Going Green Before You Conceive

CHAPTER ONE: WHY GO GREEN? When couples decide they want to have a baby, most simply long for a healthy child. Women want to conceive right away and have a happy, healthy pregnancy, too. If you want to conceive a healthy child and feel great during your pregnancy my first suggestion is to go green before you conceive. “Green” brings to mind different definitions and connotations: non-toxic, safe for the environment, and healthy. It is also associated with the fourth or heart chakra, which symbolizes health, harmony, creativity, abundance, and nature. Going green, as it relates to health, can be one of the best steps you take in your life. If green is associated with abundance and nature, it makes sense that we can all have many children naturally if we live a “green” and healthy life. Most importantly, being green can change the way a life is formed in the womb. The amount of toxic substances we come in contact with every day is alarming. Imagine how this affects our ability to reproduce. In Sandra Steingraber’s book Having Faith she writes: “If the world’s environment is contaminated, so too is the ecosystem of a mother’s body. If a mother’s body is contaminated, so too is the child who inhabits it.” As an ecologist, author, and mother, Steingraber knows the importance of living a green life when trying to procreate. When we choose to have children, we should really think about what is going into our bodies from all angles, including the food we eat, the air we breathe, and what we touch. If our bodies contain toxins, so do our babies. Babies born today can have over 200 industrial chemicals found in their umbilical cord blood. If we can take steps to reduce or eliminate this, it must be done. By starting with small steps you can detoxify your home, diet, beauty routine, cleaning routine, and almost every aspect of your life. Doing this in my own life made a great impact on my ability to conceive naturally. After reading a magazine article on the dangers of chemicals in my makeup, I tossed out EVERYTHING and purchased makeups that were free of chemicals and all natural. This also included replacing my shampoos and moisturizers. Anything that went on my skin became truly free of anything toxic that would disrupt my hormones. All of the cleaners that I had bought in bulk had to go as well and were replaced with non-toxic options. The amount of time, energy, and money put into raising a child is enormous. Giving your child the greatest advantage by creating healthy eggs and sperm is one of the best things you can do for him or her. Most people do not realize it takes approximately three months for eggs to mature for ovulation, while sperm is ready in seventy-two days. When you think of everything your body could be exposed to in the months leading up to conception, it makes sense to take the time to learn how going green before you conceive can improve your reproductive health. Making changes in your life to go green can result in better health for you overall, and it can help sustain our environment as well. Most importantly it can give you the best chance at producing the healthiest sperm and eggs and, eventually, a healthy, happy baby. An all-natural approach to pregnancy can be the least invasive and least expensive. Years ago, conceiving a child was not a problem for the majority of the population. Today some have success without changing their lives at all, while others struggle for months and even years before they become parents. Some couples are told they have “unexplained infertility,” which is not very comforting since most people expect doctors to have answers. While there are numerous fertility clinics trying to help couples become parents, I often wonder how many couples could be helped, simply by making some greener lifestyle choices. A lot of couples also have recurrent miscarriages. Others carry a child to the third trimester and then have pre-term labor, resulting in numerous complications, for example immature lungs, which can lead to chronic respiratory issues. Even when couples do succeed in getting pregnant, their child may develop autism, ADHD, allergies, and other medical conditions that can be traced back to prenatal care and environment. The statistics are troublesome. While we cannot explain exactly why these things happen, we do know that exposure to toxins can wreak havoc on the body and babies in utero. The significant number of toxic chemicals that we are exposed to either through our food supply or from things we come in contact with on a daily basis cannot be ignored. Consumers are not protected from harmful chemicals in everyday products. We must do our own research before buying if we want to eliminate toxins from our lives. Often untested in everyday products, these toxins are affecting our health whether we realize it or not. Even the way that women give birth has changed dramatically. What was once a natural process has become everything but. The percentage of women having a C-section as opposed to birthing naturally has skyrocketed. Now about one in three women give birth via C-section according to Childbirthconnection.org. In 1965 the national average was just 4.5 percent for women who had C-sections. Inductions and C-sections are scheduled like making an appointment to get your hair cut. Conception and birth should not be this difficult or this medicalized. Despite all of the medical advances we have access to when it comes to childbearing and childbirth, we still have a lot of work to do to make things safer for mother and child. When we decide to conceive, many of us do not think about the environmental impact that one more human will have. Each person affects the planet by the choices he or she makes in everyday life. While everyone has a different path to parenthood, giving your child a safe, healthy environment to begin their life is the best option for any parent-to-be. If you continue that green lifestyle throughout childhood with the right food and environmental choices, you can have the healthiest kid on the block. If you make an effort to live an eco-friendly life, and show your children how to do this as well, your efforts to “green the planet” that God created will make a more sustainable future for us all. I’ll show you that this is easier than you think! CHAPTER EIGHT: ALKALINE VS. ACIDIC DIET AND PLANNING FOR A BOY OR GIRL Could diet influence your chance of conceiving a boy or a girl? We know having a healthy diet is critical to a healthy pregnancy. If you have the time and dedication to take it one step further—you can try to influence the sex of the baby by following a strict alkaline or acid diet. Although the medical community has not produced a lot of research on this topic, there are those that swear it works. One of the few studies supporting the claim that diet can affect a baby’s gender was a study done in the Netherlands from 2001-2006. In this study, couples used an acidic diet and timing to try to conceive a girl, after having boys. The results are very clear from CBS Statistics Netherlands on the Dutch population: Women who followed the diet and did the timing correctly had a greater likelihood of having a girl. This study is a great indicator that sex selection can be achieved naturally, if mothers follow proper diet and timing. In 2008, a team of researchers headed by Dr. Fiona Mathews of Exeter University conducted a study on whether alkaline diets affect the chances of conceiving a boy. Turns out, what was once considered an old wives tale, may now have scientific validity. The studies show that eating an alkaline diet makes the cervical fluid less acidic, which creates a better environment for the survival of male sperm. Also, while some foods are naturally acidic, when they are consumed and in the blood, they become alkaline. Lemons, for instance, shift from acidic to alkaline when consumed and absorbed into the bloodstream. You can get a pH testi