Community Highlights: Meet Shaconna Haley of InnerLight Holistic Doula & Perinatal Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaconna Haley.

Hi Shaconna, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I came to birth work in a woman-centered way. In my mid-twenties, I became heavily engaged in my quest for community through both my commitment and service to youth, particularly the development of Black girls, and by connecting with women. I felt a strong need to be around women in support of women. By way of my newly pregnant best friend, I began meeting with ADERO, a natural parenting group of pregnant and post-partum mothers supporting each other through the process of birth and early motherhood with positive education and empowerment to make informed choices about birthing and natural parenting. I met periodically with these women long before I knew what biological motherhood meant from my own experience. It was with the birth of my good friend’s first child that I began my journey as a novice birth doula, observing and supporting in small ways the process of a homebirth. I would serve in this capacity twice. Unbeknownst to me, a year and a half later, I would become a mother myself.

My pregnancy and childbirth were major life markers and subsequent turning points that would significantly change my life and the meaning of birth. I went on to receive birth doula training from Doulas of North America (DONA). Because of this and the maternal mortality and morbidity of Black mothers and birthing families, I still find it jarring when I hear first-time mothers proclaim, “I’m going to have an epidural,” without any true context to their statement beyond perceived pain tolerance or conversation around this unknown experience of their bodies. These are the seedlings planted in the fertile ground of my life, calling to serve as a witness and researcher of life transitions, as well as the decisions that inform them. This profound knowingness grounds my commitment as a holistic birth doula today.

As a mentor, rites of passage specialist, and therapist, I began InnerLight in 1996 with a focus on the importance of uplifting the community through community development, training on social justice, education advocacy, youth development, and reproductive/body education, specifically education of women and girls and their families through life transitions.
Concurrently, I was engaging in the Holistic and Natural Parenting movement in communities in the DC Metro Area, and I began witnessing/supporting homebirth & hospital birth of friends and studying the dynamics and process of birth as a rite of passage. During this time, I also had a non-medicated birth of my son at a private birth center.
Over the years, I created various paradigms of rites of passage as applied to women and girls’ development throughout the life course, i.e., menses, preconception, and pregnancy. I began to bring a more integrative, holistic approach to community/organizational development, racial diversity, equity, and inclusion into my consulting to foster and enhance community connection for more sustainable communities that help families flourish. We then transitioned to InnerLight Holistic, which coincided with my doctoral studies in Sociology with a concentration in Race, Gender & Social Justice (2002). And, subsequently, I received formal certification training as a birth doula from DONA (Doulas of North America, 2003). I integrated training as a birthworker providing doula support into my research with a more critical lens on local and historical discourse and narratives of black women’s decision making in childbirth, the birthing body, and doula’s roles in the birthing community, hence strengthening my role as a research practitioner.

Upon moving to Atlanta in 2009, I continued to do work in racial disparities in organizations, doing work in strategic diversity management. Meanwhile, I started getting requests for my doula services and saw a need for birthwork services, then decided to foreground my practical work as community-based holistic doula in my with formalization of my practical work as a holistic doula (preconception – pregnancy – birth/labor – postpartum), providing holistic wrap around care elevating women and families rights and voice in decision-making about their choices around their pregnant and birth bodies (* this has now come to be known as full-spectrum doula care) This led to refocusing my branding as InnerLight Holistic Prenatal & Birth Doula Services. It has been over 13 years since I made that commitment to serve the birth community in the capacity of a community-based holistic doula.

Yet, there has been another evolution… Due to an increasing demand to provide perspective and insight into the role of birth workers in addressing the maternal and infant mortality/morbidity rates, social determinants of health, maternal health and wellness, and the professionalization of doulas and birth workers, I have transitioned out of hands-on practical work of attending births. Now, for the past 10 years, my current focus is on mentorship, perinatal professional development, and training of doulas and birthwork allies, including serving as a board member and advisor on local boards, Postpartum Support International (PSI), Georgia, Atlanta Birth Center, and Georgia Community Doula Coalition. In addition, I serve on maternal health initiatives statewide and national task forces, advisory and advocacy, community stakeholder for organizations, March of Dimes, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies (HMHB), Preeclampsia Foundation, Center for Black Women’s Wellness (CBWW), and Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA). To reflect this transition 7 years ago, I rebranded as InnerLight Holistic Doula & Perinatal Consulting with the same yet evolving vision, broadening with community transformation as a central idea.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely been challenging throughout this time. The struggle is real! When I moved to Atlanta, I was a single parent of a preteen (at the time) who moved during the recession of 2009. For the first 2 years, I was a mix of unemployed and then underemployed. I wiped out a substantial amount of my savings. So, I’ve had a lot of stops and starts along the way, and I began contractual work. Eventually, alongside my work as a community-based holistic doula, I landed in the rhythm of being adjunct faculty teaching at Spelman College and part-time retail at REI. Although not perfect, it provided the flexibility of time and schedule for my son’s school and activities, and birthwork and engagement with the maternal health community. Although I had a couple of full-time positions in Strategic Diversity Management, and even as a Lead Doula, they just did not ultimately align with the aspiration of elevating InnerLight Holistic. Beyond that, during this time I has couple of significant health challenges: recovered from a car accident, knee injury, surgery for a reproductive health issue, and most recently, diagnosis a rare heart condition. This is why we make it a point to amplify the social determinants of health, which also apply to the life of birthworkers.

Within InnerLight Holistic, I struggled with how to scale my business without compromising the intimacy, connection, and community that my unique boutique style approach demands. Moreover, it eluded me as to how to effectively elevate my vision and work to support my family full-time. In this way, many times I felt stuck and in need of a strategic scaffolding of support to get me there. Then, I partnered with the Matrona Foundation, becoming Dean of Students for the Quantum Midwifery Birthkeeper program, providing midwifery education for birthworkers. This alignment brought together my academic, student development, and mentoring expertise to support birthworkers. It also allowed me to finally leave my retail job and focus on my business elevation.

We’ve been impressed with InnerLight Holistic Doula & Perinatal Consulting, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Shaconna Haley is Founder & CEO of InnerLight Holistic Doula & Perinatal Consulting,LLC. She is a Holistic Intuitive Practitioner™, Perinatal Consultant, Certified Holistic Doula (CHD), Independent Sociological Researcher, and former Dean of Students for The Matrona Foundation’s Quantum Birthkeeper Program. She has 30 years of experience in women and girls’ life transitions, health and wellness, reproductive empowerment, mentoring/life coaching, and as a holistic doula/ birthkeeper. As Founder of InnerLight Holistic Doula & Perinatal Consulting, she integrates her Holistic Intuitive Practice™ paradigm into her work as perinatal consultant, doula mentor, rites of passage specialist, and community advocate for holistic reproductive/maternal wellness, and perinatal mental health in Georgia. In her community work as a strategic empowerment consultant, she addresses women’s issues and culturally congruent work with emphasis on mentoring, holistic reproductive and maternal wellness, and equity in maternal healthcare. As such, Shaconna invests in the professional development of holistic community perinatal support professionals as both practitioners and personally through the InnerLight Holistic Doula Mentorship Circle (IHDMC), a 12-month fee-based, culturally-informed program for direct one-on-one mentoring and group development as a holistic doula and/or birthworker, currently in its 8th Cohort year. Beyond the cohort, Shaconna’s newest venture is investing in the curation of boutique community care hubs. In the InnerLight Holistic Family, we cultivate a community of care, integrity, resilience, and love.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
As a child, I was inquisitive, an avid reader, and loved learning: writing poems and short stories. I always had a book in my hand. I’m a true firstborn, GenXer, and a latchkey kid. I enjoyed spending alone time listening to all genres of music, watching movies, musicals, and playing games. I loved the outdoors, exploring with friends, camping, and doing creative projects: a Girl Scout, a youth camp Counselor and an Outdoor Experiential Counselor in college. I am still engaging life in much the same way in my work. According to my Mother, I’ve always been a visionary!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theinnerlightholisticcenter.com
• Instagram: @theinnerlightholisticdoula
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaconna/about
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/shaconnahaley