Painless Childbirth: An Empowering Journey Through Pregnancy and Birth

by Giuditta Tornetta

Painless An Empowering Journey Through Pregnancy and Birth is a nine-step guide designed to help mothers better understand themselves and the baby that is forming inside their belly. Painless Childbirth promotes self-confidence, urging women to take charge of their well-being as they make informed decisions about their prenatal care, their life choices, and their emotional state. Giuditta Tornetta offers a clear, easy-to-follow process that leads women to discover their innate ability to give birth to their babies and build their self-esteem. She'll help you tune out some of the supposed "experts" and fear-based pregnancy guides and help you rely on your own inner knowledge. Studies have shown that the quality of life in the womb is in direct correlation with the quality of the future life. Over the course of nine months, a mother is encouraged to look at the mix of emotional, psychological, and spiritual influences that have shaped her and will mold her baby's present and future. This essential guide is filled with practical tools and exercises to empower the mother to overcome the many obstacles and fears that stand in the way of her serenity and preparation for a natural delivery. Author Giuditta Tornetta says, " This is not a new technique, but a call to a shift in consciousness from 'pregnancy and labor are happening to me,' to 'my baby and I are working together towards the same joyful the making of and arrival of new life.'" Here's what the experts say about Painless "Pregnancy is a beautiful balance of life, love and spirit and Giuditta reflects that perfectly in her gentle book. What a lovely way to prepare for your new life ahead." --Harvey Karp, MD, FAAP, creator of the book/DVD The Happiest Baby on the Block "Painless Childbirth is filled with heartfelt, practical and scientifically accurate information. It helps women expect the best - and then create it." --Christiane Northrup, MD, bestselling author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom "The author in her doula practice incorporates pre- and perinatal psychology principles with matter-of-fact assertiveness, and basic p&p premises are authoritatively conveyed throughout the book. This might be the most interesting book yet on a doula's life." --Joel Evans, MD, OB/GYN, director of The Center for Women's Health in Stamford, CT, author of The Whole Pregnancy Handbook "As we birth our babies, we also give birth to ourselves as mothers. Giuditta's gentle guidance and spiritual nourishment will give confidence and joy on the exquisite journey to motherhood." --Sarah Buckley, MD, is the author of Gentle Birth, Gentle A Doctor's Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Giuditta Tornetta is an author, doula, workshop leader and an hypnotherapist.

Tornetta's first book Painless Childbirth, encouraged mothers to go on a transformational journey through pregnancy and birth to obtain the birthing experience they deserved and desired. Now Conversation with the Womb is inspiring women to use their creative feminine power to awaken to their full potential, and act as co-creative agents to manifest the life they covet.

"With this book we were looking to utilize the techniques used in Painless Childbirth to encompass the many phases of womanhood, not just pregnancy and birth," writes Tornetta. "We've taken all the knowledge generated from our series of international workshops and condensed it into one book."

Fully-loaded with hands-on exercises and heart-felt stories Conversations With The Womb goes beyond your run of the mill self-help book and elevates itself as a truly transformational experience. The author's passion is that contagious.

As her resume suggests, Giuditta Tornetta is a woman of many passions. Perhaps her greatest one being the renaissance of the forgotten ancient feminine powers. From facilitating natural painless childbirth to profoundly detailed workshops on personal growth Tornetta's work is probably best encompassed in the following advertisement for her Loving The Mother workshop: "Imagine an extraordinary gathering of women awakening to their full potential and acting as powerful co-creative agents for change in the world."

It is with this grand capacity for imagination Tornetta envisions the rediscovery of the immense creative force of the womb.
Ms. Tornetta runs monthly workshops and lectures on such topics as Loving the Mother, Painless Childbirth, Baby Right. Internationally she offers several workshops such as Conversations with the Womb, Loving the Mother, and Healing the Money all workshops are related to her work with the Nine Chakras of Creation.

For speaking engagements please contact Giuditta Tornetta at 310-435-6054 or visit www.joyinbirthing.com

Reviews

[Didi Delighted · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've practiced metaphysical healing for the last fifteen years, and also attended Midwifery school and done doula work, as well as taken courses for birth educators, and done training in Birthing From Within. I figured I would love this book. Nope.

I'm on my second pregnancy, and I feel this book would do more for women that didn't have much experience with pregnancy/ birth/ labor and chakras. I was very bored, and as much as I tried to get into it I couldn't. Nothing here called to me, and I had hoped for much better meditations and writing exercises. Everything fell flat for me. Perhaps it was the writing style and the heavy Christian tone (the author is Catholic). I ended up scribbling out the word "God" over and over and replacing it with "Goddess." (The record was five times on one page, with several other pages making it to four) Maybe it seems silly, but the idea of praying to the male God of a religion steeped in toxic masculinity simply does not appeal to me during pregnancy.

The only segments I liked were the examples of hypnotherapy clients.

I think the author is likely awesome at her job, but this book just wasn't for me. Nothing new.

Books I think are awesome to read while pregnant: Birthing From Within, Baby Catcher, and Motherwit.

[Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Painless Childbirth by Giuditta Tornetta, she is a birth doula and also uses hypnosis with her clients. It was a positive, uplifting book about pregnancy and birth. It is always wonderful to have a book showing that birth can be comfortable and enjoyable.

Reasons I liked this book:

It shows that birth can be comfortable and enjoyable. There are some good birth stories included, under many different circumstances, home birth, hospital births, induced births, etc. These stories demonstrate how mom's beliefs can create their reality.

The book helps moms see how they can be empowered by educating themselves and making choices that are best for them and their baby! Birth is not a one size fits all kind of situation. Learn what your choices are, trust your body and baby and you can be empowered.

The only thing that would make me hesitant to say every mom should read the book, is that it is fairly "new-agey". Personally, I am pretty open minded, so this didn't bother me. I just took what I liked and dismissed what didn't fit into my beliefs. For instance, Giuditta divided the book into 10 months, and connected the chakras to the different months of pregnancy. I found that interesting, but others might be turned off by that.

Some moms are very hesitant to try hypnosis for childbirth, because they worry it won't fit into their belief structure. One thing I like about Hypnobabies is that it is very main stream and can fit into anyone's beliefs. It isn't new-agey at all. I would worry that some of these moms, if they started to read this book would straight away assume that hypnosis is only for new-agey people.

In conclusion I would let moms know if they are open to new and different ideas, then this is a great book for them to read in preparation for birth. It will give them some tools and ideas to help them prepare for birth and parenting. I would add that they most likely will need more than just this book for preparation. If they want more tools, scripts, childbirth information, etc. Hypnobabies would give them these things.

[Katherine Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ranks pretty high on the woo-woo scale, and Giuditta Tornetta borrows freely from The Secret, Byron Katie's The Work, 12-step programs, and probably a bunch of other New Agey gurus that I am not identifying (Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, ???), but the premises in it concerning having a positive attitude towards childbirth and nurturing your body, spirit, and unborn child are all worthwhile. The book is divided into chapters corresponding to the 9 months of pregnancy, the 9 chakras (7 in the body, plus two higher chakras that reside outside the body), and the 9 Basic Human Rights. It is an interesting framework from which to approach pregnancy, and you could read it one chapter per month and focus on the chakra/human right that corresponds to your baby's stage of development in that month if you wanted to. If you are not into Higher Powers, God as a She, spirit children who appear to you in dreams, or "hugging your baby out" (this one gets on my nerves - hugs draw a person in. Babies are going OUT of the body. You can breathe them out, let them drop out on their own, squeeze them out, a la toothpaste from a tube, or push them out, a la orange push-up popsicles, but you don't hug them out. Gaaah!), this isn't the book for you. If you like to believe that your child specially chose your family, comes to earth to make Spirit manifest, and has the wisdom of the ages contained within its being, and that EVERYTHING is always PERFECT, this book will be right up your alley.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I thought this was an excellent book for preparing to give birth and I recommend it to any pregnant woman. It had great advice for mental and spiritual well being that could also be applied outside of childbirth. I had only half a chapter left to read when I actually went into labor with my 3rd child. I felt like this time I was able to manage contractions so much better than my previous labors, thanks to this book.

There were a few things I didn't like about the book. It was a bit too "new age" for me, but I was able to breeze over those parts and take just what I wanted from the book. Also, the author believes a drug-free, home birth is the absolute best way to have a child. I'm not quite convinced on those points, but she also has lots of advice for having a hospital birth, how to talk to the staff (which came in handy when I came across one nurse that was really getting on my nerves), etc.

I enjoyed the stories from various mothers and births and the loving "feel" of the book. I like how the author stresses having a positive attitude and adapting to circumstances that might be out of our control. I really did find this book empowering.

[Maude Beckman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very different from what I expected. The Author compares the nine months of birth to the 9 chakras. Although I love to do Yoga as an exercise, to improve my flexibility and to help me relax, I am not into the "religious" side of it. To her credit the author also brings up the unilateral beliefs among the believers.

The main point of this book is to change your outlook on pain in childbirth and in coming to see what is considered pain as your body being one with the divine in bringing up a new life on this earth.

Although I did not necessarily connect with this book, I did appreciate the insight into ways you can relax your body and let it do its work during childbirth.

I also appreciated her realistic approach to a hospital birth even though she herself had 2 home births.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started to read this and I really like the premise of it. It's set up so that you read one chapter a month during your pregnancy. I sort of lost interest because I'm not pregnant, but I liked it enough to purchase it and will read it when I am lucky enough to be pregnant again!
Update: I was reading it through the first 5 or 6 months of my pregnancy but I lost my interest. There were some interesting ideas, but there were also lots of suggestions, advice, and anecdotes that either I couldn't relate to or I thought were implausible. As others have said, it's quite religious, and I am not! In terms of implausibilities, I don't think my memory of my own birth created fears about my child's birth, or that traveling to my past via hypnosis will heal those fears. The book became too "out there" for me.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me feel good about childbirth. After having birthed five children naturally, I know what to expect. And even with those experiences, reading this book made me feel like I could make the sixth birth an even better experience. It was a gentle, thoughtful book written by someone who seems to have a lot of expertise in the area. Some of the book was a little out of my range of experience, so some of her exercises and suggestions seemed weird, but overall the book made me feel more comfortable and calm about the approaching birth of my sixth child.

[Dr. Breeze Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do a homebirth and or birthing experience at a birth center/hospital WITHOUT using medicine.

Giuditta really put by mind a ease and reminded me of what I am already capable of doing if I put my mind to and not let me fears and negativity surrounding childbirth in this culture, take control of me.

I am very thankful for this book!

[Crystalee Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guiditta's book caught my eye in the library and after reading a few chapters, I had to buy one for myself. I love her approach to birth, which combines positive psychology with other natural methods. Her words comforted and empowered me during the pregnancy of my first baby. Also, when I emailed her, she emailed me back right away!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thought provoking book in many ways. It's almost like a self-therapy book to get rid of past fears and negative experiences.I liked the insights I gained from it. It is a little too "mystical" for my taste, but worth reading.

[Andrea Tingey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only for pregnant woman, I would recommend to everyone to read as a "self-help" book. It was so helpful in realizing the things in my life that I need to correct or work on. Very inciteful and helpful, and said things in a very understandable and useful way>

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was very repetitive ad well as strongly laced with religion and how it plays a part in your birth. I in no way found it informative on the best methods for having an un-medicated painless childbirth.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be a very different type of book. I did not find this a practical book, was very repetitive and the god references were insidious and did not help to imbue a painless childbirth as the title indicates.

[Dannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A total hippie read; I loved the visualizations and positive messages.

[Rena Phung · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one's a little too new-agey for my taste! The title's good though! ;-)

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really connect with this book. It was a little weird; yet had a good perspective on how joyful childbirth can be.

[Charissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of introspection for each month of pregnancy. 'Painless' doesn't really mean painless; just empowered and natural. :)

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely helpful. I think it's hard to approach any of these books as the birthing bible but taking something from each and adapting it to your circumstances is probably the best route.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed pondering the points that the author brought up, even if I didn't agree with them all.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little out there but encouraging that mind over matter can get you through labor.

[Pete · Rating 1 out of 5]

Less informative than the title suggests. Not one I'd recommend