In this video we’re going through chapter 1 of my best-selling book, “Yes, You Can Get Pregnant: Fertility Now and Into Your Forties”

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Book resources: yesicangetpregnant.com

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Aimee’s Favorite Gluten-Free Bread (use code AIMEERAUPP15 for 15% off): aimeeraupp.com/gfbread

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SEE THE FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW.

Hello. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Another live from me on Facebook and Instagram and so happy to be with you as always. I am Aimee Raupp of aimeeraupp.com and I have the honor of coming to you live every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. I was live last night with an amazing reproductive endocrinologist and we're doing monthly Instagram lives, him and I. So if you missed that, check it out on my Instagram, my IGTV feed. And every Thursday though at noon Eastern time, I come live to you guys to discuss what I think are important topics to reawakening you to the best version of yourself, to restoring your fertility, to rejuvenating your fertility, to just owning and loving yourself.

In 2021 we started a new thing where the last Thursday of every month I am doing my book club. So we started with, this is my most popular book of my three. So I have three books, Body Belief, Chill Out and Get Healthy is my first one. This is my most recent one. This is the one people seem to buy the most. It's called Yes, You Can Get Pregnant and it's an Amazon bestseller or in the top 10 on Amazon in women's health and fertility like every day, which is amazing. I'm honored. I reach almost 100,000 women with this book at this point, which it is phenomenal.

So it's fun for my team and I, since we started the book club. We're really enjoying going back to like the original, if you will, because there's been a lot of growth. I wrote it in 2013 to 2014, it came out in June of 2014. And so a lot of my business is based on this work. I've been a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, which makes me an acupuncturist and an herbalist for almost 20 years. 17 years I've been in practice at this point. And about 10 years ago I started writing books and about four years ago I started my online business where I'm coaching women all over the world. And I have online courses and a lot of content to help women all over the world to optimize their health and ultimately their fertility.

And like I said, this book came out in 2014 and then Body Belief came out, I don't know. I don't know when it came out. Sometime between 2014 and now. It came out in 2018. And this is all about auto-immune diseases. And I wrote this really as a response to this book because so many women that are dealing with fertility challenges actually have an undiagnosed or mismanaged autoimmune condition and I help them in that department. So anyway, if you don't have your book I did give you guys homework last book club, which was four weeks ago, to go ahead and read chapter one. Get a copy of your book Yes, You Can Get Pregnant. It's available on Kindle and physical book. It is not available on audio, but I think it should be. So if anybody works at a book house or a publishing house and wants to get me an audiobook deal, let's do it. I have a great agent. But it should be on audio too especially in my voice. I think it would be great.

So I want to go through chapter one with you guys. I mean, the whole book I love and I'm very proud of and still really stand firm in the recommendations I make in the book and feel very, very, very good about the knowledge and information here in and have only continued to grow and evolve. Sorry. I want to just adjust the camera here on my laptop. It's just being a little funny. Have only continued to grow and evolve since writing it and just expanding upon research. And I'm also working, and today will be a day that I actually hopefully get a lot of work done on the book, I'm working on a new book to come out that'll be called The Egg Quality Diet. And it's really a mix of these two books and just strictly on nutrition. Whereas, you'll see my other work and my books go really deep into the mental emotional piece too, which I can not stress enough the importance of addressing and looking at the mental, emotional, spiritual piece, no matter where you are on your health journey, but in particular with fertility as well.

So let's get into it. Did anybody come with their book? Did anybody do their homework and read the first chapter? I didn't. I didn't do my homework, but I wrote the book so I'm hoping it just all comes back. So the first chapter in the book. So last week we did the preface and the introduction and now the first chapter in the book and this, again, it was super intentional to entitle … Oh yeah, Hannah. Go. I love that. I love that girl raising her hand. I love that. Anybody else got that for me? Especially since now you know that your teacher was a bad student and I didn't do my homework.

“My least favorite word. Shifting from being infertility focused to fertility focused.” So I'm not going to read the whole chapter word for word, but I do want to read the opening paragraph to this chapter because I think it's a really good one to read. Okay. So put on your listening ears everyone. “My least favorite word is infertility. It's such an ugly word. It reeks of negativity, it oozes failure. Hearing it hurts my heart and my uterus and I'm sure it hurts yours too. The word infertility takes some of the power we have over our health and our fertility.” Takes away some of the power we have over our health and our fertility. “And as I said in the introduction, I'm here to remind you that you have the power.” You have the power over your health and your fertility.

“Just because someone told you that women over the age of 35 are women who have old eggs, have [inaudible 00:06:24] getting pregnant, doesn't mean that has to be you. It is my belief that talking about infertility, discussing it, telling stories about it, reading about it, focusing upon it, leads to more and more of a belief that you will be or are infertile. Each time you say that word it removes a little of the possibility that everything is going exactly as it should be going and that your body has the innate ability to be healthy and conceive a child.”

Let's repeat that part. Your body has the innate ability to conceive a child. Your body has the innate, that means the inner wisdom. Your body has the inner wisdom. All you need to do is take a couple steps to remind it how to do that, but your body has this inner wisdom. Don't get hooked on this diagnosis, don't get hooked on the stats, don't get hooked on the numbers, don't get hooked on what the doctors have told you. Take it into consideration, sure. Do the best you can do, absolutely. Show up for yourself, but do not shut the door on yourself. Your body has an inner wisdom here, guys.

So again. “Your body has the innate ability to be healthy and conceive a child. So let's make a pact right now. No more of the I word.” No more. “Rather, let's shift our perspective. You are not infertile. Your insides just need a little fertility enhancement or your lady parts need some fertility rejuvenation. None of which means that you're broken or that you can't get to where you want to be, which is brimming, overflowing, and abundant with pregnancy.” Abundant with Pregnancy. “I've got a message for you. You have much more control over your health and your fertility than you currently believe. Your health and your fertility are in your power. My job is to help you get to that place.” So I take a lot of pride in that being my job. The girls that work with me or have been in my groups know how much I am there for you and I support you and I cheer for you.

And I really do believe that it's not about this ticking clock, this time running out, this infertility and this brokenness. It's really about rejuvenation. It's really about taking back the power. Like of course, yes, fertility declines with age and there are certain things that impact our fertility more than others. We can be severely impacted by a severe illness as a child and maybe you needed some strong medications like chemotherapeutic agents or something like that. Yes, that will impact your fertility and it might be hard to recover from that. But for the most part, most people, if you're still, even if you're not to be honest, but generally speaking, if you're still menstruating and ovulating, you got a shot here. And even if you're not menstruating and ovulating, you kind of still have a shot. We can figure that out. But there's just a lot that we can do to rejuvenate your fertility.

And of course, it's diet and supplements and nutrition and mindset, but the most important piece is if you are here and if you still have hope then to actually lead with that hope. Don't lead with the fear. Okay. Can anybody relate to that? So the next section I go into shifting from being infertility focused to fertility focused. And I go through what a day in my clinic can be like. I didn't have a coaching practice back when I wrote this book. Now I do too. So yeah, it bounces around. I have like some of the most amazing, gorgeous success stories and then the next call is a woman who just had her sixth miscarriage and it fucking sucks.

And so I see the [mercurialness 00:10:37] of fertility challenges and the journey. Yeah. I can relate. It's hard at times. It's really hard at times. I think we own that. Like it's hard and it's scary and it's hard to not get into that mindset of like, “Time is running out.” No matter what age you're at, time is running out, time is running out, time is running out. What am I doing? What am I doing? Is this ever going to happen for me? When is it going to happen? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How do I change that? So it's really hard, but can we slow ourselves down enough to just feel like, “Right now in my heart of hearts, I actually still believe that this is a possibility for me. I still believe I can have this baby.”

“And so although I'm scared, although there's these statistics and there's this fear and there's this diagnosis and this chronological age or whatever it is, for some reason I still have hope. And so for right now, what I want to do,” I think what's most in alignment with your spirit is to [inaudible 00:11:33] hope. And so we shift our focus from infertility to fertility. We stop hating all the pregnant women and instead we look at them and we say, “Wow. Wonder how she did it. Maybe she had a journey. Maybe I'll be that woman next year and someone's going to look at me with hateful eyes.” Think about that. “So being fertility challenges is insane and erratic and heartbreaking and something that I wish no woman should ever have to endure. But what all this starts with is a woman coming into my office seeking help in becoming pregnant.”

“So I'm encouraging you to form the I am fertile belief because that belief serves your fertility for the better. As always, I say to my patients, “There is so much good that comes from being optimistic.” Optimism brings you joy and hope into your heart and your uterus. When you were trying to conceive, optimism serves you. Hope serves you. Believing in your fertility serves you.” And I would also point out that just you being here, just you picking up this book, just you tuning in, following me on Instagram or Facebook, tuning into what I have to say, you have some hope. So I don't think you have to go and find more hope or go and find more optimism. It's not about that. It's not about adding things because that might feel like too much work or inauthentic. That's not what I'm asking of you.

All I'm saying is honor that hope, honor that belief, however small or big it is, honor it. And just say, “I must have it because I'm still here. I must have it because I'm still in this game. I still want to pursue this child. Call me crazy because I'm X years old or I have this diagnosis or my FSH is this or I've had this many unsuccessful attempts. Like whatever it is, call me crazy. But guess what? I still have some hope.” And I want you to get more aligned with this, the hope in here, the belief in here, that you're pushing down because it's too scary to believe because you don't want to be let down versus all the grueling statistics and diagnoses and heavy, crappy experiences, the trauma that's in here.

Come back here. Honor that. “Yeah. It's been a rough process. This has been a rough journey. It gets hard at times,” as one of you said. Honor that. I'm not asking you to not honor the not so great feeling, emotions and I'm not asking you to have, what's the new word that they're talking about? Toxic positivity. I think that's annoying and definitely doesn't help anybody. Honor the hope. Just acknowledge, “I'm here. I must still have hope.” There's something in you that is fighting for some light, fighting for some attention. Give it that. “So take a moment right now and repeat your new mantra. I have the power to change my health and improve my fertility. I have the power to change my health and improve my fertility. I know it's not easy,” but I also want to share with you, I know we're like spewed all the statistics and this is one of my favorite statistics from the book. There's a lot more in this chapter so you should read it.

“Our Western world, modern reproductive medical minded society says the reason for the rise of fertility challenges is simple. Since the 1970s, the proportion of women in the United States having their first baby after the age of 30 has quadrupled. So to the Western medical world, the fact that women are having children later in life explains why our population is suddenly having such a hard time getting pregnant.” So at this point, I was only 10 years in. “From my 10 years of clinical experience,” now I have 17 and I still fucking believe that. I believe it even more now. “I definitely don't believe age is our only issue. It may be an issue for some, but it's not the major issue at play here.” And in fact, here's some outstanding research. I'm reading from chapter one of Yes, You Can Get Pregnant.

“The widely cited statistic that one in three women ages 35 to 39 will not be pregnant after a year of trying, for instance, is based on an article published in 2004 in a very esteemed journal, the Journal of Human Reproduction, rarely mentioned,” put your listening ears on here ladies. “Rarely mentioned is the source of the data for the research.” Are you ready for this? “French birth records from 1670 to 1830. The chance of remaining childless, which was 30%, was also calculated based on historical populations. In other words, millions of women are being told when to get pregnant based on statistics from a time before,” you ready? “A time before electricity, antibiotics, and fertility treatment.” And all these information we have about antioxidants and diet and before we introduce all these fucking pesticides and chemicals into our environments.

“Most people assume these numbers are based on large, well conducted studies of modern women, but they're not.” So I hope you took that in, okay. “And even more recent studies on age and fertility, the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that sex with at least twice a week, 82% of women 35 to 39 got pregnant within a year compared to 86%.” So the difference between 27 to 34 year olds got pregnant, 87% of the time within one year of having regular sex. So 87% of women 27 to 34 got pregnant within one year of having regular sex around ovulation. 82%, so 4% less of women, 35 to 39 got pregnant within that same exact timeframe. So that is not a, what is it? 60% drop-off. Am I right? Or a 30% drop off? Because they're saying women under the age of 35 have like only a 60% chance of getting pregnant.

This study shows an 82% chance of getting pregnant. So it's 22% higher than what the current medical research is telling us. “Another study showed that 78% of women 35 to 40 who had sex at their fertile times were pregnant within a year.” Again, not 60%, 78 and 82%. “And 84% of women 20 to 34.” So there was, in that case, six percentage point difference. Yes. Fascinating. So I want you to shift your focus that yes, there are fertility challenges. They are real. You were probably experiencing them yourself. They suck, they're frustrating, they are devastating. It is real deal trauma and devastation. I'm not underestimating that, but I am asking you to shift your focus from infertility to fertility because there is a lot of fertility going on. A lot of it.

So fertility from a Chinese medicine perspective, which I want you guys to really read this in the book, but if you don't know about Chinese medicine, what I do is so much more than just acupuncture. We really do a whole health analysis. We look at you from every single layer like bowel movement, sleep, mental, emotional, diet of course, body temperature, skin, hair, nails, all of that I take into account and from that I get to assess your level of health. Three vital substances, essence, chi, and blood. You can get into the book for more details on this. But the key here to know is that all the symptoms.

So I have women, they have poor sleep habits, they have poor digestion, they have eczema, psoriasis, skin issues, cystic acne, headaches, joint pain, migraines, irregular menstrual cycles, plotty heavy periods, really light periods, missed ovulations, late ovulation, all of that, cold hands and feet, hair falling out, hair thinning, floaters in their eyes, like nails break. I have a whole list of symptoms in this book and in my book Body Belief and I basically make people go through the symptom checklist when they work with me or one of my coaches or one of my associates and we work off of what we call that red flag or that kinks in your system checklist. And that tells me all the things that are not going right in your body and those are the things that then I want to fix because those are the things that are telling me where your chi, your three vital substances, chi, essence, and blood are compromised. So in order for a woman to be able to get and stay pregnant from a Chinese medicine perspective, she needs to have an abundance of chi and blood and essence.

So that is what I do. I don't give a shit about her age. I don't give a shit about her FSH or AMH. I don't. It doesn't matter. What matters is that chi, blood, and essence. And that's how I work from a Chinese medicine perspective, which I tend to think is a really beautiful medicine. I mean, I was a medical school dropout, a Western medical school dropout. So I know both sides and I appreciate Western medicine. I love it. I am supported by it. I have so many clients that are supported by that. I'll be the first to recommend a patient see a doctor. I'm very, very, very into integrative medicine. But I also look at all the pieces of the puzzle, which is what makes me a fertility detective and makes me so good at my job. So another thing I love about Chinese medicine is we call the uterus the child's palace.

I mean, come on. That's just amazing. So in this chapter one, I go all through how to prepare your child's palace for pregnancy, which is just, your child's house. It's a place where you're going to grow this human. I mean, we want it palatial. We want it gorgeous and nourished and hydrated and supple and healthy, rich blood flow in there. Not just any old uterus, we want a child's palace. So think about that. That's how Chinese medicine looks. That's how Chinese medicine looks at things. Sorry Instagram. A call just came in. So then I go into the emotional health of your child's palace. So the two things that I think are super important to the health of your child's palace, which is your uterus and all of your reproductive organs is the courage to believe in your body and its ability to procreate and having joy and passion in your life.

So you guys tell me, have you seen a fertility doctor or a gynecologist when you were talking about your fertility ask you about how much joy and passion you have in your life? Has anybody? Has any medical doctor ever asked you about joy and passion in your life and also how it relates to fertility? So another thing I love about Chinese medicine is we talk about the connection between the heart, which is what we were talking about before, the belief and the hope, the peace in your heart and honoring what's in your heart. And there's a tube or a channel, a vessel that runs right, in Chinese medicine theory, between the heart and the uterus. So the joy and the passion and the belief and the hope in that heart fills up that uterus, that child's palace, with light and love and hope and vitality, whereas fear and trauma and anger and sadness don't do a lot of good for that child's palace.

Again, all emotions are allowed to exist. I'm not saying you have to ignore or that these emotions are bad, but just how much air time are you giving the hope and the belief versus how much airtime are you giving the worry and the anxiety? And I think that's something really important to think about. And something that I've developed later after I wrote this book, but the common thing I talk about is emotional inflammation and physical inflammation and that emotional inflammation is just as toxic for us and just as aging, just as impactful on our health, as physical inflammation. So it's not just eating an anti-inflammatory diet that's filled with antioxidants and getting enough sleep. It's really dealing with the thoughts you have. The thoughts you think impact your behavior and they impact your health, on every level.

And so if they are inflammatory, if they are assaulting to you on a daily basis, if they are trenched in fear and doubt and worry and anxiety, there's a lot of emotional inflammation in your body and I want to get to the root of that to help you get more fertile. Yes. That will help you get more fertile. So you guys will go and read about this, but you can improve fertility with joy, with passion, with courage, and confidence. Okay. So then I talk about joy and courage. I talk about trauma, real life things. I give you some case studies in here and we start to get into, I'm reading from Yes, You Can Get Pregnant guys. This is my monthly book club, the fourth Thursday of every month where I'm reading from one of my books. We're starting with my best-selling book Yes, You Can Get Pregnant.

So again, I give you some inspiring stories in this chapter. And then I want you to, this is what I tell you and this is your homework for next month and to also reach chapter two, but “I want you to take a few moments and ponder the following two questions. How much joy and passion do I have in my life? And how much do I believe in my body and its ability to procreate? Hopefully you were conscious of some joy and passion in your life. Hopefully you believe in your body, at least a little bit. Either way, I want you to focus more on the joyful things in your life. I want you to reawaken your passion.” So a good friend of mine, Agapi Stassinopoulos, I always quote her because I just never heard anybody say it so eloquently.

“It's not about finding more things in your life to add joy and passion. It's about clearing away stuff to allow the joy and passion to come back up.” So just as I was saying in the beginning of this, it's not about going and searching for more hope and belief. It's about honoring the fact that just you being here is hope and belief enough. Listen to your spirit. Oh my God. That's like a sign from the universe. I still have the picture from my miscarriage with the sonogram picture, before I had miscarried of the baby in my uterus, and I have my Mala hanging over it. And that's just the weirdest thing in the world. Like for some reason, it just completely fell over. You see it back there. See. Maybe I need to remind her of like I'm still allowed to believe in my ability to procreate, huh?

But what Agapi says is, “It's not about going and finding new things,” which you can if you're inspired to do that, by all means, but I'm not putting more on your plate. It's more about removing the stress and the worry and the joy. My good friend, Leah Avelino, she says, “I give myself 20 minutes of dream time every day and 20 minutes of worry time every day.” So give them equal time. Don't let the fears rule. That's all. And listen to the spirit in here. That's what I was saying. When I was saying that, I said, “Listen to the spirit in here.” That's when the picture fell over.

Amazing. Okay. So I'd like you to do these three things starting today. “Before going to bed each night, write down five things that brought you joy that day. It could be something simple like I had an awesome, healthy lunch or it was great to catch up with a good friend or my workout today felt great. My relationship brings me so much joy. Number two.” So five things that brought you joy that day. “Number two each morning speak this simple affirmation to your child's palace. While lying down, put your hands over your lower abdomen and speak this affirmation either aloud or in your head. Dear uterus, you are the palace of my child and I believe in you. I send you love and joy. You are a beautiful palace grooming with fertility and I fully believe in your ability to get and stay pregnant. That is what we call my child's palace affirmation.”

“And number three, promise me from here on out,” so all of you. Promise me. “You're not going to use that I word anymore. You're going to say, “I'm dealing with some fertility challenges. I got some rejuvenation to do. I've had a shitty run so far when it comes to making a baby, but things are turning around. Things are looking up because there's a lot of fertility around me and I'm feeling empowered and I'm making these changes and I'm standing in my belief and in my hope more than in my worry and in my fear.” I need you to decide to embrace courage and hope and look for joyful things in your life each and every day. Without these conscious changes getting pregnant is going to be more difficult than it needs to be. Reclaim your fertility. Believe in your body. Send love to your child's palace.”

Okay. So that's enough for now, so I say. And then chapter two is all about anatomy and physiology, but that is our book club for today. And I also have something really important to share with you guys that are still on and want to hear about a new offering that I have for all of you because we get so many questions, which is amazing as I have grown socially. So many questions from you guys, Instagram, Facebook, email, DMs, I mean loads and loads of questions. And I don't always have the time to answer everybody's question and that doesn't feel good to me because I really like to be a beacon of hope and support for you guys because this journey is very challenging. So we are launching a new offering. It's going to be a monthly Q&A with me.

You can learn all about it if you go to aimeeraupp.com/askamy. Ask Amy, A-S-K and my name is spelled A-I-M-E-E. The first monthly Q&A is going to happen on March 4th. They are going to be recorded so you don't have to join in live and it is $11 to submit a question. You only get to submit one question and I get to truncate that question if I need to or mix it with another woman's question that's about the same so that way I can get to everybody's questions. But head over. All the information and a little video from me is on aimeeraupp.com/askamy. And the first monthly Q&A is going to be on March 4th. It's going to be on Zoom actually. We're not going to do it on Instagram or Facebook because it's private. You have to pay to submit a question.

So we're keeping the link private to anybody who pays and submits a question. And then if you can't make it live, you get the recording within 48 hours after the Q&A. So it's a pay to play kind of situation. It's only $11, which I think is like about just as much as you would spend at Starbucks on a large coffee drink [thinger 00:31:04]. So $11 to get the 17 years of clinical experience up here to answer your question. So again, go to aimeeraupp.com/askamy and get all the information you need. We'll also be emailing our list about it. So if you're on my email list you'll learn more about it there too, but it's the first time we're trying something like this and we're going to see how it goes. Okay? But again, it's going to be a private link through Zoom and you'll get the link the second you purchase.

I think you purchase, you get a form to submit your question, and then we send you information about the link, like acknowledged that we received your question and then tell you the next steps. Okay? So I'm going to go. So homework for four weeks from now, read chapter two and then do those steps one through three about recognizing the joy in your life, your child's palace mantra, and stop using that shitty I word. Okay. All right guys. Love you. I'll see you very soon. Ciao for now.

END TRANSCRIPT.

Aimee Raupp is a licensed herbalist, natural fertility expert and acupuncturist in NYC, offering natural fertility treatment, care & coaching solutions to women who want to get pregnant!  Get pregnant fast with natural fertility care, Aimee’s online fertility shop & coaching solutions.  Aimee Raupp has helped hundreds of women to get pregnant naturally! Aimee and her team are experts in Chinese Medicine, Massage & Eastern Nutrition!  Get pregnant naturally, achieve optimal health & vitality, take control of your health!  Aimee is excited to work with you at one of the Aimee Raupp Wellness Centers NYC. Aimee's Fertility Coaching Program is a personal guidance along your fertility journey. If you are trying to get pregnant naturally, this program is for you!  Aimee Raupp offers holistic, wellness and natural fertility books. Learn how to enhance your fertility and get pregnant naturally with Aimee’s cookbooks and diet guides!  Shop Aimee Raupp's natural fertility shop with online workshops, videos, consultation and coaching on fertility, meditation and healthy nutrition!

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