When I was pregnant with my first child, I was 22, living
outside Baton Rouge in rural Louisiana six months after Hurricane Katrina with
my boyfriend and my dog. We were broke, had no family or really any friends
besides a kind, elderly neighbor nearby. We had been traveling for a few years,
not really looking to put down roots. However, we were excited to be expanding
our little family to include a baby boy.
I wasn’t sure what to expect during labor and delivery. I
knew what I had seen on TV. The woman’s water would break, immediately followed
by complete chaos, the father frantically trying to find the hospital bag while
the mother screams, “It’s time!”
I also knew what friends and acquaintances had told me. “Get the epidural. The pain is unbearable.
Drugs are your friend here.” So my only images of childbirth were that of
emergency scenarios requiring massive amounts of pain killing drugs. My birth
plan was to go to the hospital early and get an epidural as soon as I walked in
the door.
A few days before my due date, I started feeling
contractions in my low back. After talking to a nurse at my care provider’s
office, we agreed I should just go ahead to the hospital. After determining
that my son was “sunny side up” in the womb, which was causing me to feel all
the contractions in my low back and spine as opposed to a “tightening” in the
uterus, and that I was in fact in active labor. I was admitted to the hospital.
It was about 10:30 pm when I settled into my room, with the pain
beginning to take over my whole body. Before the nurse left the room, I
requested to have an epidural as soon as possible. She drew some blood and left
the room, saying she would be back in a few minutes with the anesthesiologist.
Some time passed. I was feeling lonely without family or
friends in the room. My care provider was unavailable, and my boyfriend was
trying to maintain a calm presence, but I could feel that he was a little
freaked out. This was feeling very real. And painful. Where were these
wonderful drugs that I had been promised?
After about an hour, the nurse came back in. “There was a
problem with your bloodwork. We can’t give you an epidural.”
“You can’t do what?!?”
She went on to explain very simply that the platelets (the
sticky stuff that helps your blood to clot) in my bloodwork were very low. This
put me at a high risk of complication with the epidural. She had spoken to my
care provider and they had agreed that I was going to have to do this au
natural.
For about one very long minute, I totally panicked. Nobody
told me this could happen. I started to cry, and told myself I couldn’t do it.
I felt like I was being hit by a truck over and over again, and I was only
about halfway through the labor process!
Then something happened. I drew myself inwards and took a
full, deep breath. I decided right then and there that I could do it, and I
would do it. All other options had been removed. I tapped in the primal energy
and strength that my grandmothers, great grandmothers, and all the women across
the globe possessed. Instead of trying to swim desperately away from them, I
began to ride the waves of my contractions. I moved my body wherever it told me
to go, swaying, walking, and dropping down towards all fours. I breathed
deeply, and felt my body actually relax around every contraction. The pain was
still intense, but I felt in control. I was fully present at each moment of
labor. It was magical, mystical, and the most empowering experience of my life.
My midwife showed up right before my son was born at 11:20
am. She had walked in to see me
swaying against the bed, breathing deeply, with my eyes closed, relaxed yet
powerful. I remember hearing the shock in her southern drawl as she said,
“You’re just in here doing this, aren’t you?” I think she was expecting to walk
into a chaotic, desperate scene. Instead she witnessed pure, feminine power
embodied. After I delivered my son, she looked at me straight in the eyes with
a smile and said, “You were meant to do this. You should teach the class on
natural childbirth.”
So here I am, eight years and two more children later, ready
to do just that. I’ve finished my prenatal yoga teacher training, am currently
working hard on studying for the childbirth educator certification exam, and am
beginning my new position here at Pranayoga as Director of Prenatal and
Postnatal Services. My intention is to empower and guide every woman preparing
for childbirth by means of nurturing, celebrating, education, and support.
Whether she is planning on a traditional hospital birth, an un-medicated home
birth, or anything in between, I want women everywhere to know that they
already possess all the power, strength, and inner knowledge to feel empowered
through childbirth. I am ready to sow the seeds of my true path, as I guide you
along yours.
I’d love to hear your birth stories, as well as any
questions or comments about our prenatal services! Please
leave your comments below!
Haley Sonnigsen, RYT, Certified Pranamomma's Prenatal Teacher, and Director of Pre & Post Natal Programs at PranaYoga, began her relationship with yoga in Dani’s Yoga 101 workshop right here at Pranayoga, and fell in love with the practice by the end of the first class. Empowered by the self-reflection, as well as the strength building from the inside out, yoga continues to be an inspiration every day. Haley looks forward to continuing her yoga education through many of the amazing programs at Pranayoga, with an emphasis on women’s health and self-care.
Haley lives with her fiancé and their three children, Nolan, Oliver, and Etta.
