Melanie The Midwife

Melanie The Midwife Midwife in Private practice, Host of the Great Birth Rebellion Podcast, Midwifery Mentor and Research

Melanie lives in the Blue Mountains with her Husband and two children and has been a midwife in private practice, and providing homebirth services, since 2009. She has a passion for providing minimal intervention care and has respect for the physiological process of pregnancy, birth and the early postnatal period. Melanie loves to see the powerful process of birth unfold and watch families blossom

as pregnancy and birth unfolds. Her passion for midwifery led her to complete her PhD, called "birth outside the system", in 2015, and she has held positions in midwifery research, midwifery lecturing and National Policy development at the Australian College of Midwives along side her work as a midwife. Melanie has a degree in Naturopathy and incorporates alternative therapies and nutritional guidance into her midwifery care.

How to be a great Midwife… it’s actually more simple than you think… I’ve laid it out for you. Register for the free Mas...
21/01/2025

How to be a great Midwife… it’s actually more simple than you think… I’ve laid it out for you.

Register for the free Masterclass ‘how to be a great Midwife’

www.melaniethemidwife.com

Register at the website above to get sent the recording

2 things I’m reminded of at Christmas time: 1. Jesus, the saviour of the world chose to be born in a barn (the first rec...
23/12/2024

2 things I’m reminded of at Christmas time:

1. Jesus, the saviour of the world chose to be born in a barn (the first recorded homebirth in an authoritative text)… not the first homebirth - but the first recorded one.
2. Time to gear up for a other year of fighting the patriarchy for equal rights and social equality

Image acknowledgement to artist

Me: *clears table and rolls map out* Ok, here’s the plan Hannah: I’m listening, what time? dahlen
13/12/2024

Me: *clears table and rolls map out*
Ok, here’s the plan

Hannah: I’m listening, what time? dahlen

Every intervention in birth has intended and unintended consequences. Both benefits and risks.The cascade of interventio...
12/12/2024

Every intervention in birth has intended and unintended consequences. Both benefits and risks.

The cascade of intervention explains how another intervention is required to remedy the unintended consequences of the previous interventions.

Intervening in birth is powerful, it has the power to help, save and benefit women and babies, but they can also, harm and hurt women and babies.

Respect their power by using them sparingly and only when medically necessary. Routine interventions are not benign - every intervention has a risk and benefit.

Many of us read the ABC article about birth keepers released 20th Nov 2024. This week on the podcast I interviewed one ...
08/12/2024

Many of us read the ABC article about birth keepers released 20th Nov 2024. This week on the podcast I interviewed one of the authors of the article, Charlotte King.

In the episode she was able to share some new information that wasn’t in the article… the most poignant being that she didn’t pursue this stories - the families came to her.

Knowing this changed my perspective completely on the appropriateness of this article. I will always believe and stand by women as they share their experiences of maternity care, regardless of where and with who they give birth. If we believe and honour traumatic hospital birth stories we must also believe and honour traumatic freebirth and homebirth stories.

You can hear our discussion on episode 128 of the great birth rebellion podcast. ‘birth keepers - an investigation with journalist Charlotte King’

*the sisterhood is honoured here - respectful discussion is always welcome, any comments that personally attack other people or show aggressive tones will be deleted.

The maternity care provider spectrum broadly describes the role of the 4 main care provider options in maternity care. T...
08/12/2024

The maternity care provider spectrum broadly describes the role of the 4 main care provider options in maternity care. This is the first iteration - it’s one tile, not everything will fit in and if you have suggestions on improvements I’d love to hear them. This was developed to visually assist with the info in episode 128 of the podcast

•Doulas have a clear role at birth, to provide the woman with everything she needs EXCEPT clinical or medical care. Doulas are not clinically trained and not responsible for giving advice about if your pregnancy, birth or postpartum is normal or abnormal. Doulas can seek training but aren’t required to. Because their role isn’t clinical they aren’t regulated or monitored and don’t have to meet standards of competence.

• birth-keepers are a newish group of birth workers. Many work within the same role as a doula but others blur the lines of their scope and claim to be able to use midwifery and clinical skill. These workers can perform as doulas but sometimes also perform as Midwives. Midwifery is a protected profession and it’s illegal to provide midwifery care if not a midwife. Members of the public can’t know the true skill of their birth keeper because they are not required to have formal training and are unregulated.

• Midwives (hard to explain in one paragraph!) are trained health professionals, are required to maintain standards and competency as registered and regulated care providers. Their scope ranges all the way from emotional support to physical support with midwives able to care for women having both normal and complex journeys. They can provide clinical and emergency care while also focusing on the relational and emotional needs of the woman. Historically midwives were the ones who attended women in birth along with a collection of women folk from the community.

• Obstetricians can provide care throughout pregnancy and birth but their trainning is solely medical. They are capable of providing life saving medical interventions and care during actual emergencies. This often involves tools and surgeries.

I’ve got a cold so I’m working from my bed to try and trick my body into thinking I’m at rest 👀… I just glanced at my be...
05/12/2024

I’ve got a cold so I’m working from my bed to try and trick my body into thinking I’m at rest 👀… I just glanced at my bed after getting ready for the day and saw so much of my life in one second (the rest of my life I can hear in the background 😆)

• thermal mug
• 2025 full focus journal waiting to be loaded
• printed and completed 2025 calendar to send to my assistant so she can preload 2025 for me
• my laptop which has all my work in it
• house plants
• bedlinen by .threads
• my blue light free reading lamp

This is also just a reminder that 2025 is your year!!! Get planning sisters we are going to thrive #2025

Can confirm that Ashlee from is a sucker for some cheese and deli meats. I spotted this sticky note on the fridge of a ...
20/11/2024

Can confirm that Ashlee from is a sucker for some cheese and deli meats.

I spotted this sticky note on the fridge of a birthing woman recently and it reminded me of the mutual love and respect that exists between women and their midwives. We love them and they love us… and sometimes we eat deli meat and cheese platters 😍

Another little update on the homebirth insurance situation… good news is that everything seems to be moving in the right...
01/11/2024

Another little update on the homebirth insurance situation… good news is that everything seems to be moving in the right direction with the ‘scrapping’ of the low-risk terminology. This is an email communication from the Australian College of Midwives

Still more work to be done and acknowledgement to the organisations who work tirelessly to push these issues and create change including (there are undoubtedly more hard workers, apologies if I have missed you)

Once a year for only one week I open up the opportunity for midwives to hire me as their mentor to help them transition ...
24/10/2024

Once a year for only one week I open up the opportunity for midwives to hire me as their mentor to help them transition from where they are now and into private practice.

It’s only open once a year because all year I’m with you to make sure you have all the information and support that you need to launch a successful private midwifery practice.

There is no road map to private practice and it’s easy to miss important steps - but not if you are part of the mentorship. The mentorship goes for a whole year and I’m with you the whole time.

Do you want to spend another year in a job that you don’t like? OR by this time next year, your career could be on a completely new trajectory… working as a private midwife and free of the moral stress that we work under as midwives

Enrolments opened this morning (25th Oct). This is the week to decide if you are going to change your life.

Go to www.melaniethemidwife.com for all the details

Some news on the homebirth insurance issue…To summarise the historical issues since 20101. made it so that homebirth mi...
15/10/2024

Some news on the homebirth insurance issue…

To summarise the historical issues since 2010

1. made it so that homebirth midwives must have insurance in order to be registered
2. Their rules could not be satisfied because there was no insurance product that covered private midwives
3. The mother of all rallies was the final push point and we were given an insurance product that was not fit for purpose so had to include an exemption from professional indemnity insurance rules
4. The exemption was supposed to be a temporary measure but every time a solution is sought, it doesn’t get across the line, so they extend the exemption
5. Having an exemption means that we can work without insurance… but we are uninsured for birth - which is not fair to families or midwives. Everyone is vulnerable
6. The current attempt at insurance sought to make the insurance solution exclusive to ‘low risk’ birth scenarios
7. The proposed solution is not fit for purpose, misunderstands the work of midwives and has been ill informed
8. It’s obvious more work needs doing.
9. The exemption has been extended till December 2026 ‘for the final time’ (p.s. this is not the first time they’ve said this)

Any questions??

TICKET SALES ARE OPEN! For the convergence of rebellious midwives 2025 with our first speaker announcement INA MAY GASKI...
22/09/2024

TICKET SALES ARE OPEN! For the convergence of rebellious midwives 2025 with our first speaker announcement INA MAY GASKIN who is taking a holiday from retirement to deliver unique recorded presentations for the convergence. This is a once in a career/lifetime opportunity to soak in the wisdom of Ina May in a room full of like minded rebels. It’s truely the event of the year!

Actually I did a small ticket release to the people who came to the 2024 convergence and a small number of existing clients and 110 tickets are already sold… the 2024 attendees have called the convergence the BEST conference they have ever attended… this conference is curated from love and respect for the people who are fighting the rebellious fight. Come join the rebels and be with your people.

The benefit of securing your ticket early (before September 30th) is that you get access to a 10 MONTH or 40 WEEK payment plan to spread the cost out over the year. These payment plans will continue but will have to get shorter as the event approaches. Long payment plans are only available this far out from the event.

This conference is for rebellious midwives, doulas, birth workers, obstetricians, lactation consultants, birth nerds and ANYONE who wants to expand their knowledge and advocate for better care for women during pregnancy, birth and beyond.

Date: 15th-17th August 2025
Location: the International convention centre, Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia)

Ticket sales at: www.melaniethemidwife.com

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT 📣 regarding The Convergence of Rebellious Midwives 2025! 1. We opened ticket sales to the rebels who c...
20/09/2024

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT 📣 regarding The Convergence of Rebellious Midwives 2025!

1. We opened ticket sales to the rebels who came to the 2024 convergence and already 110 tickets have been sold (that tells you how incredible the 2024 event was)… and 80 of those tickets were sold before we even knew the 2025 dates and venue!

2. The feedback from the 2024 convergence had at least 30 comments that specifically said the convergence is the BEST conference they have ever attended.

3. How do we improve on a 2024 event that was considered the best ever?! … we just try and TOP ourselves for 2025 and we have because 🥁

4. INA MAY GASKIN is the first speaker announcement! Full disclosure - Ina May is technically retired as she is now in her mid-80’s and enjoying a time of rest BUT when she heard about the convergence she really wanted to contribute! She can’t travel anymore, so no-one has the opportunity to see her in the flesh BUT she is recording a unique talk and Q&A exclusively for the convergence.

5. THIS could be the very last time an Australian audience will ever get to hear the wisdom of Ina May Gaskin, spoken specifically for the rebels at the convergence. She has kindly offered to take a holiday from retirement for the convergence of rebellious midwives 2025

6. The dates for the 2025 convergence are August 15th-17th

7. The venue is the international convention centre in Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia). We filled the last venue to capacity and are anticipating a larger convergence for 2025 so we picked a venue that can accommodate up to 1000 people!

8. Public ticket sales open on Monday 23rd of September and I’ll be sending all the details to everyone on my mailing list first and going out to the wider public soon after. join the mailing list at www.melaniethemidwife.com

9. We have a generous 10 month or 40 week payment plan available until the end of September to help spread out the cost over the year and of course its tax deductible

10. The convergence is for ANYONE interested in rebelling against system centric modern maternity care (not just midwives… but I am always planning with midwives in mind)

Out of office until October, I’ve escaped to Greece and my ‘homeland’ Cyprus with my family for our very first overseas ...
04/09/2024

Out of office until October, I’ve escaped to Greece and my ‘homeland’ Cyprus with my family for our very first overseas holiday together.

Business as usual because Julia .to.grow is across it… stay tuned though for some exciting announcements about the convergence of rebellious midwives conference 2025… we’ve just secured a venue and 2025 dates. We are first selling to the rebels who came this year and then will open to the public.

There are already 80 tickets sold to the 2025 convergence and the 2024 finished just over a week ago, and we hadn’t even told them the location or dates yet! if that doesn’t tell you how good 2024 was than I don’t know what will!

Helloooo seasoned traveler’s… for the first time ever we are taking our kids overseas, which means multiple long haul fl...
30/08/2024

Helloooo seasoned traveler’s… for the first time ever we are taking our kids overseas, which means multiple long haul flights… we are under-prepared for the challenge of travel and I’m looking for help on which healthy snacks are travel friendly and activities that I can pack for the plane… any bright ideas that I can pull off in one day would be appreciated 😍✈️

Ep. 111 of the great birth rebellion podcast today gave out lots of stats about the outcomes of homebirth (for women co...
18/08/2024

Ep. 111 of the great birth rebellion podcast today gave out lots of stats about the outcomes of homebirth (for women considered ‘low-risk) compared to hospital births.

All these stats came from the study noted on the slide…

This episode asked the question, is hospital birth dangerous for women? Listen to the episode for the full story.

When you look at these slides and see the better physical outcomes for women at home… remember that the outcomes for babies were statistically similar across all birth settings - so it wasn’t like the higher intervention in hospitals improved outcomes for babies… they got the same results for babies, but needed to use waaaaay more intervention.

Also, the postpartum haemorrhage slide might look similar…. But they are actually really different. Listen to episode 111 ‘Is hospital birth dangerous for women’ out today on the great birth rebellion podcast.

Q. How do you give yourself the most chance of avoiding a caesarean, vacuum or forceps? A. Give birth at home… the truth...
11/08/2024

Q. How do you give yourself the most chance of avoiding a caesarean, vacuum or forceps?

A. Give birth at home… the truth is that the least interventions in birth happen with midwives outside of a hospital setting. The outcomes for babies at home vs hospital are very similar… but the outcomes for women are very different.

The truth is that (statistically speaking) women do exceptionally better giving birth outside of a hospital and are less likely to require caesarean, vacuum or forceps if they don’t go to hospital.

Research source: Homer et al, Maternal and perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth in Australia 2000-2012: a linked population data study

Learn more in ep. 111 of podcast

The convergence of rebellious midwives conference- don’t let the name put you off, it’s for anyone passionate about lear...
05/08/2024

The convergence of rebellious midwives conference- don’t let the name put you off, it’s for anyone passionate about learning from some of the most rebellious leaders in their field… happening this August 23rd-25th at the Sofitel Hotel Darling Harbour.

This conference is for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge beyond mainstream maternity services. This is a truth telling conference designed to help you learn, refresh, destress and be with like minded people

It’s like no other conference you’ve attended - every speaker is keynote standard, the food is top quality, the venue is lush, comfortable, easy to get to in the beautiful setting of Darling harbour, Sydney, Australia

I’ll be there and we hope you will be to! Make history and attend the very first convergence of rebellious midwives

Click on my bio and check out the website www.melaniethemidwife.com for all the information
Afterpay available

Address

101 Great Western Highway, Sun Valley NSW
Springwood, NSW
2777

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

0425 280 682

Website

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Videos

The brochures said that amniotomy (artificially breaking your waters with a hook) poses no harm to your baby! How can they say that! it's completely untrue. It's true that most of the time no harm will come to your baby - but sometimes induction and augmentation techniques have unintended consequences ... the brochures won't tell you so here you go: The risks of amniotomy (in no particular order) - accidental damage to your baby from the hook - cord prolapse requiring emergency birth - accidental foetal haemorrhage from undiagnosed vasa previa or marginal/velomentous cord insertion - increased pain in labour - increase in chance of uterine infection for the mother (paired with increasing time and number of vaginal examinations) You can get the full story @thegreatbirthrebellion podcast episodes 133 & 134 'The risks of induction - part 1 and 2'

It’s a bit of a trick question though isn’t it… When Midwives and Obstetricians tell you that your cervix is 50% effaced (shorted) after a vaginal exam (to assess readiness for an induction or assess labour progress)… how can they say that? They didn’t know how long your cervix was in the first place… how long was 100%… right? Am I right 👀 Am I the only one thinking this?

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