How to get pregnant? Relax… for a 160% greater chance.

October 20, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News, Pregnancy

Many women asking how to get pregnant have been told to just stop stressing about it. It’s now an idea that doctors at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Atlanta, have been presented. Backed by research, stress management may become part of a holistic approach to infertility.

Alice Domar presented her findings, discovered that women who participated in a stress management program while having a second round of fertility treatment had a 160 percent greater pregnancy rate than women getting IVF alone. Alice runs a fertility center in Boston and also works at Harvard Medical School

97 patients at the clinic took part in a 10-session mind and body program while undergoing treatments of in-vitro fertilization.

The program had no effect on how many women conceived during the first try, Domar told the meeting, with 43 percent of the women getting pregnant.

However, women who failed the first time and were having a second attempt, 52 percent who took part in the mind and body program became pregnant. This compared to only 20 percent of those who did not.

Alice Domar said in a statement: “Reproductive health experts have long wondered about the impact that stress may have on fertility, thus impeding a woman’s ability to conceive,

“This study shows that stress management may improve pregnancy rates, minimizing the stress of fertility management itself, improving the success rates of IVF procedures, and ultimately, helping to alleviate the emotional burden for women who are facing challenges trying to conceive.”