KDHamptons recently caught up with Hamptons author, acupuncturist, herbalist, and women’s health & fertility expert, Aimee Raupp. In her new book [available May 28], Yes You Can Get Pregnant, Raupp aims to educate and inspire women, improve their health, celebrate their beauty, prevent disease, as well as increase their fertility. Learn more about Aimee in this NEW KDHamptons Featured Author Diary below:

KDHamptons: Please tell us what inspired you to write your third new book?

Aimee Raupp: The work I do with my clients in my practice inspired me to write both my books. Yes You Can Get Pregnant was inspired through the witnessing of so many of my patients transform — emotionally, spiritually and physically — through the work we do together in my clinic. What seems as ‘health’ from the onlookers perspective is often not optimal. Optimal health and fertility is a meshing of many layers — beyond blood tests and western medical diagnostic procedures. What I see clinically, when a women’s entire paradigm of health shifts from a place of discouragement and imbalance into a place of joy and love and balance is improved health and fertility. Witnessing that shift in so many of my clients ultimately inspired this book.

KDHamptons: Can you share a few simple things women can do to improve fertility?

Aimee: I encourage my clients and readers to adopt a daily meditation practice (even if only for 5-10 minutes) to calm the mind and reduce stress levels, as well as practicing gratitude daily — focusing on joy and love shifts the bodies internal environment positively and increases the receptivity important for conception. I also suggest dietary changes such as eating foods as close to their natural state as possible, meaning limiting packaged and processed foods and focusing on nutrient dense, organic foods. Eating protein-rich eggs and salmon and fat from sources like coconut oil and grass-fed butter can really improve egg quality, balance hormones and increase fertility.

KDHamptons: Can you please share some current statistics about women trying to get pregnant?

Aimee: A study in 2013 out of the journal Fertility and Sterility found that “78% of 35-to-40-year-old women who were having sex at their fertile times got pregnant within a year, compared with 84% of 20-to-34-year-olds.” [Note: Most people don’t realize that the widely stated statistics on age and fertility come from information that was collected from French birth records between the years of 1670-1830]. To quote a recent article on age-related infertility that was published in the Atlantic (June 2013), “The chance of remaining childless—30 percent—was also calculated based on historical populations. In other words, millions of women are being told when to get pregnant based on statistics from a time before electricity, antibiotics, or fertility treatment. Most people assume these numbers are based on large, well conducted studies of modern women, but they are not.”

KDHamptons: How did you execute the research for this book?

Aimee: I compiled information from my own clinical experience, scientific journals, western medical doctors and reproductive endocrinologists. A lot of research went into this book-from how certain nutrients affect egg and sperm quality to how certain environmental toxins disrupt our hormones and hinder fertility to the increase in auto immune diseases (like Hashimotos and Celiac Disease) and their role in infertility.

KDHamptons: Any plans for a book signing in the Hamptons this summer?

Aimee: Yes! We are planning a book launch event in Sag Harbor in late June/early July. Ill keep KDHamptons readers posted on the details!

KDHamptons: What are you looking forward to personally for the Hamptons summer season?

Aimee: Ill be out in Sag Harbor, full time, beginning in June and will remain out there through September. As I did last year, I will be practicing and seeing patients from my office on Scuttle Hole Road on Mondays and Fridays. I am offering my regular acupuncture services as well as facial rejuvenation acupuncture. Personally, I will be relaxing, reading, writing, bike riding and going to the local farms to get all my food and flowers….which is my favorite thing to do! I will continue to create my Aimee Raupp Beauty products from my home in Sag, so that I can provide my clientele with wellness and beauty, inside & out! I find that when I leave the city and am living more out East, the inspiration just flows and that’s what I’m most looking forward to.

To pre-order Yes You Can Get Pregnant, please go to: http://www.amazon.com/Yes-You-Can-Get-Pregnant/dp/1936303698/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393536827&sr=8-2&keywords=yes+you+can+get+pregnant

*** Aimee is also the author of Chill Out & Get Healthy (Penguin) and Yes, You Can Get Pregnant: The Diet That Will Improve Your Fertility Now and Into Your 40s.