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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Much Needed Book, August 3, 2004
This review is from: The Garden of Fertility: A Guide to Charting Your Fertility Signals to Prevent or Achieve Pregnancy--Naturally--and to Gauge Your Reproductive Health (Paperback)
Fertility Awareness-a method for preventing or achieving pregnancy based on daily charting of the waking temperature and cervical fluid-is the answer for those who want to space their children, become pregnant or even regain reproductive health without the use of hormones or drugs. For those couples conscious of Dr. Price's discoveries about the importance of spacing children, this book lights the way.
In Garden of Fertility, Katie Singer dovetails step-by-step instructions, including excellent sample charts and diagrams on how to gauge fertility patterns, with fascinating testimonials. This is much more than a how-to book; it presents a model of relationships that partake in the natural rhythms of the earth and moon. In many of the book's testimonials, women describe how participation in Fertility Awareness helped them achieve an unexpected sense of femininity at once peaceful and strong. Even more moving are the remarks of men, who describe an increased sense of belonging in the reproductive process, and increased closeness to their partners when they are aware of fertility patterns in a relationship. One important benefit of joint participation in Fertility Awareness is increased communication between partners.
Singer does not ignore the influence of diet on reproductive health. Happily, her advice is based on the teachings of Weston Price. She explains the fundamental importance of fat-soluble vitamins A and D, as well as vitamin E, iodine and zinc for reproductive health. Dietary suggestions include cod liver oil, egg yolks, butter, liver, seafood and lard. She also warns against commercial vegetable oils, trans fats, sugar, white flour, soy, caffeine and foods grown with pesticides. She even includes a wise caution against too much protein in the diet, noting that energy bars, protein powders, milk powders added to lowfat milk, and lean meats can deplete the body of vitamin A. Singer also describes the frequent problems she sees in women who are vegans. Women with reproductive problems who are charting their cycles can often see immediate beneficial effects by eliminating one or more bad foods from the diet (like caffeine, sugar or trans fats) and adding butter, eggs and organic greens.
Another excellent chapter describes common products that can be hazardous to reproductive health, starting with the various drugs used in assisted reproductive technology. Depo-Provera (an injectable hormonal method of preventing pregnancy), the pill and even progesterone creams and gels can seriously disrupt a woman's long-term fertility, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to become pregnant once they are ceased. Other problematic products include bras (which increase a woman's chance of getting breast cancer), mercury, especially in vaccines and dental amalgams (which can accumulate in the ovaries and testicles), phthalates in plastic containers and coverings for food, most commercial tampons (which contain dioxin) and even disposable baby diapers (which contain estrogen-mimicking chemicals that may interfere with sexual development later on, especially in boys). Singer provides practical alternatives and suggestions for all these industrial products.
Garden of Fertility is a wonderful book to give to your teenage daughters and it deserves a place in every home, right next to Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, the classic book on nutrition by Weston Price.
(...)
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38 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking but not entirely accurate, December 25, 2006
This review is from: The Garden of Fertility: A Guide to Charting Your Fertility Signals to Prevent or Achieve Pregnancy--Naturally--and to Gauge Your Reproductive Health (Paperback)
Good points: While its coverage of fertility awareness is somewhat perfunctory compared to the other major books on the subject (by Toni Weschler and the Kippleys), it explains it in a new way. I particularly liked her comparison of vaginal sensation to sensation inside your nose - you can tell whether your nose is wet or dry just by paying attention to it, with no need to stick a finger in there. The same is possible with the vulva.
Singer takes fertility awareness beyond birth control or pregnancy acheivement. She gives examples and tools for readers to use the awareness aspect of FA to become aware of many other aspects of their lives, including both physical and psychological health. I found the presentation and explanation of Susan Weed's Six Steps of Healing particularly inspiring.
This is also the best presentation of fertility during breastfeeding that I have read (others I have read are "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" and "The Art of Natural Family Planning"). Though I have heard good things about "Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing" and it might be technically better, many might be turned off by its religious content.
Bad points: Singer mixes up theories for which there is strong scientific evidence and growing support (such as the dangers of phthalates), theories that have weak or no support in the scientific community (bras cause cancer), and statements that are outright false (pre-ejaculate contains viable sperm - the only three studies ever done found no such thing).
She mixes up sound nutritional advice (excess refined flour and sugar is unhealthy) with false nutritional advice (plant oils, which contain high levels of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fats, she says are unhealthy. She also says that no historical human community has long, healthy life with low levels of animal fats - ignoring the entire Meditteranean region.) and with advice that just doesn't make any sense (to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in cod liver oil - remember, oil is a fat - she says you have to take it with butter.)
Some of her advice is just out-of-date. It was published before many of the studies exploring the huge number of benefits to including moderate amounts of tea, coffee, and chocolate (especially dark chocolate). She advices to completely avoid all these substances. She also goes on at length about how low temperatures are a definite sign of all sorts of problems - while a recent mouse study found that mice with lower temperatures live significantly longer than mice with "normal" temperatures.
She integrates Chinese medicine theories throughout the book. To me, this was worse than the religious theories in "The Art of NFP", because those are easily identifiable as dogma. The Chinese medicine in this book is presented as scientific fact, when its theories have actually never been tested in clinical trials.
I'm giving it three stars because its good points are pretty strong. But I would never recommend this book as a stand-alone reference for any of the subjects it covers, only as a supplement.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a must-read for every woman, October 25, 2004
This review is from: The Garden of Fertility: A Guide to Charting Your Fertility Signals to Prevent or Achieve Pregnancy--Naturally--and to Gauge Your Reproductive Health (Paperback)
Around the time I began using The Pill, a friend mentioned the fertility awareness method, FAM, to me. I wrote it off as the infamous "rhythm method." A year later, desperate to come off the Pill (not a good experience for me), I decided that FAM might be worth looking into.
So I went to the book store and bought The Garden of Fertility.
I have read it and re-read it. I've discovered that FAM is NOT the rhythm method. The rhythm method is based on average days of ovulation, which few women fit into. FAM is based on YOUR OWN CURRENT, RELIABLE SYMPTOMS TO KNOW YOUR FERTILE DAYS.
I thought at first that charting my temp would be a pain and that I'd be too squeamish to check cervical mucus. These things have turned out to be a breeze, and I have a comfort with my body that I've never know before. I LOVE to chart, it tells me so much other than when I am ovulating (the book will explain).
Not only is this book good for preventing pregnancy, but when it is time to make babies, we'll know the fertile days.
The book also has great information about improving your reproductive health (nutrition, night-lighting, etc.).
I wish I'd discovered this book earlier. It has changed my view of birth control in so many ways...
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