Fetile Ground in Melbourne

[morganj]

Has anyone been to Fertile Ground in East Melbourne? Can you share your experience? Cheers!

[AM]

No...ahhh.....what is it?

[nut]

We went .

It cost a bomb and was really a negative experience. The naturopath was a bit rude and presumptive. We took our nearly 2 yo DS with us and he was behaving like a normal kid- not loud or destructive but curious and tried to engage her, and she was really unpleasant to and about him:thumbsdown: . She refused to listen to what my actual questions and concerns were and was instead deadset on getting us both onto a very general plan which wasn't all that different to our regular eating. She was very disparaging about us eating toast for breakfast and sorta implied we'd never concieve if we kept that up:rolleyes: :laughing: .

We walked out feeling really put down and quite hopeless- and $200 poorer as she prescribed these "vital" herbal thingies which she never warned us about cost wise. It was just "oh yes you'll need X, Y and Z , we'll mix that up for you, oh you seem nervy- you need XX, oh your son is teething he needs YY- and on and on". She pressured us to make a whole lot of appointments in advance then and there. Needless to say once we'd had a minute to breathe deeply, and talk among ourselves we cancelled the rest of the appointments.

We went on to concieve shortly thereafter with NO help from her. I have successfully fought the impulse to call her and eat some toast while telling her of my pregnancy.....

If you want some help concieving naturally- have you tried acupuncture? I can really recommend someone brilliant in Kew. She gets all the credit from me for my lovely pregnancy!!!! Not cheap either mind you:rolleyes: ......

BEST of best of luck!!!!!!

[Towie]

I have also been to Fertile Ground in Melbourne. I found the practitioners to be quite nice so didn't experience the same rudeness as Nut but our problem was miscarriage. The approach was generalised, as Nut has said and the aim was to get eggs and sperm that were in tip top condition. Like Nut we were precribed a myriad of herbs (which taste horrendous!) and cost a fortune and told to change our diet, give up the booze, coffee etc. So essentially lead a 'purist' existence. This, apparently, would ensure a healthy baby. We did as suggested and then went on to have another miscarriage - it was a chromosomal abnormality - exactly what we were trying to avoid!
I found them to be professional and empathetic but it just didn't do the job and nearly sent us bankrupt (amazing what you'll spend if you're desperate). I ended up going to the Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic at the Royal Womens where we had much more success (I now have a 3 month old daughter).

Like Nut suggested, accupuncture is definitely worth trying. I was also having accupuncture and I whilst having it I conceived twice (I lost both but the Royal Women's actually got to the root of the cause of the losses) so accupuncture is definitely worth considering. The guy I saw is in Brunswick and is used by Melbourne IVF so might be worth considering as well. PM me if you want his details.
Best of luck with it.

[morganj]

Thanks Towie. I'm sorry to hear of your losses. I have also had two m/c and have discovered that the second was a result of an abnormality. DId you approach the clinic yourself or did you get a referral from your GP. I had a heap of bloods ordered which didn't show anything of concern. Is there anything else the clinic did for you besides ordering bloods? Thanks.

[nut]

Miscarriage was my problem too, and I feel that the acupuncture I had early in this pregnancy really got that baby firmly implanted and stuck for the long haul.

I hope things happen for you soon:) .

ETA: We had already given up caffiene, alcohol and preservatives etc. and I buy our food (organic) fresh daily and that still wasn't nearly good enough..... Oh well. Glad they were nice to you though Towie!

[Alisonp]

I have been there for a massage and it was devine (it was a gift from a friend). They seemed very professional at least in my limited experience.

Sorry I'm no help with any other services.

[blossum]

I went to one of the acupunturists at Fertile Ground while I was on IVF and she was lovely. She never tried to sell me any herbs, her belief was that since I was on IVF that was enough drugs to be taking.

I think her name was Jacinta and she was great, I also saw her a few times for morning sickness and she was very keen on me seeing one of the naturopaths which I still haven't managed to do due to lack of time lately. After reading Nut's account I am glad I didn't now as I really don't have the patience for those practitioners that expect you to make numerous appointments and buy everything under the sun.

[Towie]

Thanks Towie. I'm sorry to hear of your losses. I have also had two m/c and have discovered that the second was a result of an abnormality. DId you approach the clinic yourself or did you get a referral from your GP. I had a heap of bloods ordered which didn't show anything of concern. Is there anything else the clinic did for you besides ordering bloods? Thanks.

I ended up going to the Clinic myself, a friend told me about it but, unfortunately they will only see you if you have suffered three or more losses, which is so frustrating because I remember after the second loss I was doing everything I could to stop a third (ie accupuncture and Ferile Ground), but apparenly two losses is not 'statistically significant' whereas three is more unusual. But for the person who has had two losses, this approach is quite cruel.

The Clinic only ordered bloods but these tests showed an abnormal anti-body. My ob had also seen this result but didn't know it caused miscarriage (needless to say, I changed obs) but because they are specialists in recurrent miscarriage at teh Women's they know exactly what to look for.

Fingers crossed your next one works and you wont have to go there, but if you do lose another one (ifngers crossed for not!) you just ring the Royal Women's and ask to be put through to the Recurrent Miscarraige Clinic.

Best of luck to you, it is such a difficult thing to have to go through.

[Rianna]

Hi morganj,
So sorry to hear of your losses. I think we are at a pretty similar stage of our journeys. I have a very similar condition to Towie but, having had ONLY two miscarriages, was not eligible to attend the Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic. I am not sure where you are attending now but I have been attending the Pregnancy Management Clinic at the RWH and they have been fantastic in managing my case and really thoroughly investigating my problem so this might be an option for you too. I really wish you all the best.
Oh, and in reference to Fertile Ground, I too have attended the clinic and find them to be very professional but I guess it's whether you really believe that this will help you or not as it is expensive and they do reccomend a lot of lifestyle changes. I go with the attitude that I want to explore every option and have all my bases covered.