Katherine loves working with couples who have decided to start or expand their family and uses a variety of techniques to promote a healthy conception and pregnancy.

Having optimum nutrition and general health is the best way to ensure that a healthy pregnancy is achieved and that your baby has the best chance of good health.

Katherine finds that the best way to achieve this is with a healthy diet and lifestyle, but often uses herbs, nutrients, and other interventions to help a couple in their quest for a healthy conception.

Studies have shown that good preconception care can improve your chances of falling pregnant, with 81% of previously infertile couples being able to fall pregnant with natural fertility management according to the foresight study.

Research is strongly indicating that your health prior to conception has huge impacts on the health of your child, from immune issues as children to have a higher chance of developing the disease as adults. Ensuring that your health is optimum prior to conceiving is the only way to ensure you have given your child the very best start to life.

Menopause occurs in every ageing woman, although not all women get menopausal symptoms. Not many people realise that with the right health care, diet and natural health management menopausal symptoms can be avoided.

In the menopausal transition, menstruation slows and then eventually stops, due to ovarian function decreasing and ovulation ceasing. The ovaries are the main source of oestrogen production in the body, so as they cease to function oestrogen levels decline.

This decline in oestrogen is the cause behind the menopausal symptoms of hot flushing, night sweats, depression, vaginal dryness and loss of libido in many menopausal women.

These symptoms can range from mild to debilitating, deeply affecting the lives of many women.

Thrush is one of the most common afflictions affecting women – with most women reporting an outbreak at least once a year.

Thrush is caused by an overgrowth of the candida organism, a yeast that naturally occurs in the vagina. When an overgrowth of candida occurs we get a thrush infection. Candida overgrowth can be caused by a diet too high in sugars, yeasts, and simple carbohydrates, hormonal imbalances, stress, and digestive imbalances. Naturopathy works to address thrush with the use of herbal medicines which reduce this overgrowth, topical preparations, and dietary modifications. Katherine likes to treat thrush by looking at the bigger picture. If there is an overgrowth of candida in the vagina then it is also likely that it is in high amounts in the digestive tract. Treatment of vaginal thrush alone may provide fast relief but will most often lead to re-occurrence due to the systemic nature of the overgrowth. If you have severe thrush it can take some time to resolve it completely. Using naturopathy to slowly eradicate the body of the overgrowth is a very effective way to help prevent further outbreaks.

PMS can occur in many forms – women may suffer from anxiety, depression, mood swings, food cravings, bloating, breast tenderness, pain or a combination of these symptoms.

Women are often told that this is “normal” and a part of life for women, but when the reproductive system is functioning properly, these symptoms rarely occur.

PMS may be caused by one or a combination of the following:

• Hormonal imbalances
• Poor dietary choices
• Neurotransmitter deficiencies
• Poor elimination
• Environmental toxins
• Emotional upheaval
• Stress

In a natural medicine setting, PMS is treated according to the individual, the root of the problem being assessed by the practitioner and treated accordingly.

Herbs and dietary advice are often very successful ways of addressing these problems. After a thorough naturopathic evaluation, Katherine will decide on what is the best plan of action to take in order to reduce your PMS.

PMS can be debilitating, but you don’t have to live with it! Katherine has helped many women overcome their premenstrual problems with the use of herbal medicines.