Difficulty falling pregnant? Consulting a fertility astrologer could help

Is it conceivable that consulting the planets could help you fall pregnant? Lin Sampson investigates

Nicola Smuts looks immaculate, sipping tea at the Mount Nelson; she could be a housewife from one of the smart suburbs. She's wearing an expensive floral, designer Samantha Sung shirtwaister, pearl drops, Robert Clergerie pumps and the biggest solitaire diamond I've ever seen. I can barely concentrate for wondering if it's real or not.

Her porcelain wrinkleless face, looking much younger than its 51 years, gives nothing away. She has a soft caressing voice that elicits confession and one can sense she is rapture-ready should one need astrological - or any other spiritual - guidance.

Smuts is a celebrity. PRs swarm around as she smiles beatifically round the room where, later in the month, she'll have a launch for her new Astro-fertility App.

mini_story_image_hleft1

"Ah, Dr Dooley - could that be his name? - is coming out for your launch," a PR announces.

A piece of paper is thrust in front of my face in its ill-written English. Dr Gedis Grudzinskas, a Greek gynaecologist, says he is a great Smuts fan.

Journalists queue up to interview her.

"We have given you an exclusive," one of the PRs breathes into my ear, "but people are beginning to get impatient."

Who is this celebrity? A famous actress, surgeon, physicist?

Smuts is a practitioner in astro-fertility. She predicts opportune times for women, mostly on in vitro fertilisation treatment, who are finding it difficult to conceive. She can tell you when it is the best time to try for a baby, according to the astrological charts.

She sets out her stall: astro-fertility works on the assumption that there are only two or three times a year when a woman can become pregnant and go on to successfully give birth.

Those windows are particular to each woman, based on her and her partner's time and place of birth and the alignment of planets at those moments. It is only when the position of the planets is replicated that a woman can conceive.

block_quotes_start Astro-fertility works on the assumption that there are only two or three times a year when a woman can become pregnant and go on to successfully give birth block_quotes_end

"Astrology," Smuts said, "is a language that describes the quality of time. I see it as a narrative construct. I look at a client's chart for about an hour and slowly a story emerges. The dates I give are very definite."

Smuts doesn't know how often she gets it wrong because she doesn't stay in touch with clients.

She has piles of degrees in arcane subjects and has just completed a master's degree in myth, cosmology and the sacred at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK.

Smuts bases her predictions on a complex analysis of planetary positions but admits that astrology is not a science. For many years astrology has been investigated but no proof has ever emerged.

"I started studying with Rod Suskin in Cape Town. I was impressed with the information he could see in the charts."

In her first month of practising, she foretold seven pregnancies.

"I was quite shocked," she said.

"A female CEO of a company came to me to consult about business. At the end she said, 'Okay, now I will tell you what it is really about; I am thinking of adopting.'

"I looked at her chart and said 'you are going to get pregnant with your ex-husband on the 8th of January'. She said that would be impossible because he lives in another country and we tried for years. But he invited her for the weekend, she rang and said, 'What should I do' and I said, 'if you want to get pregnant, go'."

story_article_right1

The case histories all channel one another. A couple tries for months, even years. In desperation they seek other remedies - feng shui, acupuncture, diets, herbs. Then they hear about Smuts - sometimes they take second jobs to pay for the treatments.

"I give total credit to Smuts," more than one client states.

Some fertility practitioners have even managed to fetch up a factual link between fertility and time of the mother's birth. But mostly it remains in the realms of magical realism.

As one overjoyed new mom said: "The way I saw it, we were using a mix of cutting-edge science and a dose of magic."

Take Justine and Brian Mawdsley, in their 30s. Justine is a drama teacher and Brian binges on social media. After a year of trying they realised they would need fertility treatment. Justine fell pregnant but lost the baby. Then she heard about Smuts.

"I'm very into philosophy," she said, using a word used these days for anything from aura cleansing to Nietzsche.

"The fertility doctor looked at me as if I were mad when said I'd seen a fertility astrologer."

Annette and Bradley Bing were having difficulty falling pregnant with a second child. Annette is a midwife. The problem was identified as poor mobility and morphology of husband Brad's sperm and, after two cycles of intra-cytoplasmic sperm injections, she was trying artificial insemination.

"That was when I consulted Nicola - and she told me it would fail. She said our very best chance would be the following month." Annette cancelled the rest of AI treatments.

A doctor I talked to said: "These women with their astro-fertility guides are a nightmare, changing dates."

But Annette did conceive.

story_article_left2

Although astrology is not considered a science and does not have a track record of successful predictions, Smuts believes that 75% of what she predicts comes true. The fact that she can offer no proof appears to take nothing from her confidence. "It is all about timing," she said.

Conception is a cool customer and years past are filled with stories about women who have their tubes tied, then suddenly end up pregnant: people who have tried for years, finally given up and bought a dog, find themselves knitting bootees.

Smuts, in her second marriage, has been unable to fall pregnant.

Astrology has always been considered flakey. Its principles are invalid and it has failed hundreds of tests.

A doctor I spoke to put it more bluntly: "It's just a lot of rot."

Why, then, do people go on believing it? A survey in 2009 of 2060 people carried out by Theos, a public theology think-tank, came up with a stat that 25% of people believe in horoscopes. When I discussed the subject with a member of the team, I was told, there "are unseen things in the world".

But Brian Mawdsley puts his finger of the issue.

"If she [Smuts] was selling me a house, I would buy it."

Smuts is a saleswoman. Some people might find what she does morally egregious, playing on people's hopes. Why then do medical doctors seek her out? Perhaps, more than anything, this whole thing has highlighted the need for more consultation with a woman who is trying to fall pregnant.

Smuts herself said: "Most women know little about conception. A lot of women are ignorant about when and how long they are fertile. You might have a regular bleed but you are not guaranteed a fertile period."

Perhaps it is her understanding and sympathy about life in general that soothes their minds - and by extension their ovaries - and makes them more receptive. Conception, for all we know, might be more than a mere physical act.

Smuts works out of London and Cape Town, sees four clients a day, at around R3,405 (£200) a session and is booked up for months.

• Allsop has developed an app, Fertilityastrology, which can tell you within minutes which times in the year ahead are ideal for conception, by working with cycles and timing. It costs about R90 per download.

• This article was originally published in The Times.