Be Fruitful: Conceiving Healthy Children with Ease
Victoria Maizes, MD
Format: Video of Slides

Health professionals are rarely taught to counsel women on how to prepare for a healthy pregnancy, to enhance fertility, or to improve the health of their future child. At the same time, modern women are taught to ignore their biological clocks and proceed with their careers; the larger media message promising that fertility is possible at advanced ages with a bit of help from reproductive technologies. This can be a false promise.

The fetal origins hypothesis posits that the environment of the womb has a profound effect on a human being, increasing, or helping to prevent, a myriad of diseases. To optimize a baby's health, wellness-promoting activities must begin prior to conception. In her presentation, Dr Maizes will discuss ways to reduce exposure to the thousands of environmental chemicals currently in use; the known consequences include increased risk of autism, leukemia, cancer and cardiovascular disease. She will review the impact of the standard American diet, which reduces fertility and increases obesity in children, as well as evidence for whole food diets and macronutrients shown to increase fertility. She will also discuss the micronutrients proven to reduce the risk of neural tube and heart defects and are associated with lower levels of autism. Finally, she will also discuss the physiological effects of stress, the role of spirituality, and the whole systems that can be used to increase the likelihood of conception.