Mother credits Sun Run for baby boy

After a decade of trying to get pregnant, woman adopts healthier lifestyle and succeeds
By Amy O'Brian,Vancouver Sun March 29, 2009 6:09 PM

Salma Khan credits the Sun Run with helping her get pregnant. After years of trying to conceive, she finally succeeded after making significant lifestyle changes.
The Sun Run has been credited for all kinds of things — helping people lose weight, get fit, ignite a passion for running, meet new friends.

But Salma Khan credits the Sun Run for something else entirely. Something she considers a miracle. The birth of her son, Jamal.
After a decade of trying to get pregnant, Khan decided to quit her job and start taking better care of herself. She had read about the InTraining walking clinics and decided to sign up for one near her home in North Delta.

She trained with a group and walked the Sun Run for the first time in 2007. Then, in early 2008, she signed up for the clinic again.
“By that point, I had basically given up on getting pregnant,” said the 40-year-old. “I thought, ‘Whatever will be, will be.’ We thought about adoption.”

But a few months later, Khan discovered she was pregnant. “I think I was in shock for three months,” she said. “I can’t even explain it in words.”
Khan had tried everything in her quest to get pregnant — ovulation treatments, acupuncture, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Nothing worked. She had been told by doctors that her chances of getting pregnant were “very, very low” because she has severe endometriosis. But still, she clung to hope. “It wasn’t only physically draining, but emotionally too,” she said.

She believes the combination of quitting her job as a social worker, taking better care of herself and getting regular, moderate exercise were key to her success in finally getting pregnant.
“I really do credit my pregnancy to the Sun Run,” she said.
Studies show that exercise can be beneficial for some women with infertility issues. Exercise helps lower high insulin levels and can help with some ovulatory disorders. It also reduces stress and can help with relaxation.

Lorne Brown is the founder and clinical director of Acubalance Wellness Centre, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic dedicated to treating infertility.He agrees that moderate exercise can be helpful for women having difficulty getting pregnant, but he suspects Khan’s success was the result of a combination of factors, rather than the Sun Run alone.

“Exercise is really beneficial,” Brown said. “But I bet there are a lot of things that contributed to her success.” Brown explained that although a woman’s health at the time of conception is important, even more important is the woman’s health in the months leading up to conception.
“It’s not how healthy you are two weeks before you ovulate — it’s actually about four months before you ovulate. So a lot of people change their diet, even come to acupuncture for three months and then stop,” Brown says. “And two months later, they get pregnant and they go, ‘Oh it just happened.’
In traditional Chinese medicine, this idea is referred to as “nourishing the soil before you plant the seed,” Brown said.

When Khan conceived, she had had more than a year off work, had started drinking green tea, had tried acupuncture, and had been sticking to a regimented walking schedule. She can’t say for certain what prevented her from getting pregnant earlier, but strongly believes the life changes she made played a large role in her eventual success. “I really do feel that sometimes we as women, we just don’t realize what might be in our lives that might be impeding or impacting our ability to conceive,” she said.
Khan plans to walk the 10-kilometre course this year with her husband of 18 years, Khalid Khan,
and their four-month-old son, Jamal.

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