If you were hoping for an epidural, it's time to ask your doc if your labour will be affected by the shortage and choose a different way to manage the pain.

5 ways to manage labour pain amid Canada's epidural shortage

If you were hoping for an epidural, it's time to ask your doc if your labour will be affected by the shortage and choose an alternative pain-management strategy.

There's an epidural shortage in Canada—but there are lots of other ways to manage labour pain

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Labour and delivery

What are the signs of labour? What’s a c-section like? And what if your home birth doesn’t go to plan? Learn what you need to know about giving birth

Pregnancy

Everything you need to know about your pregnancy: what to expect week by week, tips for baby names and baby shower planning, pregnancy health, and more.

Giving birth

From going to prenatal classes to packing snacks, these tips will help you prepare to be the best labour partner ever—though she may still swear at you.

10 ways to be an awesome birthing partner

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The ultimate rookie dad guide to newborns

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Commonly offered by midwives and other care providers, a birth mirror can be an incredible motivational tool to check your progress during labour.

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For nine months, everyone asks about your due date, your cravings and whether it's a boy or a girl. Here are the things nobody tells you about giving birth.

14 things nobody tells pregnant women about giving birth

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Here's what you need to know about breastfeeding your baby while lying down in the side&#x2d;lying position and step&#x2d;by&#x2d;step tips on how to do it.

Breastfeeding lying down is nursing goals

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WATCH BABY GROW!

Maternal health

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Baby

Everything you need to know about your baby, including information on breastfeeding, teething, colic, baby development, food, sleep, and more..

Breastfeeding

How to cope during the transition phase of labour

I have no regrets about my decision to forgo pain medication. I only wish I had been better prepared for how that decision would affect my care.

Do all nurses act this way when you refuse an epidural?

I know I should feel lucky, but so-called “natural,” drug-free birth wasn’t the blissful experience I expected. Would an epidural have made a difference?

I kind of wish I’d gotten the epidural—both times I gave birth

Find out what you need to know about being pregnant, including common symptoms, how to manage your health, and what to expect week by week.

Being pregnant

“I remember looking at her and thinking, what?! I didn’t know you could tear that.”

I tore my clitoris giving birth

My “alternative” birth stories aren’t unique. So why do I feel pressured to defend my unmedicated deliveries from other moms?

I felt judged for having drug&#x2d;free births

My birth plan included an epidural. But after two tries, it didn’t work and I went through 18 hours of excruciating labour and an episiotomy without one.

Why did no one tell me that epidurals don't always work?

The blood, the pain, the unknown. I am really not sure I can do this whole giving birth to a baby thing.

Confession: I’m terrified of giving birth

Fear of giving birth

The result of a CT scan for chronic pain came as a big shock.

This mom has had an epidural needle stuck in her spine for 14 years

Blogs

What you need to know before getting an epidural

A puncture caused by the epidural needle left me with a debilitating headache for two weeks after giving birth. Here's what I wish I knew before.

What I wish I knew about post-dural puncture headaches before I got an epidural

8 epidural myths that way too many women believe 

Everything you need to know about taking care of your postpartum body

epidural