About the Author

Having been a midwife for nearly 40 years, I have seen couples throughout all stages of pregnancy and beyond, and since focusing on fertility 25 years ago, I have also helped thousands get started on this incredible journey. So where did it all begin for me? My mother was a midwife and I grew up surrounded by her friends with stories of birth and beyond so it was a natural progression for me. Throughout my whole career I have always had an interest in natural approaches to both pregnancy and fertility, which has resulted in me combining the two using both a holistic and medical approach. This all came about through my own experience of terrible morning sickness throughout both of my pregnancies, as well as mild postnatal depression after the birth of my second baby. I was determined to find a more natural approach to anything on the market, which was difficult over 30 years ago with no Dr Google! What I did discover was that all of the body's systems are linked: you need to nourish the body both physically and emotionally for it to work at its optimum level, and this is never truer than when it comes to fertility. I discovered acupuncture and found that it really helped me as a natural relief to many of the pregnancy ailments I was experiencing, and it was especially helpful for me throughout the difficult time postnatally with my son. Soon after this I trained in acupuncture with a focus on pregnancy and brought this onto the NHS at Warwick Hospital where I was working at the time. I then went on to study nutrition as I knew this would make a huge difference in helping someone conceive, and now we know the importance of how the first 1000 days are crucial for your future child's development and health. This begins at the moment of conception and carries on through to a baby's second birthday, helping you make the greatest, most positive impact on the child's health and wellbeing for the rest of their lives. With all of this in mind, I built my clinic which takes a holistic approach to fertility, pregnancy and beyond, looking at this as a 15-month programme starting with three months pre-conception, all the way through to the first three months of the postnatal period, or fourth trimester as it is now becoming known. Linking the importance of nutrition and the 1000 days concept, I created the Zita West Products line to provide valuable nutrients for male and female fertility, pregnancy, the postnatal period and more recently, probiotics for babies and young children. One of our mottos is 'Mind, Body, Baby', so we ensure all of the couples we see are looking after themselves physically and emotionally, supporting this with our range of downloads for stress reduction and visualisation. This has expanded even further in recent years with the opening of our IVF clinic, encompassing the whole Zita West holistic approach and resulting in incredible success rates, and we've recently been crowned number one IVF clinic in Lond

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