[.ca] Whole Person Fertility Program: The Revolutionary ... (ISBN 0609801988)

From Amazon.com:
Women having difficulty conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term will gain much wisdom from this book. Basing her program on the mind-body connection, author Niravi Payne has developed a therapeutic program for connecting with one's inner self to uncover the reasons behind fertility problems. In a nutshell, that means that women who can't conceive may not want to conceive in the first place. They may have other psychological barriers to conception, such as feeling that their partner isn't right for them, or ambivalence over what they see is a trade-off between motherhood and their career. "Emotions, whether conscious or unconscious, provoke physical responses," says Payne. She says that the most sophisticated fertility treatments in the world won't help women whose infertility is purely emotionally based, but for women who are using in vitro fertilization and other high-tech treatments, her program will greatly enhance the chances of conception. (While she's helped hundreds, if not thousands, of women become pregnant, she doesn't reveal the percentage of her patients who've successfully given birth. She says that all her clients are given a new ability to heal themselves, which makes the process of adoption and other parenting alternatives--including the choice of not having children--easier to consider for those women who eventually come to terms with their infertility.) Because the emotions that affect fertility have roots as far back as childhood, Payne's program--a "healing journey"--is very thorough and requires a great deal of self-exploration and analysis. What are your attitudes toward childbirth? How has your past molded your present? Have you fully mourned for past abortions, miscarriages, or stillbirths? How have repressed emotions contributed to your infertility symptoms or other female health problems? While Payne's book focuses on women's fertility, she also includes information about how the mind-body program can apply to men. She also includes copious recommendations for additional reading and resources for biofeedback equipment, lists of holistic medical doctors, and addresses and phone numbers of foundations and associations for further help and support.

The Whole Person Fertility Program:
I whole-heartedly recommend this book and its results. In addition to reading this book I went through about two years of therapy with Niravi, which changed my life. I think the readers who interpreted what she is saying with the attitude that if you don't get pregnant by following what she suggests, that it's all in your mind, and it's your fault, have it all wrong. That is exactly the thinking that I was stuck in, and had created as a self-blame mechanism that I carried around with me all of my life. Her goal is not to have you blame yourself, but to look at your life and try to understand how and why you have come to have the beliefs that you do, which may not be your fault at all. They can be very strong family influences, work influences and society influences that keep you and your mind locked in patterns of behavior that affect how your body responds to stress, illness or disease. I believe the mind has a huge affect on your health and how well your body works, and I believe medicine is only just starting to catch on to this idea. That is the basis for Niravi's program. I finally examined how I was really living my life and whether that way was compatible with what I was saying was my goal to have a baby. My life was not compatible with having a baby before I worked with Niravi. I tried for 10 years to get pregnant. I finally forgave myself for all the mistakes and failures, but it took a long time to do. I am now 7 1/2 months pregnant, which I had not expected to happen. I give a lot of credit to Niravi for helping me stop blaming myself and to get on with my life. Hope she can help you too.

Not for everyone:
I purchased this book since I haven't been able to conceive after many years of trying, and it was recommended in "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom". I believe in the mind/body connection but there is an inherent risk in focusing on this: we feel even MORE guilty when we don't conceive since it MUST be in our minds! This book is written in a very positive, supportive tone, however. I was turned off by the focus on older, "professional" infertile women and lesbian couples. Why not give examples of a more average type of woman? I understand that these minority groups need support and perhaps their stories exemplified what the author was trying to convey, but I just couldn't relate to them. I also have a hard time believing that the mind is to blame for all ailments. One example is a woman with "hard" eggs who became a softer person and got pregnant. Please! Perhaps unbalanced hormones are caused by an unbalanced psyche but I hesitate to blame my "family patterns" for my fibroid, polyps and blocked tubes. I tried doing the suggested exercises but found myself yawning and procrastinating. Hopping on the wings of a butterfly...all I could think of was that the butterfly's wings were going to break and I would fall to my death in the lovely meadow below. I would only recommend this book to women who have unexplained infertility, especially older women.

Mind body link:
Great book with lots of providing lots of insight to all the things we carry with us from childhood and adulthood that affect the way we handle infertility. It helped me face my fears and realize how my families attitudes towards pregnancy and failure have affected me. Highly reccommend...

Mind body link:
Great book with lots of providing lots of insight to all the things we carry with us from childhood and adulthood that affect the way we handle infertility. It helped me face my fears and realize how my families attitudes towards pregnancy and failure have affected me. Highly reccommend...

I think the other reviews are based on the free preview...:
I've *actually* read the entire book and it's a peice of trash, I actually threw it away it disgusted me so much. The author said that if you don't tell people you're pregnant your baby will think he/she is not wanted and you can miscarry because of that! Unbelievably ignorant, this author has obviously never dealt with miscarriage or infertility. I picked up this book thinking it would have natural remedies(you know like herbs) and it's a lot of meditations and visualizations which is fine and good for anyone trying to conceive but with infertility I don't care how many times I pray to buddah it's just not going to happen without a doctor's help. Don't waste your time on the rest of the book, it's not worth it and they wouldn't give a huge preview if it was