Becoming Mom: How Fertility Charting Changed My Life (Part 2)
Another important distinction that sets us apart is that we display the temperature and cervical fluid observations within the same graphing space so as to emphasize how they relate. The line graph represents waking temperature whereas the height of the bars on the bar chart corresponds to the quality of cervical fluid. Each of these levels of ‘wetter’ cervical fluid is reflected by higher bars – the higher the bar; the wetter the cervical fluid. And as far as cervical fluid, the wetter – the better for conception purposes. Graphing temperature and cervical fluid in the same graphing space allows our members to see how these observations relate.
Since symptom watching is a part of the Sympto-Thermal Method, our members are prompted to examine the status of a wide swath of systems, covering everything from fertility to emotional, dermatologic, autonomic, digestive symptoms and others. But, since we are more than a collection of clinical observations, we encourage our members to take a holistic approach to their health and wellbeing through daily prompts to drink water, to play with their children and to spend time with their partner, etc. This is an aspect of Fertility Flower that is going to be expanding over the course of the next months because treating one part of ourselves never works. Your body wants to heal itself, but only as a whole.
The website is flexible enough to accommodate women throughout their reproductive years. There are three main sections to it, ‘Seed’, ‘Sprout’ and ‘Bloom’, names which are aligned with the garden motif that runs throughout the website.
- ‘Seed’ clients are those who have no children and are not currently pregnant.
- ‘Sprout’ clients are those who are pregnant with their first child.
- ‘Bloom’ clients are women with children.
The idea behind the distinction is that, for example, the experience of pregnancy is very different for the first time mom than it is for someone who’s already gone through a pregnancy and birth, such that our Sprout clients have more in common with each other than they might have with Bloom clients, who may be pregnant with their 2nd, 3rd and 4th child…etc. Similarly, the experience of trying to conceive is different when the client has no children yet – many of our Seed clients have experienced miscarriage and thus worry that they might never become pregnant whereas our Bloom clients (while they may also worry about infertility) know that they are able to conceive and carry a child to term. And while these are apparently three distinct sections, they actually flow together seamlessly. Seed members who become pregnant automatically move into the Sprout section and after giving birth, into Bloom.
While the majority of our members access the website under the auspices of trying to conceive, I am seeing a growing contingent of members who want to use natural methods to avoid a pregnancy. Fertility awareness (as opposed to fertility suppression) is a fantastic way to naturally avoid a pregnancy. Current research shows that the sympto-thermal method is as effective as The Pill when abstinence is observed during the fertile phase. So, while Fertility Flower is mainly about building families, it’s also about supporting decisions to grow (or not grow) families by working with (rather than against) nature.
As an inducement to try FertilityFlower.com, I want to extend a special offer to chart with us for 3 months at the Premium level. All new registrants receive a free trial month at the Premium level – I’m offering you an extra 2 months at that level when you enter the coupon code: PCOS. I hope that as you become acquainted with the website, you will see how truly marvelous a creation you really are!
Kimberly Racic is called mom by a daughter (born Dec 2009) and a son (born Aug 2011). She lives on the family farm, raising organic fruits and vegetables as well as her children and somehow finds time to run FertilityFlower.com!
