Reproductive wellbeing is connected to lifelong vitality, and it is the gateway to life’s most pleasurable gifts. Our reproductive health is our inheritance—to receive and, if we choose, to pass on to future generations. It goes to the heart of human experience and shapes our quality of life. It informs our most intimate connections.
When our reproductive wellbeing is compromised, we are profoundly affected. These creative energies are tied to our very life force.
So this is where we start: tuning up your overall wellness while regulating your reproductive system so that your vitality unfolds naturally. I trained especially for this purpose, becoming the only board-certified Fellow of the American Board of Oriental Medicine (ABORM) in Santa Fe and training as a birthing doula with The Birthing Tree, Santa Fe.
If you’re having difficulty conceiving, you’re not alone. Chinese medicine supports fertility by improving the egg quality, regulating the hormones, treating inflammation, and restoring overall vitality to create the foundation for lifelong health and having healthier children. Many women with diagnoses of unexplained infertility, PCOS, high Follicle Stimulating Hormone, Low Ovarian Reserve and other fertility conditions achieve enormous benefits from Chinese medicine. Treatments can focus on natural conception or support for IUI/IVF.
Men are 50% responsible for infertility, but this often goes undetected and untreated. Chinese medicine can improve low sperm count, poor morphology and motility, and treat infections. Reproductive health offers insights into a man’s overall wellness, so fertility questions allow you to take stock of your health and make improvements that will change reproductive ‘markers’ and benefit you over the course of your life. Men often see excellent results from simple strategies, such as herbal tinctures or teas.
Chinese Medicine supports women with pregnancy side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, headaches, fatigue, difficult digestion, constipation, sciatica, lumbar pain, blood sugar issues, low amniotic fluid and threatened miscarriage.
These treatments are conducted at the end of each trimester of pregnancy. The simplicity and elegance of these sessions belie their power. The purpose is to help protect the fetus by preventing toxins from the parents transferring to the child. Treatments may help decrease susceptibility to childhood diseases and support a resilient happy spirit. The intention is to support the child's destiny as more clearly his or her own versus the parents.’ Happy Baby treatments aim to help protect the fetus from the ‘karma’ of family lineage.
Checking in for a pulse and tongue reading can help prevent delayed labor, low amniotic fluids, toxemia and other risks associated with labor and birth. Often women have delayed labor because their qi and blood are low, and they don’t have enough vigor to begin labor naturally. Supplementing, nourishing, reinforcing is often all that a woman needs to prevent the threat of artificial inducements or even C-sections. However, it’s important to start early enough to give the treatments time to work.
Other times, a channel system in the body might be bound up and block appropriate labor movement and rhythms. Releasing these, the body is free to begin labor naturally. Active engagement during labor is also possible and would need to be coordinated with your midwife or doctor.
Like reproductive health, sexual health is the fruit of overall wellbeing. Libido and sexual function are possible when you have systemic wellness, such as good blood circulation and heart function, balanced hormones, and emotional wellbeing.
The best thing about seeing Pamela is probably her professionalism and her thoughtfulness. She doesn’t just jump in and put the needles in the same place every week and not really care. She asks questions; she probes to finds out what I really need, and then she starts working with me. And that I think is the key, that works with me, she doesn’t have a set pattern for everyone and hope it works.