rest in a dormant state until they are recruited for ovulation.  In the second scenario, it is hypothesized that it is the “aging environment” in which the oocyte develops that negatively affects development and subsequent oocyte quality rather than the age of the oocyte itself.

Neither perspective denies the link between age and fertility – the chances of pregnancy each month do decline with age.   The second scenario, however, suggests that changes in the internal environment in response to age and lifestyle may be an avenue for therapeutic fertility intervention.  The process of recruitment and maturation from a primordial oocyte to a mature oocyte starts almost a year prior to ovulation and gains steam during the final 120 days prior to maturation.   Normal physiological changes associated with aging include a decline in antioxidant capacity, increased levels of chronic inflammation and changes in blood sugar regulation.  All of these changes, as well as lifestyle factors like exposure to chronic stress and environmental toxins, can conceivably impact the oocyte during the maturation phase and play a greater role in our fertility than previously accepted.

In light of this new perspective, Pulling Down the Moon has developed the Pregnancy Prep Program a pre-conception nutrition program for women that addresses the essential needs of prenatal nutrition as well as the reproductive environment.  We have added  a dairy-free probiotic power for optimal digestion/elimination  and immune function as well as an organic fruits & veg blend to bolster our body’s defense against oxidative stress.   The Pregnancy Prep Program is perfect for any woman who is trying to conceive and optimal for the woman who has been using a basic prenatal and would now like to try a more comprehensive approach.

Prenatal Plus

Prenatal Plus* **

Our enhanced prenatal vitamin provides optimal prenatal nutrition including:

• 1000 mcg of folic acid to support fetal neurological development
• 30 mg of iron glycinate, a highly digestible form of iron
• 200 mg of calcium citrate and 150 mg of magnesium for bone support
• 1500 IU of pre-formed vitamin A in the form of retinol and 4000 IU  of  beta-carotene.
• 580 mg of DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) to support fetal brain development

Enhancements:

• 860 mg of the omega-3 EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid) to support the body’s anti-inflammatory response, healthy cell membranes and mood.
• 1000 IU of Vitamin D, levels of which have found to be sub-optimal in infertile populations and which may protect against the development of fibroids.
• 100 mg of high-potency CoQ10 to support cellular metabolism.
• Extra B-vitamins for women vulnerable B-depleting conditions like birth control pill use and emotional stress.
• 200 mg of choline to support fetal brain development.  Choline may also play an important role in healthy genetic expression in early embryo development.

Pregnancy-Prep Probiotic Powder* **

Powder Probiotic

This high quality, dairy-free powdered probiotic formula provides 15 billion live, colony-forming organisms per serving and supports optimal digestive health.   Probiotics have been shown to improve digestive problems like constipation and diarrhea and bolster the immune system.  Good digestion and elimination help us get optimal nutrients from the food we eat.  Poor digestion can lead to “leaky gut syndrome,” where bacteria and other toxic substances leak from the gut and permeate other tissues causing infection and inflammation.

Pregnancy Prep Organic Superfood * **

Organic Superfood

One scoop of vegetable and fruit drink per day bolsters the nutritional quality of a woman’s diet and provides antioxidants in their most effective form – that of whole food.  Because free radical damage is currently under scrutiny for its potential role in both male and female fertility, our Organic Superfood is a convenient way to support our body’s defense against the ravages of oxidative stress.

The Pregnancy Prep Program is available exclusively on-line or in our Pulling Down the Moon Centers in Chicago, Arlington Heights and Rockville, MD.  Click here to learn more or order online.

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* Produced in a triple-certified Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility.  A GMP manufacturer is one that exceeded a specific set of standards laid out by the Food and Drug Administration and indicates this manufacturer has the facilities to manufacture supplements safely, but also to package, label and store them safely.

**These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition.

Lisa Espinosa, Reiki Master

By: Lisa Espinosa, M.Ed., Reiki Master

“I took this class to help me find peace and relaxation during my fertility,” commented Martha*, a student in my meditation class. “It helped me find both, but even more importantly, helped me realize how important it was to not lose myself on this journey.”

Martha’s comment reflects one of the main purpose’s of the meditation class I teach: to help women re-connect with themselves, and “not loose themselves on this journey.”  In this class I help you experience an hour of peace and relaxation. And I share tools that you can integrate into your everyday life to help you navigate the stress that is common during the fertility journey.

During the class, I guide women through an hour of relaxing and nurturing meditation, integrated with Reiki healing energy.  The combination of meditation and Reiki really enhances the experience for my students. As one of my students, Jill, shared:

“I got so much from the class. It is wonderful for learning ways to release stress and take care of yourself whether you are going through treatments or taking a break. Lisa’s guidance through the meditations were gentle and helped me get the most of each meditation. The Reiki was a great bonus. I could feel the energy each time. It was fantastic!”

During the class I play soothing music as I guide my students to shift from rushing, stress, and worry to a place of peace, and centeredness. I use different meditation techniques, such as visualization and mantra. I also incorporate a chakra meditation, in which students connect with each chakra (the seven energy centers of our body which can often get clogged and congested) and begin to notice which of their chakras might need some balancing. Throughout the class I gently do Reiki by laying my hands on different areas of my students’ bodies, such as tight shoulders, or achy backs, as well as any chakras students identified that need some balancing. During the last meditation, women lie down as I spend a few moments on each student doing Reiki on an area that is in need of more healing. My clients enjoy having this hour to themselves. As Sharron, wrote:

“I enjoyed the hour to focus on myself without disruptions, to think about the week ahead and focus on what I want to achieve and (sometimes) reflect on the past week. It has been a wonderful prep for a stressful IVF cycle. It calms me during the period and keeps me busy at the same time.”

For the next few weeks this class will be a drop-in class, and will return to a 5-week enrollment class in November.  I invite all of you to take this opportunity to give it a try. There is no experience necessary, and both fertility and pre-natal clients are welcome.  If you have any questions please contact me at lisae@pullingdownthemoon.com.

* all names have been changed

by Alice D. Domar, Ph.D from the Domar Center Blog

Dr. Alice Domar is a renown researcher in the field of Mind/Body Medicine for fertility and offers her ground-breaking Mind/Body Fertility Program at Boston IVF and the Executive Director at the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health.

When I read about the results of a new research study, I don’t tend to think too much about the amount of hard work it takes to carry out a research project, which is sort of odd given that is all I think about when I am the one conducting research!  I tend to focus on what the conclusions of the research are, and what this implies for patient care.

Earlier this week, the results of my most recent research were released and have been widely reported in the media. The actual paper is being published in the June 1 issue of Fertility and Sterility, but it is available online now and Reuters picked up the story late last week and it was in the New York Times on Tuesday.

The study included a randomized, controlled design. We recruited 143 Boston IVF patients who had just been advised by their physician to move onto IVF treatment. Half were randomized to participate in our ten session mind/body program and the other half received routine care.  Unfortunately, the women assigned to the mind/body program began their first IVF cycle right away (they didn’t want to wait for the next mind/body group to start), so only nine percent of them had done even half of their mind/body sessions.  For the first IVF cycle, both groups had a clinical pregnancy rate of 43%. However, for the second IVF cycle, when 76% of the mind/body patients had participated in at least half the program, the clinical pregnancy rate was 52%, compared to 20% in the control group, a statistically significant difference.

So to apply my general thoughts about research to my own work, what are the conclusions of this research and what are the implications for patients?  The conclusions are two-fold. First of all, there was no placebo effect. In other words, even though all the mind/body patients knew they were assigned to attend a group, that knowledge had no impact on their first cycle. So knowing you are going to learn relaxation and stress management skills, but not actually yet having a chance to learn them, does not have an impact on conception.  Second, this is another in a series of studies which have demonstrated that women with infertility who learn a variety of skills designed to lower stress, improve lifestyle habits, and decrease isolation experience significantly higher pregnancy rates than women who do not learn such skills.

And what do I say to all those ignorant folks out there who think that this study reinforces the evil myth of “just relax and you will get pregnant”?  I tell them that they have obviously never participated in a mind/body program! Women who attend a mind/body are doing so much more than just relaxing. There has actually never been a study simply on the impact of relaxation techniques on fertility, but the program is far more intensive and comprehensive than just relaxation techniques.

In terms of implications for patient care, if I were about to embark on any infertility treatment, especially one as intensive as IVF, I would do everything in my power to learn ways to lower my stress level. There is no downside to feeling less depressed and anxious, and the advantages include better quality of life, possibly feeling more able to continue with treatment if a first cycle isn’t successful and higher rates of conception.  If you have access to a mind/body infertility program, go for it (check out www.domarcenter.com for more info).

Spring is a powerful symbol of fertility, rebirth and renewal.  In our upcoming book The Infertility Cleanse, we spend a fair amount of time writing about the role of symbols in health and healing.  Warning:  this is one of those places where what we do at Pulling Down the Moon moves into the more mystical realm.  As you read the rest of this blog I will ask that you put your skeptical mind temporarily on “pause.”

To understand how symbols can help us to heal and to thrive, let’s understand a few basic concepts.

1. Symbols are images that describe a thought or belief.  Symbols can be personal (something in your life that means something specific to you) or they can also be societal or universal.  Symbols tend to gain power when the “resonate” for more than one person, i.e.  when they evoke the same thought or belief in more than one person.  However, your own personal symbols can be very powerful as well because they have meaning that is uniquely understood by you and can be very specific.

2.  If we look closely at symbols we will often find that it’s difficult to describe them in words.  The experience of trying to put a symbol into words is similar to trying to describe a vivid dream soon after waking.  Words cannot truly capture the power of the dream images and often the act of putting a dream into words drains the “power” one initially felt in dreaming.

3.  Finally, symbols act most powerfully by conveying a feeling state.   For example, to non-car aficionados, the Porsche logo says “power” or “money.”  But witness the power of Porsche for car lovers who have invested the Porsche symbol with a lot of energy.  For these folks the mere thought of owning or driving a Porsche can evoke a visceral feeling of speed or mastery.  Remember the hormone-happy  Tom Cruise character in Risky Business (Porsche – there is no substitute)?

Amazingly, brain science is beginning to shed some light on why symbols can evoke visceral reactions.   Apparently, the different hemispheres of our brain process sensory input differently.  Our left hemisphere is oriented toward linear reasoning and serves to organize sensory input in order, choosing details and constructing a reality that is based on a perceived “past” and projected into an imagined “future.”  The left brain thinks in words and numbers.  The right hemisphere of the brain thinks in pictures and is engaged primarily in the present moment.  It experiences, but doesn’t organize, sensory input.  Time does not exist for the right brain.   Nor does separation of Self from Other (for a striking depiction of right/left brain hemisphere function watch this video of neuro-scientist Jill Bolte Taylor).

This piece of neuro-science is very interesting from the yoga perspective.  In yoga, our aim is to create a state of whole-ness (yoga means union) that is experienced by our witnessing consciousness (we call this Awareness). We start with yoga postures that integrate the different parts of the physical body through balance, strength and stretching.  Yoga breath work (pranayama) brings awareness to our breathing and creates shifts in our state-of-mind.  Finally, meditation trains the mind to let go of the “chatter” that is primarily generated by the detail- and time-obsessed left brain and gives equal attention to the whole-ness of sensory input generated by the right brain.   Meditation does not aim to annihilate the left brain or glorify the right brain – it creates whole-ness and transcendence by unifying input from both brain hemispheres and allowing it to reside in a welcoming awareness.

While this is all well-and-good from a sit around and talk philosophy kind of way, what’s it got to do with symbols, healing and fertility?

Good question.  Fundamentally, we live in a left-hemisphere-driven  world that feel like the only “real” world.  We have lost the ability to connect with the right brain and the “Now-ness” it imparts to us.   However, the Now is enormously important.  Everything that ever happens happens in the Now.  New thoughts and new solutions arise in the Now, positive change happens in the Now, and healing, too, must also arise in the Now.  If we’re obsessed with negative thoughts and beliefs, the Now is a bummer.  If we’re open to positive thoughts and input the Now can be quite lovely.

Meditating on a symbol is like striking a tuning fork for the “Now” our right brain is experiencing.  Since the right brain thinks in pictures and symbols, a symbol can create a shift in the quality of the right brain awareness.   A positive or inspiring symbol can create  a positive and inspiring Now.  Take for example a simple meditation on Spring.  Spring is a powerful symbol of fertility and renewal.  The feeling you get when you “experience” Spring is visceral.  There’s a churning aliveness that feels as if it’s even making our hair grow!  We can use meditation on the symbol of Spring to bring these qualities into the “Now” of our lives.   If you don’t believe me, try the following simple meditation.

• Sit quietly, with a straight spine on the floor or in a chair.  Close your eyes and tune into your breath, simply feeling the inhales and exhales as pure sensation.
• When you begin to feel still, call to mind an image that symbolizes Spring - this could be a tulip, a leaf-bud or any image that calls to your heart and mind the energy of Spring
• As you hold the image/symbol in your mind’s eye allow the feeling of Spring to arise – the newness, the sense that winter is over, the sense of fertility and expectation, the smell of damp earth and green things growing.
• Rest in that feeling state for as long as you can – working up to 15 minutes.
• Upon coming back from your meditation, bring the feeling state of Spring back with you and practice holding this energized state as you move through your day.

This last part of the meditation is the most important.  Symbols can help us stay attuned to this happy (higher) vibration.  I use symbols in this way every day.  In my home I have a simple altar (actually it’s a shelf) where I place symbols that have a powerful personal meaning for me.  Whenever I am quietly going about my business at home, I light the candle and welcome the vibration of the inspiring symbols to permeate my “Now.”  Throughout my day I will often visualize lighting that candle and accessing these symbols in times of stress or need.

Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of Natural Healing.  Rei is the Japanese word for Universal (the Energy that is available for everyone) and Ki (chi in Chinese) is the Japanese word for energy. Reiki moves  the Ki that is abundantly available in the universe into the body for health and wellbeing.  Of the many holistic techniques for fertility (yoga, acupuncture, massage, nutrition) reiki is probably the most unknown.  That’s unfortunate because a session with a gifted Reiki Master has many benefits for the fertility journey.  (You can read more about reiki and fertility in Beth’s blog on the subject here).

We have many different ways to experience reiki at Pulling Down the Moon.

Yoga + Reiki = Bliss.  Join us for a Restorative Yoga + Reiki workshop on Saturday March 12 at Pulling Down the Moon in Chicago from 1 to 3 p.m.  Fertility yoga expert Jenilyn Gilbert and Reiki Master Lisa Espinosa will help you experience a deeply healing session of supported yoga poses and healing touch.  Pre-registration is required and space is limited.  Click here to register.

One-On-One Reiki for Fertility Sessions with our Reiki Master.  Call 312-321-0004 for more information.

Starting April 7 join us on Thursdays for a drop-in Reiki & Meditation Women’s Circle from 5 to 6 p.m. every Thursday.  Call 312-321-0004 for more information.

We hope you will take the time to read this wonderful article by Jenny Rough from Bethesda Magazine.   In the article Jenny shares her personal journey, interviews Reproductive Endocrinologists and speaks to women who used techniques like yoga, nutrition and Traditional Chinese Medicine to support their fertility journey.

We’re also excited to share that Jenny will be offering a FREE writing workshop at Pulling Down the Moon in Rockville on Saturday March 26 from 1 to 4 p.m.  Read more about this event here.