The Great Birth Rebellion: Reclaiming Joy, Courage, and Choice in Birth with Midwife Melanie Jackson
Release Date: 01/05/2026
Beyond Pain: Creating Safety and Trust for Ecstatic Birth
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode of The Orgasmic Birth Podcast, Debra Pascali-Bonaro speaks with Joni Edelmann, a birth guide, educator, and former labor and delivery nurse who brings together science, sacredness, and decades of birth experience. Together, they explore how safety, nervous system regulation, privacy, and trust can create the conditions for ecstatic birth in any setting, including the hospital. Joni shares the story of her own births, including how her fifth birth became the first she experienced as truly not painful, but deeply intense, joyful, and transformative. She also reflects on how...
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The Creative Womb: Where birth, pleasure, loss, and healing become one story
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro speaks with Josefina Schiller, a mother, singer, doula, translator, and host of Café Comparto Birth Café, about how birth, motherhood, sexuality, loss, and healing are deeply connected. Josefina shares two powerful home birth stories, including a 96-hour labor supported by her community in southern Spain, and reflects on how birth helped her heal ancestral and childhood wounds. Josefina also discusses the role of postpartum as a transformative period, how writing poetry became a creative outlet during mothering, and why she believes oxytocin, pleasure,...
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Pelvic Floor Health - Why Peeing (when you don't want to) after Birth Isn't Normal
Orgasmic Birth
In this bold and deeply informative episode of the Orgasmic Birth Podcast, Debra Pascali-Bonaro sits down with pelvic floor expert Jana Danielson to challenge long-held myths about women’s bodies, postpartum healing, and pleasure. From incontinence to pain during sex to diminished orgasm, many women are told these experiences are “normal” after birth. Jana offers a powerful reframe: they may be common — but they are not normal, and they are not something women have to live with. Together, they explore how pelvic floor health is foundational not only for birth and recovery, but for...
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Maris Young on Reframing Birth into an Orgasmic Experience
Orgasmic Birth
In this heartfelt episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro welcomes author, mother, and doula Maris Young, whose third birth unfolded in the most surprising and beautiful way — as an orgasmic birth. After a breech birth with her second baby, Maris entered her third pregnancy with a clear intention: to reframe the sensations of birth and discover how pleasurable they could be. Through mindset work, daily practice, and integrating resources from Orgasmic Birth, Maris learned to welcome contractions as manifestations of her body’s divine power. Her story takes us from quiet, candlelit labor at...
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Deepening Intimacy, Partner Support, and Everyday Pleasure with Tarah Alexis
Orgasmic Birth
In this heartfelt episode, Debra Pascali‑Bonaro sits down with birth doula and retired professional women’s football champion, Girl Scout, and chef, Tarah Alexis of Nurturing Embrace Doula Services. Tarah shares how a surprising C‑section birth, witnessing her niece and nephew arrive earthside, and a “divine appointment” with a pregnant stranger on a plane all led her to answer her calling as a doula. Together, Debra and Tarah explore how partners can move far beyond “just rubbing a back” to become active, loving participants in the birth journey. Tarah offers simple, powerful...
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Raising Shame‑Free, Pleasure‑Positive Children Begins at Birth with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers
Orgasmic Birth
What if preparing for birth could also prepare you for a lifetime of deeper intimacy, healing, and connection—for you and for your children? In this powerful conversation, Debra talks with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, internationally recognized sex and gender feminist psychotherapist, bestselling author of Sex, God, and the Conservative Church and Shameless Parenting, and founder of Inanna Rising. Together, they explore how sexual shame shows up in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and how embracing pleasure can transform not just your birth, but your whole family’s story. Dr. Tina shares...
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Spicing Up Postpartum with Maranda Bower - Episode 177
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode of Orgasmic Birth: The Podcast, Debra welcomes Maranda Bower, who shares her raw journey through postpartum depression, anxiety, autoimmune challenges, and triumph after four births. Maranda reveals how functional nutrition revolutionized her healing, turning depletion into energy, desire, and joy via her Postpartum Restoration Method—now training providers worldwide. Together, they unpack hormone-balancing foods, self-care rituals, and why postpartum meals foster community, pleasure, and deep emotional release. Key Takeaways: Postpartum depletion is normal—like pinkless...
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A Vibrator as a “Natural Epidural”? Thabata Devecchi on Pleasure, Intuition, and Birth Connection - Ep 176
Orgasmic Birth
In this enlightening episode of Orgasmic Birth: The Podcast, Debra meets Thabata Devecchi, a prenatal educator and founder of Feeling Moms, who shares her powerful home birth story and how pleasure practices helped her turn pain into power. Thabata reveals how self-pleasure, embodied movement, sound, and safety transformed her birth experience. She describes using a vibrator during labor to soften the peak of contractions — calling it her “natural epidural” — and shares how deep preparation, somatic awareness, and tantra shaped her pregnancy, birth, and sense of empowerment. Together,...
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Pain to Bliss: Liya’s Orgasmic Birth and Radical Reproductive Health - Episode 175
Orgasmic Birth
In this powerful episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro sits down with reproductive health coach and mom of three, Liya Teplitsky, to explore how mindset, nutrition, and intentional pleasure turned birth from excruciating pain into ecstatic orgasmic bliss. Liya shares her three home birth stories—from a long, painful first labor on a yoga mat to a painless second birth and finally an intentional orgasmic birth supported by a vibrator, midwife, and an unshakable belief that birth can be pleasurable. You’ll hear how Liya: -Discovered the concept of home and orgasmic birth from a chance...
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Maternal Health Awareness Day - Holding Ground on Maternal Health: From Survival to Thrival
Orgasmic Birth
What if maternal health goals expanded beyond “alive and healthy”? In honor of Maternal Health Awareness Day, Debra Pascali-Bonaro invites us to imagine a world where pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care are not only safe but also deeply respectful, emotionally whole, and infused with comfort and pleasure. In this moving solo episode, Debra shares her personal connection to the origins of Maternal Health Awareness Day—beginning in her home state of New Jersey—and explores how far the movement has come, and how far we still must go. With maternal mortality rates rising across the U.S....
info_outlineGet ready to challenge the dominant narrative around birth in this deeply inspiring conversation with Australian midwife, researcher, and rebel, Dr. Melanie Jackson — host of The Great Birth Rebellion podcast.
Melanie joins Debra Pascali‑Bonaro for a heartfelt and provocative exploration of what happens when we choose to birth outside the system — and within our power. Together, they unpack why more families are stepping away from institutional birth, how true midwifery care transforms outcomes, and how bliss, laughter, and joy can ripple through even the most intense moments of labor.
Melanie shares intimate stories from her own births — one long and slow, the other fast, powerful, and joyfully filled with laughter — and offers profound wisdom about matrescence, physiological birth, and how honoring women’s autonomy creates safer, more pleasurable births for everyone.
In this episode you’ll hear:
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The bliss and laughter that surprised Melanie in her second home birth
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What matrescence means and why it matters in understanding the transformation to motherhood
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Why “birth outside the system” can be the safest, most aligned choice for some families
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The evidence behind continuity of midwifery care — and why it should be the universal standard
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How pleasure, joy, and oxytocin weave through both sex and birth
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The global movement of rebellious midwives creating change from within
Episode Highlights
- 2:44 — Melanie shares her journey into midwifery and the concept of "Matrescence."
- 5:07 — Melanie describes her two very different birth experiences.
- 13:12 — Discussion of "The Great Birth Rebellion" and its origins as a podcast.
- 14:25 — The importance of evidence-based maternity care and the role of midwives.
- 17:03 — Exploring the connection between birth, pleasure, and sexuality.
- 18:15 — The power of oxytocin and the potential for joy and bonding in birth.
- 19:00 — Where to find Melanie online and her offerings for midwives and parents.
About Melanie Jackson:
Dr. Melanie Jackson is a private midwife, researcher, mentor, and host of The Great Birth Rebellion podcast. With a PhD in midwifery on “Birth Outside the System,” she is reshaping how midwives and mothers understand evidence, power, and physiology in birth. Through The Assembly and Convergence of Rebellious Midwives, she mentors practitioners and uplifts the profession with passion and purpose.
Connect with Melanie:
Website: melaniethemidwife.com
Instagram: @melaniethemidwife
TikTok: @melaniethemidwife
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgYNzASpo0UbzyzRkNb-s-w
Podcast: The Great Birth Rebellion
Connect with Debra:
Website: https://www.orgasmicbirth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orgasmicbirth
X: https://twitter.com/OrgasmicBirth
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/OrgasmicBirth1
Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@orgasmicbirth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-pascali-bonaro-1093471
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