A valiant, vital guide to reclaiming your agency and authentic healing in a medical establishment that so often dismisses women’s pain.

Dr. Tracy Shevell has seen it all, and is determined to put healing back into women’s health. Labor and Deliverance proposes a bold new model of medicine: one that regards emotional health as just as important as physical symptoms, and healing as a spiritual journey.

In a society where women have been conditioned to discredit their tremendous internal strength, figuring out how to heal is a complicated journey. Take it from Dr. Shevell: self-worth will get you better faster.

Labor and Deliverance is told through the multi-dimensional stories of nine patients, all with different backgrounds and birth stories. Through it all, Dr. Shevell weaves her own story of secretly battling a debilitating mystery illness, as she pinched herself to stay awake during meetings and snuck off to vomit in between rounds. Meanwhile, her own doctors brushed it off as “just anxiety.”

As the kaleidoscope of these stories turns, we find a new view to women’s reclamation of their bodies, and new strategies for getting the support you need for the healing you deserve. Dr. Shevell's professional advice covers:

Practical steps to take today to take your healing seriously, even when no one else will
Pro tips for symptoms tracking and talking to your provider so they will listen
How to safely explore your body’s emotional history
Guidance on finding the right provider for you, and discerning effective alternative healthcare

With the page-turning narrative power of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and the expert edge of books like Expecting Better, this book reckons with the many ways the healthcare system fails women while reconnecting readers with their inherent wisdom and inspiring renewed agency and advocacy for their wellbeing.