Liz and Charles

My husband and I had trying to conceive for three years. During that time we suffered two miscarriages before seven weeks gestation. After the second miscarriage we were referred by our GP to a miscarriage expert who tested us and found that I had a blood clotting disorder which was affecting the implantation of the embryo in the womb. It was suggested that when I next got pregnant I should take a blood-thinning drug (heparin) daily until 24 weeks. All I needed to do was get pregnant again! There followed a very long 15 month period during which we did not conceive. Previously we had conceived in no more that eight months. Our thoughts turned towards IVF after 12 months of trying. To get ourselves as healthy as possible for IVF we took a four month course of vitamin and mineral supplements, we both did plenty of exercise and my husband cut down substantially on his alcohol consumption. A friend in a similar situation mentioned that she had been seeing Hilary for acupuncture and had conceived naturally. I made an appointment to see Hilary at the beginning of August 2005 and started a course of acupuncture treatments.   Three weeks into August, on the morning my husband and I were due to see an infertility expert to talk about IVF, we discovered that I was pregnant. I was quite anxious about miscarriage given my history but I started taking the heparin daily and had regular acupuncture sessions with Hilary which calmed me down during the early weeks and helped a great deal with the quite severe nausea that I suffered between eight and fourteen weeks. From my first consultation with Hilary I was happy to find a very supportive and genuinely caring person. When I told Hilary my history she listened sympathetically and without passing judgment and was entirely positive. By the time I met Hilary I was quite depressed of continually being told about all the obstacles on the path to conception and being cited statistics about dwindling fertility in women over 35 years old (I was 37 when I met Hilary).I felt enormously positive after our first meeting and that feeling is always reinforced with each session. I am a great believer that, regardless of how healthy you are physically, state of mind is key when trying to conceive and Hilary’s positive attitude did buoy me up at a very difficult time. I am now 25 weeks pregnant and am enjoying a very smooth and easy pregnancy. I still have regular acupuncture sessions with Hilary and am convinced that the treatments have played a great part in the well-being I have enjoyed during the pregnancy.