When I first picked up Giuditta Tornetta’s book Painless Childbirth, I must admit that I was skeptical. What was she proposing? Was this just another “method” that would hold women to a standard that might leave them feeling guilty or disempowered when they could not attain it? And should women even want a painless childbirth? Haven’t we learned that pain is part of the natural process—even a manageable part that releases all those love hormones, helps us bond with our babies and moves us into motherhood? However, as one of those women who DID experience painless childbirth, I was also intrigued. How could she possibly explain or try to teach what I knew was unteachable.

To my pleasant surprise, she does it: First, by declaring that painless childbirth is a right and then by explaining just what that entails. Tornetta interweaves relationships among nine chakras, or energy fields, with nine basic human rights and the nine months of gestation. Each chapter focuses briefly on one month of fetal development, the main ruling of one particular chakra and how they each relate to a particular fundamental human right. For example, she notes that in the second gestational month, the baby’s arms and fingers are formed “to touch the ‘other,’” the quality of the second chakra is “emotions toward the ‘other,’” and the basic human right is to feel and to want. Throughout that chapter she focuses on feelings—about the pregnancy and birth, about the woman’s own birth, about the impact those feelings have on her experience—and one wants—the right to want and how to go about expressing and getting that want fulfilled, especially regarding birth hopes and plans.

Each chapter begins with a paragraph-long affirmation using such terms as “I am confidant…,” “I declare my right to…,” “I am grateful for…” These would be wonderful used as cards to select each day of the pregnancy or posted on the walls of a laboring woman’s room. After discussing the development, chakra, human right relationship, she then fleshes out the chapter with basic coping mechanisms and user-friendly tools to help break the barriers of insecurities and complaints (physical and emotional) that come up during pregnancy and labor. In addition birth stories are scattered throughout the book.
My favorite part was the chapter on love—the exhortations to love yourself and your partner (with practical exercises to help), to love how you look (with a discussion of nutrition and weight gain) and to use love as a healing tool (again, with simple walk-through aids). I felt that this chapter alone would go a long way in helping pregnant women work through their fears surrounding birth and new motherhood.
So, the “painless” part. Tornetta expresses this best herself when she says, “To achieve a painless childbirth, you must experience pain—not necessarily physical pain, but the pain of change, of letting go of old habits, beliefs, resentments, behaviors and attitudes.” And, no, this is not another “method” book, but an inspirational guide through the journey that is pregnancy, labor and birth.

Reviewer Elise Hansen has been involved in women’s health care for over 25 years, has naturally birthed four children (including a footling breech), is a proofreader for Midwifery Today, academic copyeditor, a Spanish-language medical interpreter and is currently practicing as a homebirth midwife in Oregon. She still has implicit trust in gentle, non-interventive birth.

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 Bucley MD, author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices.  foreword by Ina May Gaskin

“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.”

-Chirstiane Northrup, MD., best-selling author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

- Jay Gordon, MD., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA Medical School

“Painless Childbirth has the power to shatter misconceptions about pregnancy, labor and birth, and replace them with new, more accurate and empowering knowledge. Our all too prevalent cultural belief that childbirth is a torturous endeavor that must be endured in order to get the prize at the end must be discarded. Women can develop their own deep knowing that it is possible, indeed desirable, to birth in a way where pain is not only manageable—one contraction at a time—but serves as a source of strength and spiritual transformation. Painless Childbirth is a how-to manual that guides women through this sacred process. The book delivers in a way that readers can’t help but feel energized and excited to apply its timeless wisdom right now in the present moment.

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, and we have to thank Giuditta for having shared with us such deep stories of her own voyage into motherhood and her doula practice.”

-Joel Evans, MD OB/GYN, director of The Center for Women’s Health in Stamford, CT, author of The Whole Pregnancy Handbook, and the newest member of APPPAH’s Board of Directors.

“Every woman expecting a baby should read this book. Additionally, maternity caregivers, be they doctors, midwives, nurses, who meet the woman as she faces this immense transformative event will gain more understanding of their power to help or hurt the woman in this vulnerable state of releasing her baby into the world. Support people, partners, and doulas will also benefit by having a greater depth of knowledge of the potential of their roles and how to provide the appropriate support as they travel on the journey of birth with the woman.

The personal stories are both instructive and inspirational. Stories are an important way to engage the
mind/body/senses/ and emotions, and provide learning at a deeper level where there is a sensory and physiological identification. Women will gain more confidence to trust in their body’s natural wisdom.”

-Phyllis Klaus, MFT, CSW Perinatal therapist, researcher, co-founder of Doulas Of North America, and author of Your Amazing Newborn, Bonding, The Doula Book, and When Survivors Give Birth