A question I get asked a lot is, “Why should I work with a fertility awareness educator when I can learn by reading a book?”
I want to tell you that working with a fertility awareness educator is invaluable. And I don’t say this because I’m an educator, rather, I’m an educator because I truly believe it’s important for people to have that support. Working with an educator has a ton of benefits that you just can’t get when learning on your own.
First of all, when people learn on their own, they are often not truly on their own. They will join discussion groups online and seek help from other members of these groups.
The problem with this is that the vast majority of the people in these groups are in the same boat as you. They have no formal training and what they tell you may or may not be correct. This is in terms of how to do the observations, how to make the charts, how to interpret the charts, and health recommendations.
Here are four main areas where working with a fertility awareness educator can be helpful.
Accuracy
Each method has different rules for how you are meant to do observations, how you define mucus, how you interpret your charts, and how to define fertile versus infertile days.
By working with an educator you can be sure that you understand how to do all of this correctly, and you have someone you can ask for help who has been trained in your method of choice.
You can also discuss your unique situation and how to make the method work best for you.
It’s important for you to know there are a ton of common mistakes made when first learning to chart. These are very easily resolved and quite simple, however if you don’t have someone to check in with you won’t know you are doing them right or wrong.
When I read discussion boards online I get really concerned with how simple some of the questions are, and how easily they could be resolved, if someone simply had a teacher to ask. Instead, it’s the blind leading the blind and there’s no guarantee the advice you get will be correct.
Confidence
By having someone to ask questions of, and someone to ensure you are following the method accurately, you will improve your confidence far quicker than if you were muddling through on your own, just hoping that you got it right.
This means you will be able to implement the method faster and easier and gain that important body confidence and body literacy sooner than if you were on your own.
Effectiveness
Based on the two above issues of accuracy and confidence, this means the method will be far more effective for you.
This is important both if you are trying to avoid pregnancy and if you are trying to achieve pregnancy, because it will mean you are far more likely to succeed in your intentions.
Hormonal health
One thing you will know if you’ve been following me for a while is that practicing the fertility awareness method is about far more than babies.
The menstrual cycle is the fifth vital sign of health and you can tell a lot about your overall health and hormone balance by looking at your menstrual cycle charts.
Improving hormonal health is far more complex than just taking a few vitamins, and, unfortunately, when people try to self-diagnose they will often fail because of their lack of knowledge. As well, when people make suggestions to their friends or through online discussion boards, there’s no guarantee that what’s recommended will work for you (or might even harm you), because every body is different.
By having a trained educator working with you it will be easier to know if you have healthy cycles, and you will have someone who can help you make a personalized plan for improving hormonal health through nutrition and lifestyle. You can have regular check-ins with your educator and monitor your health for improvements.
Not sure?
Not sure about the investment? Think of it this way, there’s a ton of training and specialized knowledge that goes into becoming a certified fertility awareness educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner. By purchasing a program you pay a one time fee and through that you learn how to have improved hormonal health and deal with any issues you are facing, as well as gain a skill for life that you can use to prevent and plan for pregnancy.
Ultimately it’s your decision if you prefer to learn from a book, but I promise, working with an educator will make the process far easier, simpler, and give you confidence in your abilities much faster. And isn’t that peace of mind worth it?
Thinking of learning the fertility awareness method? Not sure if it’s for you? Contact me and I can help you figure it out!