GentleBirth: Your Positive Birth Begins Here

by Tracy Donegan

Discover your roadmap to a positive birth! A positive birth comes in many forms - for some it’s an early effective epidural for another it’s a serene water birth or a calm planned cesarean. What we know for sure is that a positive birth is defined by YOU – not your best friend, Mom or even your OB or Midwife. The award winning GentleBirth program combines brain science, birth science and technology so you can feel inspired, excited and uplifted every day of your pregnancy – and beyond! Every woman wants a safe, positive gentle birth – for themselves and for their baby. Midwife, GentleBirth Founder and positive birth expert Tracy Donegan shows you how as she guides you step by step including the tools to prepare you and your partner for a positive birth – as defined by YOU!Use brain science to reduce pain and fear in labor.Discover the ultimate stress reduction toolkit of techniques of simple meditation, hypnosis and sport psychology.Train your brain for confidence and resilience – long after your baby arrivesLearn breathing techniques that work.Navigate your options with confidence for a GentleBirth for you and your baby.

317 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2018

Reviews

[Berls · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the book could use another edit - lots of distracting errors in punctuation, missing /wrong word usage, etc - is still give it 5 stars and would consider it an invaluable read for anyone preparing for labor. The approach it supports is one of mindfulness and mental preparation. It's very positive and calming - refreshing in our culture that tends to make birth seem like a scary, dangerous undertaking. The author - midwife and doula - does not have push one type of birth on readers. She insists that birth can be a positive experience whether it's at home, in a birthing center, or a hospital... With medication, 100% natural, a c-section, or a combination. This is also refreshing, since so many books seem to have an agenda of what they think is the best way to labor. Her openness makes going into labor with a plan, but flexibility for the various routes it can take, something your comfortable with instead of scared of. She shows you how to stay in control of your birth experience, without being regid and uncompromising to the scenarios that may arise. I could not recommend this book - or the accompanying app with daily meditation, breathing, affirmation, and hypnosis practice - enough.

[Anne Pennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for all births!

I highly recommend this book to all parents, weather first or fifth baby. I used Hypnobirthing for the birth of my first child in 2014. While I found it helped me in some aspects of the labor and birth I felt that I could not keep the hypnosis state throughout. In 2016 while pregnant on my second child a MALE colleague introduced me to the GentleBirth book. As soon as I start reading, I downloaded the app and began the brain training. I can honestly say that it not only gave me the ability to have an amazing hospital birth but it also changed my life.

The GentleBIrth book is written by midwife, childbrith educator, DONA doula trainer, and, mother the of two boys, Tracy Donegan. This book is for any birth you wish to have, from a home birth to a planned caesarean section. The book has 3 main sections, the brain, the body and the birth. The brain section helps the reader understand the importance of preparing the mind for not only labor and birth, but for parenthood too. Tracy explains how the brain undergoes big changes in pregnancy and how we can train the brain for a calm and confident birth. This is extremely helpful for fearful first-time mothers or mothers who have had a traumatic first birth experience. The brain training not only uses hynosis but also, mindfulness, the use of affirmations, and, sports psychology. In addition, Tracy details the use of comfort measures such as essential oils and visualisation techniques for labor that can help the brain literally rewire beliefs about labor and birth. Tracy also includes sections on how using kindness and compassion towards yourself can help you not only have an amazing birth, but live a fulfilled life. The body section of the book introduces the reader to many different comfort measures and positions for labor. The benefits of perlvic floor exercises and the use of perianal massage before birth. Tracy details how an upright position is best for mom and baby throughout the different stages of labour, and information on how you know when labor has begun and what happens at each stage. Throughout the book Tracy has included actual birth stories from GentleBirth moms which are both funny and interesting, to help the reader understand how GentleBirth can work for every kind of birth.

Finally, not to exclude the birth partners. This book helps birth partners understand the process of labor and birth, how they can help their partners with comfort measures and how best to support them with the birth they wish to have. Throughout the book Tracy gives evidence-based information to help the birthing mother and their partner make informed decisions about the birth of their baby.

I recommend this book to all of my friends and I have bought some as presents for baby showers. One of my friends who hoped for a natural birth had to have an emergency c-section. Afterwards she told me that if she didn’t have GentleBirth she would have been really disappointed by the experience. However, she read the book and used the app to prepare so she can look back at her birth experience and feel very happy with how it played out.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good content, but it’s unbelievable to me that this was considered ready for publishing. It’s written like an email between friends where you didn’t really care to go back and proofread for basic punctuation errors or sentences that were unclear. It’s like a first draft. I basically skimmed it for the important stuff, but it’s unbearable if you try to follow every word. The author lacks a basic understanding of where quotations go, how to use ellipses, and is apparently undecided on whether she subscribes to the Oxford comma or not. Would have been good to use an editor.

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books about birth usually begin with an uplifting story that encourages the reader to continue in the hopes of finding the magic secret to an amazing birth that they too can have. This book however feels a little different, yes it has amazing birth stories to inspire us but the feeling is different.

Tracy conveys a sense of community and support, not just promised of an amazing and mindful birth experience. The community Tracy talks of is the GentleBirth community, and this includes Tracy herself! Being from Europe and living in the US this really comes across as a book for everyone and you soon learn that the GentleBirth community is everywhere, we are worldwide! The support is not an empty promise, there really are GentleBirthers everywhere.

[Pandora Elinor]

I gave birth before I had time to finish this book, hence the DNF. I am not in the headspace to finish it now. If I ever have a second child I will return to this book, as I did find it helpful for the birth.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good information in here, but not using much of the non birth related content. Tbh would have given 5 stars if the end didn't feel so off track.

[Mica Hollingsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in conjunction with the app created by Tracey. Helped me go from fearing birth to feeling neutral or positive about aspects of it.
Was a large part in me learning how to advocate for myself and have the confidence to make my wants for the labor process known.
Definitely will use hypnobirthing again with my next child and telling people about how it helped.