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.

Hear me out before you eye-roll… this is from the Cochrane database of systematic reviews 2023 paper comparing homebirth...
10/07/2025

Hear me out before you eye-roll… this is from the Cochrane database of systematic reviews 2023 paper comparing homebirth to hospital birth.

In the article they explain that homebirth is not the ‘intervention’ that needs researching, in fact the move into hospital birth for all women is the experimental intervention that requires review.

Archie Cochrane awarded ‘the wooden spoon’ to obstetrics in 1989 because ‘the speciality missed its first opportunity in the sixties, when it failed to randomise the confinement of low-risk women at home or hospital… then having filled the emptying beds by getting nearly all pregnant women into hospital, the obstetrician started to introduce a whole series of expensive innovations without any rigorous evaluation’

Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger, it’s not my fault that hospital birth became the norm without rigorous evaluation…

I’ll discuss this more on ep.160 of podcast ‘Is homebirth a good option for you’

Time for some radical self care… I’ve been hustling hard to bring you the guide to a great birth that is currently in pr...
03/07/2025

Time for some radical self care… I’ve been hustling hard to bring you the guide to a great birth that is currently in pre-sale for its offical open on Saturday… I want to make it so good for you so I have been putting in the hours.

Hit a wall this afternoon 🔥 so I’m turning on my sauna and going to get some good heat and energy so I can rally and keep bringing you the good stuff to help you have a great birth

(p.s. I’m not open to comments about the privilege of owning a sauna, I work my ass off every day and saved to buy it because I love myself and it’s good for me)

When people ask me ‘what are you rebelling against?’… I tell them that I am rebelling against a system of maternity care...
02/07/2025

When people ask me ‘what are you rebelling against?’… I tell them that I am rebelling against a system of maternity care that doesn’t prioritise the needs of women and doesn’t offer evidence based care

If you are a care provider who positions the woman’s preferences and needs as a priority and favour evidence and physiology over culture-based and policy driven care… this makes you a maternity care rebel.

To be woman centred and value evidence you are swimming upstream and acting in opposition to the ethos and trends in modern maternity care.

Woman centred care is rebellious in the maternity care system - it’s against the norm

Yikes! Well this is a first! And it’s got me thinking - what if Instagram never shows anyone my posts again 👀The mailing...
25/06/2025

Yikes! Well this is a first! And it’s got me thinking - what if Instagram never shows anyone my posts again 👀

The mailing list at www.melaniethemidwife.com is a sure way not to be left out of the loop if the social media bossman tries to keep us quiet again.

Join the mailing list. Link in bio … and help us overcome this challenge by liking, commenting on or sharing this or any post, the algorithm loves a feed, nom nom

There are key actionable strategies that you can use to help increase your chances of a great birth. Want to know what t...
25/06/2025

There are key actionable strategies that you can use to help increase your chances of a great birth.

Want to know what they are? Join the masterclass coming up this Friday - it’s with me - and it’s a rare opportunity to join me live as I discuss this topic. If you can’t be there in person still register so you get the recording afterwards.

Sign up at melaniethemidwife.com/great (link in bio)

When you are being cared for by a midwife you are getting midwifery maternity care… when you are with an obstetrician yo...
14/06/2025

When you are being cared for by a midwife you are getting midwifery maternity care… when you are with an obstetrician you are getting obstetric maternity care. The two are different… all women need a midwife and some also need an obstetrician.

Obstetricians don’t provide midwifery care and then obstetric care on top, they only give obstetric care. It’s not about competition it’s about understanding that we are equal but different.

We each have different skills and different roles… you can’t replace one with the other and expect the same care.

If you are reading this and have interpreted it as ‘anti-obstetrics’, you’re reading it with your own personal assumptions, you haven’t read what I said, you’ve read what you think I said.

I’m not anti-obstetrician… I’m just stating the facts that midwifery care and obstetric care are different and neither can fully replace the other. We need each other to provide a full scope of care to some women, but not all women.

All women need a midwife, some also need an obstetrician

‘The trial was terminated before the target of 4000 participants was reached on the advice of the data monitoring commit...
24/05/2025

‘The trial was terminated before the target of 4000 participants was reached on the advice of the data monitoring committee following the lower-than-expected incidence of shoulder dystocia in the standard group’

The findings were ‘no significant difference in the incidence of shoulder dystocia was found between the trial groups in the intention to treat analysis’.

📄 induction of labour vs standard care to prevent shoulder dystocia in fetuses suspected to be large for gestational age in the UK (the big baby trial)

We pick this whole paper apart in ep.152 podcast with .dahlen (out on Monday)

Get on the mailing list to be notified when it lands at www.melaniethemidwife.com (link in bio.)

The who’s who is talking about the big baby trial… I’m a who, so I’m talking about it too! Plus .dahlen and I pick this ...
19/05/2025

The who’s who is talking about the big baby trial… I’m a who, so I’m talking about it too! Plus .dahlen and I pick this study apart on next weeks episode of

The cartwheels and handstands that occur through the article are a masterclass in manipulating your study results to suit your purposes. But don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself

‘Induction of labour vs standard care to prevent shoulder dystocia in fetuses suspected to be large for gestational age in the UK (the big baby trial)’ Google it for full text

The career longevity for midwives is 3-5 years… I’ve been here for 17 years, but ONLY because I escaped the unsustainabl...
04/05/2025

The career longevity for midwives is 3-5 years… I’ve been here for 17 years, but ONLY because I escaped the unsustainable work conditions under which most midwives work.

It’s hard to celebrate midwives day knowing that after today, probably nothing will change for midwives. They are experiencing vicarious trauma, missing food breaks, holding their wee, doing overtime, experiencing horizontal violence and bullying in the work place and pressured to give ‘care’ that causes them moral distress. They can’t hold on much longer.

We need strong midwifery leaders who are interested in sustaining the midwifery workforce by actually caring for midwives, giving them autonomy and protecting them from career burnout

I remember going to a workplace meeting as a student. The midwifery unit manager was seeking feedback on how to help us during our shifts. My request was simple - we need our lunch break to be protected. I told her that most days we were so busy that we worked without a food break. Her response was ‘but some days you do get lunch so that’s good’, this manager saw food as OPTIONAL for the midwifery staff and it was clear that the request was unheard.

Midwives can’t keep working under these conditions

Happy friggen midwives day!

non-medical inductions for things like >41 weeks, controlled gestational diabetes, pre-labour ruptured membranes, IVF, u...
30/04/2025

non-medical inductions for things like >41 weeks, controlled gestational diabetes, pre-labour ruptured membranes, IVF, uncomplicated pregnancy with high BMI, >35 years old… could actually increase your chances of complications.

Medically necessary I inductions can reduce your chances of a complications.

Source study: Intrapartum interventions and outcomes for women and children following Induction of labour at term in uncomplicated pregnancies: 16 year population-based linked data study.

What would you wear? I choose for joy function and comfort… but I haven’t fully arrived.
27/04/2025

What would you wear? I choose for joy function and comfort… but I haven’t fully arrived.

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