The guide contains everything I know about pain management in labour...

Hi! I'm Dr Melanie Jackson (aka Melanie the Midwife). I've been a midwife since 2009 and have spent 18 years as a private midwife, mostly caring for women as they give birth at home. Giving birth at home means that there is no option for medical pain management. This means that I have seen every other pain management strategy that women use in order to work through labour pain without medication. I've done it myself for my 2 homebirths and I've seen what works for other women. The guide is a collection of all the tools that I've seen work for women as they manage labour and birth without pain medication. 

Epidurals can be a powerful labour and birth tool, however, they do come with risks, reduce the chance that you'll have a normal vaginal birty, they disrupt the hormonal flow of labour, change the shape of your pelvis and pelvic opening and increase the chance that your baby will be in a less favourable position for birth. For these reasons, many women want to avoid an epidural unless they absolutely need one... 

BUT a plan to avoid an epidural is not a complete plan, YOU STILL NEED STRATEGIES TO WORK THROUGH LABOUR AND BIRTH PAIN. The opposite of an epidural is not using nothing to manage labour pain. IF YOU WANT TO AVOID AN EPIDURAL, YOU'LL NEED OTHER STRATEGIES FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT. 

That's why I made this guide to giving birth without pain medication. It contains all the strategies I've seen work both at home and in hospital for pain management in labour and prepares you and your support team with ALL-FACTS NO-FLUFF STRATEGIES for pain management. This is what you need to manage the pain of labour if you want to avoid or delay the use of an epidural.