Nappuccino 23rd Sept

I've just heard about a great little event that's taking place in Chester on 23rd September. It's called "Nappuccino" and is being billed as a cafe session for both families with babies and parents to be.

Between 1pm and 2.45pm at All Saints Church Centre, Hoole, Chester you will be able to find out more about natural and organic products including cloth nappies - for which there wil be demonstrations and personal advice for your family.

Not only that but you can meet other local parents and relax with a cup of tea and a slice of homemade cake.

If that's not enough to tempt you, the money raised from the sale of refreshments is going to CLIC Sargent's Yummy Mummy Week Campaign which is raising money to help children with cancer.

If you need any more incentive to come along then - entry is FREE.

Katie, the organiser just asks that you let her know that you are coming along so that she can make sure she has baked enough cakes. Please do give her a call on 07792 067628 or email her at katiemillard@aol.com

I'm a great fan of cloth nappies. I bought some second hand ones to use for my daughter (which were a great price but still in great condition) and am planning to use them again for my next baby. So, I shall be coming along to the event and while I'm there if anyone wants to chat about HypnoBirthing or any of my other services then I would be happy to oblige.

So please, do come along, support CLIC Sargent, learn about cloth nappies and have a cup of tea a piece of cake and a chat!

Tracy x

Because You're Worth It

In my spare time I am a volunteer business mentor for The Princes Trust and I wanted to let you know about a great new company that I am currently mentoring because it's a good news story - and also, as an unashamed plug for them!

The Beauty Lounge in Westminster Park, Chester was established just a few months ago by experienced beauty therapists Celena Davies and Claire Garner. The Princes Trust provided a small amount of financial assistance and ongoing business support (including me as their mentor).

Since opening they have gone from strength to strength due to lots of hard work and well thought through and targeted marketing. Their premises look great and by all accounts the service they provide is second to none.

You can go there for facial treatments, body treatments, sun beds, spray tan, waxing, make-up, nails and even to have your feet done (there's now a chiropodist working from their salon on Mondays).

For all you Mothers-To-Be out there they also offer a number of treatments which are suitable for pregnancy which include a "Foot and Leg Refresher", a "Deluxe Hand and Feet Therapy" and a "Full Body Scrub and Relaxing Massage". Yummy mummy (to be)!

A really good thing about this salon is that you can park right outside - so no scurrying back to the car park across town with your scarf pulled up to your nose and you hat pulled down to your chin after having pluckings and waxings done!

In case you are wondering, I have no vested interest in The Beauty Lounge apart from the fact that I like to see new, fresh, hard working companies do well.

So if you want to get in touch and try them out for yourselves you can call 01244 677687. Their website is currently undercontrsuction, but before long you should be able to access it at www.thebeautyloungechester.co.uk

Good luck Celena and Claire - keep up the good work!

Tracy xx

Hurray for chocolate!

At last ladies - something that we can indulge in during pregnancy that isn't deemed a risk to our or our baby's health - CHOCOLATE! In fact, it is claimed that it can actually reduce pregnancy complications. Bring on the chocolate now.

An article in Reuters recently caught my eye and I thought I'd better share it with you all. If you want to read the article in full you can click on this link - Reuters article.

In summary, the article explains the results of a recent study done by researchers in Yale University. The lovely results include the statement that "women who have five or more servings of chocolate each week in their third trimester of pregnancy were less likely to develop preeclampsia than those who ate chocolate less than once a week".

There was a similar, although weaker, relationship between eating chocolate and preeclampsia in the women's first trimester.

The reason for this is thought to be a chemical called theobromine, which is found in chocolate (especially dark chocolate - so not such a good news story for Dairy Milk lovers out there). Thobromine may be responsible for "improving circulation in the placenta while blocking oxidative stress".

Having read that, I am now going to sit down and really enjoy a bar of really good chocolate. And for those other pregnant chocoholics out there, I hope that this news has brightened your day!

Tracy xx

Happy Birthday Louise Brown!

I was 7 when Louise Brown was born on 25th July 1978 and I never could have imagined that 27 years later I would be giving birth to my own superbabe. At the time, I couldn’t fail to notice the news and realise that something special had happened, but it wasn’t until I began my own fertility journey that the significance of that special day really hit home.

Even now when I think about the miracle of IVF I am in complete awe of the scientists and health professionals who made the birth of my daughter possible. I find myself even more awed when I think about the teeny tiny embryo that was frozen in February 2005 and defrosted in April 2008 and is now a new baby growing inside me. My mind boggles when I realise that this new baby is my daughter’s twin! In fact, I feel humble and at the same time immensely grateful.

So Happy 30th Birthday Louise Brown. Your Mum described you as her “cherished little angel” and to all of us who have had to consider the possibility of IVF during our lives see you as a beacon of hope that one day we too can hold our own cherished little angels in our arms. Thank you for being.

Namaste,

Tracy

Healthier babies from frozen embryos?

I have noticed that Times Online has carried a number of articles about fertility over the last couple of days and this particular article caught my attention on account of the fact that I am pregnant with a frozen embryo baby myself.

Mark Henderson, Science Editor for The Times, reported that Danish research findings show that IVF babies born from embryos that have been frozen and then thawed are less likely to be underweight or premature. Well that's one less thing for the expectant mother to be worried about then!

He goes on to say that it was found that the average birth weight of frozen embryo babies was 200g more than in a fresh-embryo IVF.

OK, so here's my contribution to that research. My daughter was born in 2005 weighing 8lb 1oz. She was the result of a fresh-embryo IVF. This current pregnancy was the result of a frozen embryo transfer from the same course of IVF. So come the end of the year I should be able to compare the two.

If you want to read the fulll article you can click here and this link should take you straight there.

I'm off on my holidays from 12th until 20th July. The website will continue to operate without me (for bookings and shopping) although I won't be able to send out any paperwork or products until 21st July.

Bye for now,
Tracy

Postscript added 5 Jan 2009:

My frozen embryo baby, Iolo, born on 23rd December weighed in at a healthy 8lb 11oz.

I don't know what this contributes towards the debate, although he is clearly heavier than Rhian (his fresh embryo twin) was at birth.

They are both healthy and gorgeous and that's all that matters to me!

Tracy x

Living in the moment

I have always thought that living in the moment was something positive to aim for. Now I am seeing it in a different light courtesy of Drake Eastburn.

Drake is a Certified Hypnotherapist from the US (Denver, Colorado to be precise) and his wife is the fabulous Lynsi Eastburn, the creator of the HypnoFertility programme. I had the pleasure of training with Lynsi in Belfast earlier this year and am pleased to say that she has found time in her busy schedule to come to the UK again in 2009 to be a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the National Council for Hypnotherapy.

Anyway, back to the point in hand. Before training with Lynsi I bought a copy of one of Drake's books called "The Power of the Past" in which he explains Transformational Replay, his take on Hypnotic Regression Therapy. The technique he teaches is brilliant and I now use it in my own practice. I would urge any practising hypnotherapist out there to have a read. Drake's writing style is so easy to read that you'll consume it whole in a matter of hours and then go back for more.

So, again I have digressed. The point about living in the moment is made in the first chapter, "How We Become Who We Are", and Drake explains that at any given moment not much is really going on and that whatever is going on is the product of all the stuff that happened prior to that one moment. Basically, he asserts that without our history there would be no moment.

So far so good, but it really comes to light when he introduces the analogy of music. He explains that the moment, the now, is just one single note. And now I'm going to quote directly because Drake's own words are so much better than my paraphrasing:

"No matter how sweet that note might sound, for that brief moment while it's drifting through the air, it is just one brief note. It is all the other notes that led up to that note that create the melody that, when brought together, sounds so delicious. With only one note there will be no melody..."

"Our history creates the melody of our lives. Without our history we would not be the people we are today. Each moment in our lives is one of the notes that creates the melody (story) of our lives."

The point he goes on to explain is that our history is an important part of who we are now and it can be a motivator or an excuse for how we live our lives. It's up to us to choose. People who recognise their history and deal with it in a healthy manner can gain wisdom and build character in the process.

Having recognised our history we can then go on to move forward and change it, or rewrite our own symphony, to return to the musical analogy.

That's where regression therapy comes into play because one of the problems with trying to change our history is that early events are often no longer in our conscious memory but in the subconscious memory, where they continue to play an important part in how we act and think (we just don't realise it!). So regression therapy is about talking to the subconscious mind to get to the core issue quickly and effectively so that we can start to move forward.

Thank you for the inspiration Drake.

Namaste,

Tracy xx

IVF Pregnancy Due Dates

I recently found a fabulous tool on one of my favourite websites and I thought that I should share it with everyone.

On the Fertility Friends website is this thing called an IVF Pregnancy Due Date and Fetal Development Calculator. What first struck me about this was the fact that rather than simply working from your LMP (last menstrual period) you could alternatively put in the date of egg collection or ovulation. This is particularly important for those of us who achieved our pregnancy through IVF because the date of our LMP is of little relevance when calculating due dates is it.

But, there's even more to it than that. When you've put in your date you get your due date and a whole load of other REALLY useful information too. There's due dates for multiple births, your own personalised dates for various tests and scans and then a week by week description of fetal development (together with the dates at which you reach these milestones).

But that's not all. The Fertility Friends website is also a great source of information and support. In particular, their message board is fantastic - and free to join. There are a multitude of different forums specific to your own circumstances: whether you are just starting out of your fertility journey, in the middle of treatment (with different forums for different treatments and different stages of treatment), pregnant, dealing with pregnancy loss, taking a breather or deciding to move on. In fact, there's too many for me to do them justice here so I recommend you take a look yourself and give it a go.

I hope you find the whole site as useful as I do - let me know what you think.

Tracy xx