Sue Ritchie
Sue Ritchie is a Fertility Coach helping couples to increase their chances of conceiving and having a healthy baby. She is also the award winning author of the book “Love your Gut, The Practical Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss from the Inside Out” and is co-author of 5 other books.
She tells us that, “I regularly have articles published in magazines and speak on the radio, podcasts and at events.
I am a wife, mother of two grown up children and a grandmother to my beautiful granddaughter.
I love travelling and meeting people from different cultures. Perhaps, this has something to do with the fact that I was born and brought up in Malaysia. I also have a great love for cooking. Something that started early in life when I was about 6 years old. Nature and spending time in nature is very important to me and that led to me studying Geography at university. Learning is very important to me and I am always reading and researching to increase my knowledge of areas that are a big part of my work.
The reason I do what I do is because I would love to see more children come into the world healthy, and who grow up with self-love and knowing that they can achieve whatever they want in the world.”
Tell us about your life before the venture/ leading up to your venture?
I had a successful career in corporate marketing and was the owner of a successful direct marketing business for 17 years before starting my health coaching and now my fertility coaching business, which I am very passionate about.
During my corporate marketing career and when I was running my own direct marketing business my life was very much one of working long hours often under high levels of stress. I was always putting everyone else first in work and in family life. I would also be constantly pushing myself to the limit, trying to fit everything in, thinking my body would somehow keep going regardless.
One of the reasons I set up my own business was to be able to have more flexibility around family life. I had two young children and I very much wanted to be able to have time to take them to and from school. Also, I wanted to be able to give them the opportunity to invite friends round after school to play. Previously, they were looked after before and after school by a lovely childminder.
When I first set up my business everything felt great. Stress levels were initially a lot less, but then as the business grew the old patterns started to creep back in. There were often nights where I would be working until later after my children were in bed.
Things then eventually came to a head around 14 years ago. I found myself chronically tired, I had brain fog, joint pain, and other issues. I was really feeling unfulfilled, unhealthy and overweight. This as you can imagine had a major impact on the success of my business. A diagnosis of Hashimoto’s disease and my doctor telling me that it was impossible to recover and I would be on medication for life, made me realise that things needed a big change.
The diagnosis resulted in me making a decision that I would do everything I could to get myself well again. Simply, because I knew I didn’t want to compromise my life and also, I knew there were a lot of things I wanted to be able to do in my life.
By making some big changes in my lifestyle, including setting strong boundaries, discovering and addressing the root cause of my health issues which lay in my gut health and working on emotional healing I was able to totally transform my health. My energy soared, the health issues disappeared and I lost all the excess weight I had been carrying.
I made some big discoveries around how my self worth was totally linked to work and realised in all the busyness I had lost sight of who I really was a person. I had to start putting myself first and ensuring that I made my health my top priority. Life with compromised health is not much fun I can tell you.
Through making changes and also working on my own personal emotional and spiritual growth and development I was able to recover and came off the medication after 18 months.
I knew from my research that lots of women were in the place that I had been and I really wanted to help them to recover and reclaim their own lives. This led me to set up my Health Coaching Business where I helped many women to regain both their health and their lives.
I have always loved children since I was a child and I had found myself in the position of being 30 and single. Thinking that I might never be able to have children. There were many times when I found myself feeling very despondent and depressed as a result.
In my health coaching business I thought I would be working with predominantly women in their 40’s and 50’s, but increasingly I found myself helping young women in their late teens and early twenties. These were young women who had never really been well in their lives. That truly saddened me.
I am someone who believes that in order to properly create change you have to address the root causes. With all the knowledge I had acquired through my research around health and specifically gut health and nutrition. As well as the success I had helping other women transform their health, I knew that to increase the chances of bringing more children into the world who are healthy, we need to ensure that couples are healthy at the time that conception takes place. This led me to decide to become a holistic Fertility Coach.
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
I help couples who are in 4 different situations.
- Couples that are struggling to conceive, where there are no physical medical reasons that it isn’t happening for them. 1in 7 couples today are struggling to conceive and for 25% of them there is no physical reason why it isn’t happening.
- Couples who have decided that IVF is the route they are going to take, but want to make sure they do everything they can to increase their chances of success. I help them to prepare themselves to be in the best of health not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. By addressing all the areas that underpin fertility they will increase their chances of success, because I help to ensure that eggs and sperm are healthy. This together with the emotional support they receive will reduce the stress of the whole process and potentially reduce the financial cost, because less rounds will be required. It is also possible they will conceive naturally.
- Couples who have just decided that they want to have a baby, but they want to be ahead of the game and ensure they are in the best place so that they can conceive easily, whilst also ensuring that they increase the chances of having a healthy baby.
- Couples who have been turned down for IVF, because they are overweight and told to come back once they have lost weight. They may have PCOS. These couples are often daunted by the prospect as they may have been trying to lose weight without success. This is where we support them to do just that using our tried and tested processes. Often, they then conceive naturally and don’t require IVF.
In each of these situations, we identify where their health is currently and work with them in a holistic way to significantly improve their health, bringing back cycles into normal ranges. We work together on all the areas that have an impact on fertility. Many of these are areas that medical doctors don’t work with them on, because it is not part of their focus or expertise. When it comes to emotional support this is not something that most doctors have the time to provide for their clients. Yet, emotions, mindset and stress are key factors that do get in the way of being able to conceive.
As human beings everything is connected and has an effect on each other. Conception is not just about the physical parts. This is why I successfully work holistically with mind, body and spirit. Each of these areas are connected and have an impact on each other.
Unfortunately today, many of us are just not as healthy as we think we are. Diets are often missing vital nutrients, vitamins and minerals and these have a big impact on our fertility. Making changes and knowing which changes you need to make can be very difficult, especially as we are living such busy lives these days. That’s where the specific guidance, support and accountability we provide is so important.
Having been in the place, where I was desperately hoping to have children, I understand how difficult the journey to conceiving a child can be. Having compassionate support on this journey makes a huge difference.
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
The best thing in the world to me is when clients 100% commit to taking on board and follow all the guidance I provide and then receiving that marvellous phone call when they tell me they are pregnant.
Let me share 2 client testimonials here:
“Being a plus size lady with PCOS things were always tough for me in this space. At age 37 me and my husband had been trying for a baby for over 7 years of our marriage, and as our age was creeping up so were some of our other health and fertility issues. I did not have a balanced diet and neither did I exercise daily, which also meant I had a lot of aches and pains as well as some digestive issues at times. Having low energy levels and a desk job did not help either.
I lost 1stone 2lbs in weight and 15.5 inches from my overall body measurements.
The biggest result was a reduced period cycle bringing my irregular cycle into balance, which also helped make my ovulation dates more predictable. I knew there were massive shifts happening internally. The best part of the whole journey with Sue, two months after completing her programme and adopting certain lifestyle changes, I successfully conceived, and we are expecting our first baby!”
Suman – Birmingham
“After 3 years of trying with 4 losses and 2 unsuccessful rounds of IVF I am now 22 weeks pregnant. I conceived 4 months after working with Sue improving my health and especially my gut health. I am so delighted.”
Emma- London
This year I was Winner of the Midlands Enterprise Award. I have also been honoured to receive some other awards too. Prestige Powerhouse Global Women Award in 2023.Holistic Therapist Award in 2018. R.A.D.I.O Works Author Award 2016
How has your life changed because of your venture?
I really love helping others to live a healthier and more fulfilled and happy life. Seeing people transform their health and their lives and creating the family they so desire brings a deep sense of fulfillment and joy for me. Everyday I work with my clients I learn more about me and people and their challenges and as a result I also continue to grow and develop as a person.
I also spend time working on my own personal growth and development, because I know that by doing so I am able to show up as the best version of myself for my clients and my family and friends. I make my own self-care and my health a top priority.
What are you working on right now?
I am currently working on a new updated website where I will also be sharing a new element in my services of healing. Specifically Angelic Reiki. I am also planning to start a YouTube Channel where I will be sharing more hints and tips around preparing for conception.
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
“When we take responsibility for own health and wellbeing, we show up as the best version of ourselves and we reap the benefit in all areas of our life”
Get in touch:
https://www.facebook.com/sue.ritchie.712
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-ritchie
https://www.facebook.com/groups/naturalfertilityboostingsecrets