Overcome recurrent miscarriages naturally and get pregnant faster by following the advice and guidance of fertility expert, Aimee Raupp MS, LAc.

Welcome to Stories of Hope: True tales of life, love, and perseverance from the Yes, You Can Get Pregnant community. Because we’re on the fertility journey together.

After her 6th recurrent miscarriage Hannah reached out to me. She had just turned 38 and needed answers. She started trying to conceive with her husband 4 years prior and this is how it went:

Hannah’s Pregnancy History

Pregnancy #1 (2014): natural conception, miscarriage at 8 weeks
Pregnancy #2 (2014): natural conception, miscarriage at 5 weeks
Pregnancy #3 (2014): natural conception, miscarriage at 5 weeks
Pregnancy #4 (2015): natural conception, carried a healthy baby boy to term
Pregnancy #5 (2017) : natural conception, miscarriage at 5 weeks
Pregnancy #6 (2017): natural conception, miscarriage at 6 weeks
Pregnancy #7 (2018): natural conception, miscarriage at 8 weeks

Both of Hannah’s 8 week losses were due to a chromosomal abnormality and all of the other losses were likely due to a clotting factor disorder.

Clotting Factor Diagnosis

In 2015, after her 3rd loss, Hannah and her husband traveled to see a miscarriage specialist in a nearby city. He tested her for clotting factor issues and found that she had one: Protein S Deficiency. The doctor recommended that Hannah take a baby aspirin daily along with Lovenox (a blood thinning injection medication) once she was pregnant. It turned out that at her appointment that she was pregnant again. She started the Lovenox immediately and for the first time she carried a healthy pregnancy to term.

When I started working with Hannah, she was extremely educated on clotting factor disorders and miscarriage and although she was taking the baby aspirin regularly and the Lovenox when she conceived, she couldn't understand why she was having miscarriages again. From all she learned she thought that her treatment for her Protein S Deficiency should have been treating the cause of her miscarriages.

Fertility Coaching With Me

As I did my intake with her she revealed to me that her health was much different now than it was back in 2015 when she carried her son to term. She was exhausted, dealing with daily sinus congestion and allergies plus she was always catching colds and found that it took a long time for her to recover.

She also let me know that her diet was, as she put it, “just terrible”. Both her and her husband were working long hours and were mainly eating take out and processed, sugar-laden foods. She was constipated, having bowel movements every 2-3 days. Her sleep was restless and she would wake up too early, never falling back asleep. Between her job, her exhaustion and having a toddler, she had no time to exercise or do much of anything for herself.

The Emotional Toll of the Fertility Journey

During our first coaching call, Hannah cried to me revealing, “I am so miserable. I feel terrible about it because my life is good but I am a shell of my former self.” In 2015 when she conceived her son she was happy at work, eating good quality foods, practicing yoga regularly, social, rested and excited about life. None of that was true for her now. When we discussed her recent miscarriages she said to me, “I know all of this is my fault.”

I knew Hannah had to take back the power over her health on every level and rework some of her core body beliefs. She had lost touch with herself and didn't know where to start to find herself again.

The First Action Steps

By the end of our first call, Hannah and I developed a simple plan that would work for her life. Her first homework assignment: to start keeping a food diary for me and do her best to cook more and get in more vegetables and good quality protein. And for extra credit she would try and get yoga in 3 times/week.

On our second call Hannah was feeling better, but not great. She admitted she was still going too long between meals however she did notice that on the days she managed to eat every 3 hours, her energy was incredible as was her sleep. She was feeling encouraged and determined to get back to a lifestyle that supported her thriving health.

Working Through Limiting Beliefs

We spent most of our second coaching call working through her limiting beliefs. Her main one was that she felt like a failure because she wasn’t being true to herself. As she said “I lost part of myself and I’m mad at myself for it.” Since writing was a hobby of hers (that she hadn’t practiced in almost two years), I encouraged her to write more. Specifically, I told her to write about her miscarriages. I wanted her to reconnect to herself, to get really vulnerable and allow herself to feel the deep joy her hobby brought her. Hannah told me, “when I got pregnant with my son, I was writing all the time. I haven’t spent any time writing since I had him.”

In between our second and third coaching call, Hannah emailed me to tell me how great she was feeling. She was writing daily (even if only for ten minutes), doing couples yoga with her husband a few nights a week, cooking dinners again and having bowel movements almost daily.

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

On our third coaching call Hannah told me how she had “fallen off the wagon a bit” as they were traveling. But as we talked more, she realized this wasn't entirely true. Yes, she was still eating out some and having more alcohol than I recommend but she was starting each day with eggs and greens, getting her yoga in, writing regularly and generally having more fun. What I pointed out to her was that she was making great progress but her core belief of not being good enough was lurking. She admitted her deep anxiety in the moment was that she wasn’t doing enough and that her miscarriages were all her fault. She was comparing herself to other mothers and beating herself up for working too much. As we unpacked these beliefs Hannah started to see how these beliefs did and did not serve her.

Nourish Your Fertility

Since it was summer time and Hannah still didn't have the confidence to begin #TTC again, we decided to give herself the summer to focus on her joy and getting stronger in her body. Around that same time, I was running my Nourish Your Fertility Retreat and Hannah excitedly took part. She loved the deep dive on the emotional pieces and the fertility yoga. She wrote me after, “This retreat was exactly what I needed. I am now shifting my intentions and nourishing myself even more. Thank you!”.

We had another coaching call towards the end of summer. As we planned, Hannah had spent most of her summer enjoying her life and rebuilding her strength, emotionally and physically. I was excited to hear that she was still carrying with her what she learned from the Nourish Your Fertility retreat: to focus on what her intentions are for herself, not what everyone else is doing/thinks she should do. As she told me, “I am more connected to myself than ever before. My joy feels automatic, but I still need more ease in my life.”

More Ease Please

The ease she longed for was around the topic of getting pregnant again. She told me how the thought of getting pregnant again felt scary. But that she also no longer feels an incredible need to be pregnant right away. Hannah told me that she’s been more accepting of the sadness she feels around her pregnancy losses. She noticed that when she lets herself feel her sadness, her biggest limiting belief that came up was, “if I’m not being perfect, I am bad.”

Hannah and I spent a lot of time reworking that belief and allowing her to realize she is perfectly imperfect. That this isn’t about being good or bad, this is about loving and accepting herself in the knowing that she is doing the best she can do.

Living In Her Body Again

We wrapped up our call with the plan to reconnect in a few weeks. Hannah’s homework was to continue to eat and think in a way that felt nourishing to herself. As I saw it, her diet was on point and her emotional state was so much more connected. She was living in her body again and witnessing her feelings as they came up. She was getting to the core of her limiting beliefs and had the ability to rework them.

Hannah messaged me before our 5th and final coaching call that she had gotten a promotion at work so she needed to postpone our meeting. Around the same time, I was running my Reboot and Rewire program and Hannah decided to take part. She felt like that level of structure and community was exactly what she needed as her work life was transitioning. We kept in touch over email during that time as Hannah was a bit too busy to do any coaching calls.

Reboot & Rewire Results

About 1 month after the Reboot and Rewire program ended, Hannah messaged me:

“Hi Aimee,

It’s been a while since our last call and I wanted to let you know that I am pregnant! I got a positive digital test that indicated 3+ weeks post-conception, which means I am around 5-6 weeks.

It’s still early days but my symptoms are strong, and while I am noticing a bit of anxiety come and go, overall I feel confident and hopeful. I honestly wasn’t expecting anything to come of this cycle as I’ve been so busy with work and travel, but the Reboot & Rewire programme came at exactly the right time — I focused on the “feelings” work, which has always been the biggest part for me, and was planning on starting the elimination diet after my travel schedule settled down, though I guess I should postpone that…

I’m currently traveling and will see my ob-gyn in about two weeks. I am taking my Lovenox daily and still eating protein and veggies as regularly as i can (I don’t feel great, but I am trying).

If it works for you I would love to plan a coaching call for after that to check in… and meanwhile I’d also like to ask what options are available if we continue to work together since I believe this will be the last call left in my package?

Thank you for your all your amazing support and guidance, and for giving me the hope, faith, and confidence in myself to get to this point. I will also post this news to the R&R group as I know some of the women there are struggling with similar issues and perhaps my experience can help them.

Love, Hannah”

The Happy Ending

As I write this Hannah is 20 weeks pregnant with a thriving baby boy. She has overcome recurrent miscarriages and is ready to be a momma.

This Could Be YOUR Story Too

I have learned SO much over my 15 years of clinical practice helping thousands of women achieve their dreams of motherhood. If you are ready to take back your power over your health and make the diet & lifestyle changes to transform YOUR fertility, I can help you! In addition to my acupuncture & wellness services in my clinics, I offer private online coaching, so you can work with me from the comfort of your own home

You can also look around my website to learn more about my books, my online workshops and guides, my Ultimate Fertility Membership and my amazing Yes, You Can Get Pregnant Ecourse. I look forward to guiding you to reawakened health and thriving fertility!