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Guiding the Infertility Journey with Mindfulness - Janetti Marotta

12/24/2020

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Guiding the Infertility Journey with Mindfulness
Dr. Janetti Marotta

 

This episode was sponsored by:
Empowering fearless Birth
We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.

 

In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Janetti Marotta, a psychologist who has specialized in infertility since 1990. Drawn from her own journey through infertility and those with whom she has worked, she is the author of A Fertile Path: Guiding the Journey with Mindfulness and Compassion (https://janettimarotta.com/a-fertile-path/). Dr. Marotta is a long-time practitioner of meditation and teacher of mindfulness and also author of 50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem: Everyday Practices for Cultivating Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion (https://janettimarotta.com/50-mindful-steps-to-self-esteem/).

We talk about what inspired Dr. Marotta to specialize in infertility. She then tells us how she defines mindfulness, and explains how it relates to infertility. We then discuss how stress impacts fertility. We discuss the “holistic approach to fertility treatment.”

Dr. Marotta then breaks down her approach to helping those with infertility struggles, including acknowledgement and acceptance, techniques for reducing stress and tension release, mindfulness and meditation in breath, body, thought, and emotion.

We then move on to talk about the effects of infertility on your partner. We also discuss how to ease into the process of using 3rd party fertility solutions like surrogacy and adoption. Dr. Marotta shares her own experiences of trial and error pursuing donor egg IVF, adoption, and finally going with surrogacy for her child.

To learn more, visit www.janettimarotta.com.

• 1:54 Janetti’s Story
• 7:23 What is Mindfulness and How Does it Relate to Infertility?
• 26:00 Breaking Down Dr. Marotta’s Approach
• 47:04 Impact of Infertility on Partner
• 49:27 Easing Into the Process of 3rd Party Fertility Solutions.

“It’s not so much the thoughts we have, but how tightly we hold onto those thoughts, that accounts for our mental suffering.” 42:10

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https://janettimarotta.com/
Check Out Her Book Here

Connect with our guest!

https://janettimarotta.com/contact
https://www.instagram.com/janettimarotta
https://www.facebook.com/JanettiMarottaPhD

Podcasts are sponsored in part by Empowering Fearless Birth
donate@empoweringfearlessbirth.com

 

 

Infertility is an issue that affects roughly 48.5 million people worldwide, and yet it is often left out of the discussion in birth spaces. Coming up against fertility struggles can be incredibly isolating and cause feelings of shame and inadequacy that have a lasting impact on one's self worth. It's important for these people to be able to be mindful of their experience and their feelings and come to a realization of their worth in spite of the difficulty of their journey so that whatever path they take toward building a family can be done without the weight of shame bearing down on them.

Sarah and Janetti discuss the weight of infertility on prospective parents, as well as Dr. Marotta's own struggles with fertility and the spiritual journey she went through in the process of trying to have a child. They also get into how mindfulness of the experience can help to process the feelings and move beyond them into a better place of acceptance no matter where the fertility journey ultimately ends.

Dr. Janetti Marotta is a psychologist who has specialized in infertility since 1990. Drawn from her own journey through infertility and those with whom she has worked, she is the author of A Fertile Path: Guiding the Journey with Mindfulness and Compassion. Dr. Marotta is a long-time practitioner of meditation and teacher of mindfulness and also author of 50 Mindful Steps to Self-Esteem: Everyday Practices for Cultivating Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion.

 

This episode was sponsored by:
Empowering fearless Birth
We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.