Pathways to Pregnancy. Mary Wong

       Foreword

      As I read this book, one primary message came through to me: hope. Hope for women facing fertility challenges is woven into every word. What a great relief women experience when they can share stories of their difficulties, their journey, and what they learned during the process. In my experience, women heal most deeply when they can tap into and accept their own vulnerability by hearing what others have gone through.

      When I began experiencing fertility challenges, I knew something was wrong but was only familiar with Western medicine. I didn’t know anyone else who had gone through the lonely and often frustrating hopelessness I was feeling. I had never been exposed to Chinese medicine, and when first introduced to the possibilities of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), I found them strange—I simply could not fit this approach into my logical brain. Yet, it worked. The changes in my body and mind, the awakening of my heart and spirit were irrefutable, yet inexplicable. I had to study this healing modality and find out what made it work.

      In the years since then, I have devoted my life to the practice of TCM—learning, practising, teaching, and offering it to many thousands who suffer through their own devastating fertility challenges. I met Mary Wong in the early years of my teaching, and she made a strong impression. It’s always a bit intimidating for a Westerner to stand in front of a Chinese doctor, attempting to share my view of a medicine that was part of her cultural upbringing.

      Mary was undoubtedly knowledgeable, but what struck me most about her were her honesty and openness. She is the kind of person who not only makes a good doctor but a trusted friend. She rode the interface between Eastern and Western culture and medicine, devouring knowledge, learning and treating, studying, serving, and giving it all she had. In her clinic, people healed. And when she went through her own fertility struggles, like me, she was down and dirty with the psycho-emotional component. “Physician, heal thyself” were not mere words to Mary; she lived them.

      Mary can do what I have never quite pulled off, and her abilities are evident in this treasured book you hold in your hands. There is a beautiful image in Chinese philosophy of an organic life form rising from the very substance of earth itself, embodying the spirit of creation in its impulse to walk, breathe, and experience the miracle of this life as it reaches toward the light of its own existence. It is richly Asian, conveying through imagery what TCM offers. Mary’s effortless expression of who she is and what she was born to do is apparent in the ease with which she conveys the power of Chinese healing, while at the same time demystifying it with her concise understanding of modern Western science.

      When I was interning in a Chinese hospital, I was tired and overworked, and my energy and immunity were low. Yet like a typical American overachiever, only semi-conscious of the messages my body was giving me, I pressed on. One day, an attending physician took my pulse, and the next day I was served soup for lunch with the Chinese herbs I needed to restore my energy. While I thought it odd that food and medicine be combined in one dish, this is Mary’s starting point. It’s in her bones.

      Fertility struggles are frustrating and isolating. They seem to eat away part of a woman’s soul. They can plunge a woman down to the depths of her despair, but they can also force her to face difficulties in the way she’s living her life. I can think of almost nothing else that can do this. Yet sometimes, when we’re in our lowest places, where we feel nothing can pull us out of the muck, true healing can happen. This is a place of courage and honesty that few are lucky enough to know. And where a woman’s body had been saying “no” to life, it can ever so gently turn into a “yes.” This is what I call hope. If you want to find this hope, it’s important to know you are not alone. There is support. There is another way.

      I wrote The Infertility Cure many years ago, attempting to open up this new way for women who were locked into the often frustrating approach of reproductive medicine. Mary picks up where I left off, walking you along a pathway she herself has trod. With wisdom, honesty, and a lighthearted pragmatic approach, she blends modern Western science with the ancient art of Chinese medicine. Hand in hand with you, she shares poignant real-life stories of help, hope, and true healing. Her unending positivity as she counsels and comforts you along the way is infectious: may you catch it and make it part of your journey.

      Randine Lewis, PhD, L.Ac

      Author of The Infertility Cure and The Way of the Fertile Soul