Book Review: “Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child,” by Victoria Maizes MD of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.
Many challenges face parents wishing to successfully conceive and give birth to a healthy child today. Drawing on her expertise in integrative medicine, Dr. Victoria Maizes integrates science with traditional wisdom to help parents-to-be to navigate the process of procreation more artfully.
Although this book speaks to all fertile women within the fertility range, it is most timely for young women who are possibly considering motherhood in the future. The time to prepare for healthy conception is years before you actually decide to have a child, and Dr. Maizes presents many resources to help improve the odds of a successful and healthy outcome. In addition to nicely reviewing conventional medical approaches, Dr. Maizes traverses reputable techniques and traditions ranging from nutrition, environmental health, spirituality and mind-body medicine to supplements, herbs and Traditional Chinese Medicine, giving the reader a wealth of options to choose from. Parents and “potential parents” will find the extensive additional resource list at the end of the book especially helpful.
I look forward to recommending this book to patients of mine who are considering conception, those who haven't yet started thinking about it, and parents of young women. Dr. Maizes' web site is here.