Creating a new life is a time-honored blessing. At the same time, infertility rates seem to be on the rise.

The good news is that there are many fertility routes available today for couples trying to conceive a baby. More couples than ever utilize an array of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), both with and without complementary or alternative support. Other couples are trying to overcome medical limitations of various kinds that appear to be interfering with successful pregnancy. The bad news is that, despite all these efforts, a surprising number of couples are suffering because of having been told they have an unexplained fertility problem. What's more, trying to conceive can be an expensive venture, sometimes costing in the tens of thousands of dollars. It is therefore vital to optimize the chances of success, especially because conception assistance programs may not have anywhere near as high a success rate as hoped.

How can we optimize our chances of success? Well, that is a good question. Everyone trying to conceive falls on a spectrum of life energy and intention energy that is somewhere between fertility and infertility. Knowing where one is on that spectrum is crucial. Even though highly experienced fertility doctors and practitioners are aware of this, most rarely assess or sufficiently treat this key fertility factor. The women and couples I have assisted for over a decade with fertility and pregnancy issues have taught me that this seems to be the missing link in the pursuit of fertility - the key fertility factor.

I love using the analogy of a flower or vegetable garden because everyone knows that the right environment is needed in order to reap the rewards of a garden. Any avid gardener will tell you there are specific types of energy required for enjoying a productive and fertile outcome. The soil needs to be healthy, fertilized, tilled and tended. The right amount of water, air and sunshine are also needed. And, weeds need to be kept out of the garden. Only when all these forms of energy are provided can seeds can be planted that will root, grow, and develop into a beautiful, healthy garden. The more these ingredients are missing, the more the results are likely to suffer.

The same is true when creating a fertile internal garden in which the seeds of life can be successfully planted and nurtured. The equivalent of healthy, tilled and tended soil is balancing your life energy in favor of successful conception and pregnancy. The equivalent of fertilizer is maintaining clear and unconflicted intention energy, not only hormonal balance and proper nutrition. Pulling the weeds means removing unhealthy energy, conflicted intentions and other blocks that may exist.

Women having difficulty conceiving tend to not realize that their life is their garden, not merely their womb. Many women's lives tend to be jam-packed with work, or they are so stressed they don't have an extra moment to nurture themselves in a day's time. Or they have become so out-of-balance emotionally, that these emotional weeds are choking out the potential for seeding and sprouting. In other words, their energy is not conducive to creating a garden in which successful conception and pregnancy can occur. There is nothing mystifying at all about why so many of these women have fertility problems or miscarriages: their "fertility switch" is "off!" When on a fertility journey, it is vitally important to make choices that women, and their men as well, to begin tipping their life energy in favor of fertility.

A place to begin this tipping process is with a particular type of energy on the energy spectrum, called intention energy. Intention means being deliberate and purposeful. Obviously, successful conception and birth is an intention. The problem is that, on the spectrum of fertility and infertility, many women do not know that they have been tipping their scales in favor of infertility. They do not recognize how their worry, despair, sadness and fear about their unsuccessful efforts (in addition to other issues they have) are energies tilting their momentum away from getting pregnant. Their hope, trust and knowing that they can become a mother become hard-to-see specks of light.

If this has occurred for you, your energy is favoring infertility. Here is the fertility key: To access fertility, you must have the largest portion of your life energy and intention energy favoring fertility. Your intention and focus needs some redirection. This is not always easy to do because it is emotionally painful to want a baby and start a cycle every month, or to want a baby and fail one or more IVF cycles, or to miscarry.

Being effectively intentional and focused is a learned skill. Learned skills require knowing what to practice, and then practicing them. What you want to learn and practice is effective ways of turning your infertility switch "off" and your fertility switch "on." I wish you fertile blessings on your journey.

Laurie Morse, L.Ac., is the author of the revolutionary e-book "My Fertility Success," providing skills and exercises to help women turn their fertility switch on by "pulling their weeds," optimizing their terrain and planting pregnancy seeds with their intentionality. She is the director of Holistic Health Services in San Diego, CA., where she has successfully treated fertility for the past decade. In addition, she provides workshops and tele-classes on fertility success. For more information go to: www.MyFertilitySuccess.com