YOUR HEART IS IN YOUR THROAT

You’ve just taken another pregnancy test. Although you know you’ve done everything ‘right’ this time – followed every recommendation, read all the information available, done all your research – it’s negative. Again.

I KNOW THAT MOMENT.

When I think about it I can feel it deep within my being. It’s like being straight back there with all that enormous hope shattered and the overwhelming frustration of not knowing how the pieces will go back together.

Or what could possibly be wrong.

I AM HERE TO HELP.

I’m Melanie Colwell and I assist high-achieving, driven women to get pregnant, enjoy healthy pregnancies, and experience calm births. I specialise in using a unique combination of Clinical Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Eating Psychology, and Mind Body Nutrition techniques.

Like many ‘change in direction’ stories, mine found real purpose with my own struggles. I’ve experienced fertility troubles, and being the driven, motivated, Type A personality I am (and embrace!) I decided I could engineer my own fertility. Why not? Wasn’t it a formula to figure out, follow, and power through to a perfect result?

I made it a mission. I made it hard work.

I MADE IT HARDER FOR MYSELF.

I was young. I owned a Pilates and Yoga studio, I ate an only organic, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free (“fun-free” as my Father-In-Law quipped) diet. I exercised regularly. I was the healthiest and fittest I’d ever been.

I ASSUMED I COULD COME OFF THE PILL AND GET PREGNANT STRAIGHT AWAY.

When it didn’t happen like I’d planned I sought medical help. A Doctor informed me I had Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and “I’d probably need IVF”.

The news made me obsessive. I became a fertility junkie.

AND THIS IS THE PART OF THE STORY WHERE, IF YOU’RE TYPE A LIKE ME, YOU’LL BEGIN NODDING IN UNDERSTANDING.

• I consulted a naturopath and herbalist, and began taking pills, tinctures, and powdered concoctions sometimes five times a day.
• I took my exercise regime and diet further. My diet, in particular, became incredibly restrictive.
• I threw out all the body and cleaning products in my house and replaced them with completely natural alternatives.
• I got regular massages.
• I had acupuncture.
• I monitored myself for ovulation every day.
• I read every piece of literature on fertility I could find online or get my hands on.

I FOUND MYSELF IN A PLACE WHERE MY WHOLE LIFE WAS ABOUT GETTING PREGNANT.

Every time I took a pill it felt like a reminder that my body was broken and letting me down, and it increased my frustration and disappointment. I was a smart, ambitious, healthy woman who keenly felt every day pass like a fresh stab into an old wound. I’d always planned, worked, and gotten to where I wanted to be.

Why couldn’t I fix this?

WHAT WAS I MISSING?

The concept that my very personality – everything that made me goal oriented, an overachiever, (and a smashing list maker!) – could possibly be the thing that was my undoing was, at first, anathema. But that niggling voice in the back of my mind got louder and I stopped focusing on everything physical

… AND TOOK A GOOD, LONG LOOK AT MY MINDSET.

I stopped the pills, the concoctions, the fertility appointments, the crazy diet, the obsessive researching.

I made space for fun.

I learned new information – about masculine and feminine energy and the concepts of trust and faith and surrender.

SURRENDER WASN’T SOMETHING I HAD A NATURAL TENDENCY TOWARDS.

But it delivered me to a singular place where I became OK with an uncertain future. I might not get pregnant. And I might be OK about that.

EXACTLY ONE MONTH LATER, I FELL PREGNANT WITH MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, IMOGEN. THEN CAME MY SON, OSCAR, EASILY.

Which is why you can trust me. This is my area of expertise – a highly specialised, whole woman way of looking at your unique situation, working alongside your ObGyn, specialists, natural therapists and combining the art and science of Hypnotherapy to reduce your anxiety to get you in the best place possible to create a new life.

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Melanie is a Fertility Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist who helps ambitious, Type-A women get pregnant and enjoy stress-free pregnancies and calm births. Her speciality is teaching women how to eliminate subconscious fertility blocks, reduce stress, and assist their bodies to heal on a deeper level.

Melanie has appeared on SBS TV programs, Insight and The Feed, and in various print and online media including Cosmopolitan Magazine and news.com.au and has been privately trained and mentored by Lynsi Eastburn, the world’s leading expert in HypnoFertility.

She has used her unique blend of training, experience and intuition to create the ground-breaking fertility program The Fertile Womb, which has helped women all over the world get off the fertility rollercoaster and finally fall pregnant.

RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MELANIE

• I’m a life-long learner and my degrees include an Undergrad in Architecture and a Masters in Town Planning. I used to teach planning and property development at University. I still love all things property – interior design, architecture, real estate, renovating, developing and buying property.
• I’m scared of sharks and deep water. Large fish also freak me out. OK, medium sized fish freak me out too… and those little ones that nibble your feet.
• I spent 5 years working in the corporate world before I threw in my high profile career to open a Pilates and Yoga studio. Best decision I’d made up to that point.
• I had to take coordination classes when I was 5 because I couldn’t hop. I know what you’re thinking and the answer is “yes”, I can hop now (just!)
• My guiltiest pleasure is watching really trashy reality TV. Seriously trashy. The trashier the better. Think America’s Next Top Model, the Bachelor, Married at First Sight. I know you’re judging me right now.
• I’m known amongst my friends for being brutally honest, saying it like it is and asking the tough questions.
• I was a champion debater in high school. Getting into an argument with me is good fun.
• I drink A LOT of tea. All kinds of tea. All the tea. (A tad obsessed with tea.)
• I live in a beautiful part of Adelaide, South Australia with my husband Andrew, daughter Imogen, son Oscar, and West Highland Terrier, Piper.
• I really like lists. Can you tell? :)