Wisewoman steps of healing for fertility enhancement. (Features).

0. Do nothing; return to the creative void and do not interfere with the process as it unfolds.

* Meditate

1. Collect information by retrieving from your inner wisdom, asking people, consulting oracles, reading books.

* Learn fertility awareness to know your fertile time--reserve sex for times when you are fertile

* Check for astrologically fertile times in your lives

* Read books on conception: Conscious Conception by Jeannine Parvati Baker; Wisewoman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed

* Explore what traits you desire in your child-to-be and begin living them yourselves

* Discuss what the gifts are of not having a child and be thankful for those; and what the gifts are of having a child

* Learn about nourishing yourself and maintaining early pregnancy

* Consider the possibilities available for pregnancy care and birthing

2. Utilize energy or environment, engage elemental forces, walk, bathe, move, breathe.

* Consider flower essences for enhancing fertility

Alpine lily: positive experience of reproductive organs and ability to conceive and sustain pregnancy

Easter lily: cleansing of sexual organs, especially when conception is blocked

Forget-me-not: contacting the incarnating spirit

Mariposa lily: bonding with the incoming child

Mullein: deciding whether to carry a child

Star tulip: to build trust in one's own mother instincts and encourage inner receptivity

Yellow star tulip: developing telepathic communication with child

Manzanita: experiencing the body as the spiritual temple of the incarnating soul

* Lead a lifestyle and eat in a way to avoid excesses of doshas 

* Use chanting of holy names to invoke spiritual energy

* Wear white clothes, white garlands

* Drink vital waters, walk on the earth, lean on trees, bathe in sunlight and moonlight, and practice breathwork all to invoke the natural elemental forces

3. Nourish and tone: nourish yourself optimally, be open to compassion.

* Eat ojas-increasing diet (dairy, ghee, saltvic foods, shatavari, ashwagunda, guduchi); perform ojas-increasing practices (meditation, chanting Om, and sexual moderation); avoid ojas-decreasing factors (anger, hunger, worry, sorrow, overwork, excesssive sexual activity, stress, anxiety, devitalized food, and unnatural environment)

* Use nourishing herbs and rasayanas such as chyvan prash/shakti prana; shatavari, ashwagunda, red raspberry, oatstraw, nettles, red clover, and alfalafa

* Eat concentrated nutritional foods according to your doshas to add nutrition to your body (blue-green algae, sea vegetables, bee pollen, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds}

* Take part in massage and energy work: Reiki, Jin Shin, or Polarity

4. Stimulate and sedate; use herbs to facilitate desired effect (remember to work with doshas and know the herbs or consult with practitioner before using).

* Herbs and foods that increase spermatogenesis include brahmi; shatavari; vidari; jatamansi; garlic; onion; sucanat; ginseng; ghee; milk; banana; 1/2 teaspoon amalaka plus 1 teaspoon ghee plus 1/2 teaspoon honey; 1 teaspoon ashwagunda with 1 cup milk morning and night; gokshur; pippili with fennel; rose; white sugar water; prabhav nasy (1 teaspoon orally)

* Herbs that increase female fertility inlcude 1/2 teaspoon amalaka plus 1 teaspoon ghee plus 1/2 teaspoon honey; mace; manjistha; saffron; shatavari; and vidari

* Herbs that increase sexual desire: tulsi increases love; 2 hours after lunch and dinner or 1 hour before dinner or breakfast 1 banana plus 1 teaspoon warm ghee plus 1 teaspoon sucanat plus pinch cardamon powder will keep sexual energy high for hours according to Dr. Lad; hot garlic milk; 1 teaspoon ashwagunda with 1 cup milk 90 minutes before making love

5. Use drugs, vitamin and mineral supplements, immediate results.

* Fertility enhancing drugs; for example, clomid increases female ovulation 

* Artificially controlling the fertility cycle of the woman by using exogenous hormones

* Artificial insemination

6. Break and enter; use invasive technology that forcefully enters the physical, emotional, or energetic body.

* Surgical removal of eggs, external fertilization of egg, and surgical implantation of embryo

* Frozen embryos, frozen sperm

SOURCES:

Lad, Vasant, and David Frawley. 1986. The Yoga of Herbs, An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine.

Baker, Jeannine Parvati, et al. 1987. Conscious Conception: Elemental Journey through the Labyrinth of Sexuality. North Atlantic Books.

Weed, Susun S. 1986. Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year. Ash Tree Publishing.

--Terra Richardson coauthored Pregnant Feelings with Rahima Baldwin Dancy and wrote the soon-to-be published Giving Birth to Ourselves--Contemplations for Midwives and Other Birth Companions. You can learn more about her classes and practice at http://wisewomanhood.bigstep.com or by calling 303-554-1800.

Editor's note: This is second in a series of articles about Ayurveda and women's health. Please refer to the Spring 2001 issue of Special Delivery for Part 1 of this series.

TABLE A

Ovulation and Menstruation and the Ayurvedic Doshic Cycle

DAY:

1  2  3  4             14                   23          28      1

Menses   Proliferation  Ovulation/Secretion  Regression  Menses  Menses

PITTA    KAPHA          VATA                             PITIA   PITTA