If you’ve ever thought ‘What the what is a Fertility Coach,’ then this post is for you.
(If you’d like to become a fertility coach, I also have some info for you at the bottom too)
I want to tell you about my story of how I became aware of fertility coaches, what I first thought of them and how I then became a fertility coach for a while. How do you find one? What should you expect? How much did it cost? And are there any alternatives?
I remember when I first started on my journey. One of the reasons I do what I do, is because I remember firmly feeling absolutely defeated when every month I would be sitting on the bathroom floor, devastated. This wasn’t going to plan. I should’ve fallen pregnant quickly. I had my naturopath. I felt like I was doing all the right things, and my naturopath was sort of like a surrogate counselor to me.
She was one of the only people who knew what I was going through, and she understood, and she cared about me.
She always asked, “How are you going?” And wanted to know the answer. She’s now become a dear friend. The majority of people won’t form a relationship like that with their naturopath, but that’s sort of what happened to me. But it still stung for a very long time.
And despite that amazing support my fertility journey was still really hard on me. We tried on our own for a year, and then we went to a fertility clinic. We did multiple things there for a year. Then, and only then though, the clinic had us do a counselling session. This was because, as part of the guidelines of what fertility clinics offer, in Australia clients undergoing IVF need to be referred to a counselor.. But it was a single session with a lady who was like 60.
She kind of gave me the standard advice like, “Keep busy,” Which I think is important. You don’t want to be just sat there at home every day wallowing in your own pity, but I felt like all of the advice she gave me was really top-level stuff. It was things I could’ve probably Googled in one sitting. I didn’t get that connection like she had been in my shoes and understood exactly what I was going through. I muddled through everything myself, had the miscarriage, and then started this process of really learning how to cope with my emotions and learning on my own.
At the time that I was going through everything, even really when I was trying for Olivia, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a fertility coach.
I never knew that they really existed. I went on my journey, and I started podcasting. I started the Facebook group and then the first time I became aware of these people called fertility coaches was when one of the members of our Facebook group messaged me privately and told me that she had this hour-long awkward conversation with another member about purchasing this $10,000 fertility coaching program of hers. I remember just thinking to myself, “Who is this charlatan?”
These women are struggling on their journey. They can’t afford their payments, how can they afford $10,000? What is this lady gonna tell her? What’s gonna go on in this?
That was actually my first experience of a fertility coach. Then I started the Facebook group, which we still have, fertility bloggers, coaches, and businesses. A lot of the people who have joined that have been fertility coaches. It really, I guess, changed the way I felt about fertility coaches. Because I saw these women. I saw a number of the qualifications that they have. I also started reading a lot more studies, as well, about how even things just like mind-body courses can affect fertility by up to 50%. These studies have really opened my eyes to the impact that stress has on our conception journey.
Women who undergo mind-body courses have much higher chances of conceiving, fewer miscarriages, better egg retrieval rates, and so much more. Especially when they’re going through IVF. But mostly I just came across this nice group of women who shared a passion for me of just wanting to help. Just wanting to help women who are suffering from infertility. And many of whom had walked in those shoes before, and felt very deeply affected emotionally by the journey.
I then started making this my business, because there’s a lot of time that goes into everything, and also a lot of costs. Just in website hosting, podcast hosting, the equipment that you need. The time involved in creating images, recording it, blah blah blah. When you want to provide a service to people, the reality is that it takes both time and money. So I really started to change my opinion, and I saw some of the feedback that these women were receiving.
At that time I decided to engage in training and enrolled to become a Holistic Life Coach and Mind Body Practitioner, and it has been a hugely rewarding experience. I drew upon my experience with meditation (including meditating with monks in Japan!), the cognitive behavioural therapy and mental first aid training I had, and generally my own experience with infertility, and then working with naturopaths, nutritionists, acupuncturists and other specialists through the podcast, as well as managing our Facebook Group for Fertility Warriors and the advice and experiences through there.
In the last six months, I’ve moved away from doing 1:1 coaching in favour of other programs, like my membership but I still remain a huge advocate of it, and hence why I wanted to break down a little bit about exactly what fertility coaching is for anyone who is curious.
So, what does a Fertility Coach do?
The people who I was coaching were struggling emotionally. They were also struggling with all of the conflicting diet advice out there.
The thing about doctors and fertility specialists is often, they’re very reluctant to give you that kind of lifestyle advice. They only want things that will 100% move the needle and they are very research driven (rightly so, but research into infertility is very underfunded. Nobody wishes to mess with the wellness of a potential baby, and funding more often than not goes to conditions that are essential to life, such as cancer research).
But when we maximize our diet, when we maximize how our mind is working and how we are managing our stress responses in our body, then that can really improve the success rates fertility treatments. A number of people also used to come to me because they just didn’t know what to do from a diet perspective. They wanted some realistic advice.
They wanted just someone to tell them, “This is what I recommend you do. Don’t worry about that, do worry about that.” Someone to give them other lifestyle advice. People who wanted a second opinion from someone who understood their journey, which their friends and family could not do. Sometimes the feedback was not from a medical standpoint, but they wanted to know what someone else’s take was on particular results, or what someone else thought they should do.
My clients were looking for someone who could recommend other practitioners, talk honestly with and provide everything else that the medical side doesn’t always provide – the holistic side.
And someone who could look after THEM – spiritually and emotionally.
How do they do this, and what do they specialise in?
They are really varied in the services that they offer as some offer counseling on a regular basis and have you work on exercises. They might review your tests for you. Some can be functional medicine practitioners and will order some tests for you for food intolerances, etc. Some of them are therapists themselves. Some of them are hypnotherapists. Some of them are naturopaths, who offer coaching alongside naturopathy, or nutritionists who offer to coach alongside their nutritional background.
There’s really a varied group of fertility coaches out there, and the services that they provide. If you are looking for someone who is going to be a detective, then definitely look at, “Is this the type of person? Is this the services that I want? Do I want someone who’s going to help with those diet-y kinds of things and those lifestyle kinds of things?”
You really need to have a look at who you mesh with. Understand their personality through a discovery call and never feel obligated to move forward if you do so!
It’s about finding out if they’re a good fit with you and what you feel is missing from your journey.
I would absolutely invest in a fertility coach.
They get it and understand what you’re going through.
It’s time dedicated to you.
They can provide you with easy information that took me so long to figure out on my own.
Things like lifestyle factors, how to improve sleep, supplements
How much does a Fertility Coach cost?
Very rarely $10,000!
Usually not even close.
In terms of the costs, the costs really vary. I have never met someone who is more than $5,000. Most of the time a lot of them offer packages that are about half that but it really depends on the fertility coach.
When I look at the cost of a Fertility Coach though, and consider the benefits they can provide, in terms of shortening the time it takes to fall pregnant and the cost of not needing as many cycles as you may otherwise need, it seems like such a no brainer to me and I just wish that I knew about fertility coaches earlier on my journey
If you’re unsure though, that’s where you really need to schedule a no-obligation discovery call with them. They all offer them.
Don’t ever feel obligated.
See whether it’s something that you think might be helpful for you on your journey. Then if it’s not, don’t feel like you need to take it further. Just be honest and let them know.
So that’s what a fertility coach is. That’s how I’ve done a complete 180 into how I feel about fertility coaching. The statistics are out there that really show that mind-body programs, diet, mental wellness, and managing stress can really impact your success rates by up to 50%. It could double your chances of success.
If I look at that, obviously it’s always a gamble, but if you go look at success rates for IVF, it’s usually about 30% per cycle. If that doubles it, that takes it to a 60% success rate chance, which means that you might only need one IVF cycle instead of two IVF cycles (emphasis on *might* – everyone’s journey is different).
And when we look at the costs, that’s actually a big cost saving there, with the bonus of having someone who you feel is on your team. If you would like to have some recommendations for some of the fertility coaches who I personally know and know what they offer and can recommend, please email me and I’d be happy to have a think about how might be a good fit based on your circumstances.
Having someone on your team who understands, who gets it and can give you some really good advice on your journey, I think can be a really powerful thing.
What is better than a Fertility Coach?
Well… not to toot my own horn but my membership!
I created the Mind Body Fertility Reset because I wanted to offer you the support and lessons that you’d receive with a fertility coach, but with a fraction of the cost.
Whilst I was doing 1:1 coaching I discovered that OFTEN, I was helping people through the same fears and providing the same education.
I also didn’t want you to have to wait in between sessions or fit in with my time zone (because I’m in Western Australia… pretty much the opposite time zone to most of my clients!)
And I wanted you to be able to refer back to the material again and again when you needed it, as well as have support to other services that I KNOW provide incredible fertility and mindset benefits, such as meditations, yoga and pilates.
All of that is provided within my comprehensive membership, The Mind Body Fertility Reset.
I’ve coached more than 100 women through this program, and our results speak for themselves. EVERY single one of the women in our pilot program have their babies in their arms(some who now have their second!) But moreso, they’ve each come away with incredible lifelong changes to the way they handle the roadbumps of life.
That’s priceless.
So… if you’re looking for a comprehensive program that is at the fraction of the cost of a Fertility Coach, perhaps consider the Mind Body Fertility Reset
Or if you’re set on working with a fertility coach on a 1:1 basis, then feel free to shout me out on Instagram and I’d be happy to recommend one of my colleagues.
So… what if you want to become a fertility coach?
One of the number 1 questions I receive on DM’s isn’t actually from people who are looking for a fertility coach, it’s from fellow professionals (bloggers, nurses, embryologists, coaches) asking me where I trained, if I offer training and what ‘fertility coach courses I recommend’.
If this is you, I recommend doing ONE thing: come and join my Facebook Group for professionals, and then in the announcements, you’ll see I did a big video with some questions for you and some recommendations. Click here to join the group.