Increasing Pregnancy and Implantation Rates with a Hearty Ha Ha Ha
Laughter is good medicine. We’ve heard that one before. But the idea that laughter can increase implantation and pregnancy rates? Really?
A few days ago, I was scanning some notes I collected over the years and came across a long-forgotten study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility that found higher IVF-pregnancy rates among women who were entertained by a professional “medical clown” right after embryo transfer.
My take?
In the Meeting Your Child Halfway Video Series we speak about the Current of Yes, and the Current of No.
In the Current of Yes we allow the Truth of the moment to move through us. Any Truth. Pleasant or unpleasant. Difficult or easy.
In the Current of No we turn away from Truth. We clench and armor ourselves against anything that’s less than pleasing.
So when it comes to the laughter study, I say, it can be laughter and it can also be tears. The unclenching and letting go can happen through laughter or through tears or at any moment we step into the Current of Truth.
That’s what we’re learning to do with our Fertile Heart Toolkit, allowing ourselves to be carried as fully as possible by the Current of Truth. That’s exactly what has helped all those “statistically unlikely” FertileHeart babies show up after 3, 5, 8 years of failed treatments.
The best way to make use of this study?
If it worked for IVF, why wouldn’t it work for increasing implantation and pregnancy rates in all baby-making attempts.
Implantation happens about six days after fertilization. But you can line up some of your favorite comics and laugh-out-loud movies and start dosing with your implantation-boosting laughter medicine anytime you need a little unclenching help.
The worst way to interpret this study?
What will not be useful is turn the findings of this research into another misleading message such as “just be positive” or “just relax and it will happen.” That would be a sure way to wade right into the fertility depleting, denial-inducing Current of No.
Here are two comics that have been making me laugh lately.
Julio Torres, you can find lots of his sketches online, I also loved his movie Problemista
Gary Gullman is another comic I love. His special Mommy Look! is wonderful.
Any good LOL recs you can share with the rest of us in the comments?
Dear Julia, I love your reminder about making time to laugh and find joy in our daily lives. Laughter can take a weight off our shoulders and bring us back to that natural state of joy, which is easy to lose! I have started playing bass guitar again and playing funky bass lines has reminded me of the excitement I had as a teenager when I got my first bass guitar and amplifier! Now I’m making a playlist of songs with great basslines as inspiration – thank you!
Hi Julia,
I love this so much, I find that laughter is fantastic for so many things, even from a healing standpoint (regarding autoimmune disease, when I first delved into reading about how to try to repair some of my thyroid issues from a naturopathic standpoint). I really like a lot of these ideas here. I also enjoy the idea of having on standby a regular playlist on maybe YouTube or Spotify or something of funny videos, as well as maybe some silly podcasts or comics to turn to.
I’ve been loving doing the body truth exercise from The Holy Human Loaf of just letting go and seeing what comes out of my body. I’ve been having the most exquisite dance sessions- and I often find myself singing too, melodies and rhythms just come flowing out. It gets quite wild sometimes! I feel like I’m at a rave in my living room which then makes me laugh at myself (lovingly). Dancing and singing are areas where I’ve felt very blocked either by worrying about doing it right or just avoiding doing it at all, I don’t really go out anymore to dance and haven’t for years. It feels really good to find the music and movement that feels right for me, and to see that it comes from me, its inside me if I go looking for it. Thank you x
Julia – your recommended daily ‘medicine’ ritual of music and dance was totally inspired. I’ve found myself going from ugh, I’m not sure if I want to do this, to feeling such strong emotion that I couldn’t have foreseen. Once I started, I was surprised to feel teary (not the image I had whilst listening to high tempo dance), but I know I was tapping into ‘me’. I think I felt sadness – to think of how long it’s been to not have felt this ‘high’. Then absolute joy at how much I was enjoying myself. I’ve definitely ‘loosened’ out as the days have progressed, losing myself a bit, shouting out, I’ve really surprised myself. I’ve honed in on something that cuts straight to my joy zone. It’s also been great to get a good energy start to the day. Thank you x
I’m SO,SO,SO happy to hear this, M., keep going, if this has juice, keep going with this and maybe you’ll come upon some other deliciousness that you’ll enjoy!
Hi Everyone!
Any good LOL recs you can share with the rest of us?