Sometimes we recognise one moment that shifted our whole being into what we never knew could exist, like something was waiting in that very second to serve us with one of the biggest awakenings in our life. How does that shape us? Sunni Karll presented one of those moments in my life. Her book Sacred Birthing, shifted me from thought to process this book was gifted in the most amazing circumstances after an acupuncture session by a wise woman that cleared so many blockages and opened up possibilities. And here was this book just waiting on her shelf for someone to love, and that someone was me! I was ripe and ready to put my deep calling to spiritual midwifery and serving women into practice, to truly explore one of the most transformative life events we can choose to encounter. YES you too can make a difference,
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Fast forward, and here I am talking and having the deepest connection with this wise woman, and this episode, I guarantee will sit with you. Sunni joins the show from California, where she is tickled about her recent publishing of Sacred Birthing’s 2nd Edition, and also a new exciting book coming soon!
So we begin to reflect with Sunni in her birth journeys in the early 70’s. Sunni had no idea that the birth trauma she herself went through was something that would ultimately play out in her first pregnancy. Her first baby was born with intervention and Sunni could not understand many things after this birth, she left this experience knowing that it could be better.
We intertwine the conversation with her next pregnancy journey that was essentially a free birth at her home in the safety of the bathroom in the dark with her husband at the time sleeping downstairs. What shifted Sunni to want to birth at home, now remembering we are talking about the 70’s where information and resources was not so readily available. Sunni describes it as a reaction to the first birth, she tried to source midwives yet there was not any available. She birthed and describes the experience as feeling safe and the gift of a presence around her, everybody was asleep and the rain was pattering on the window frame. Her husband then come in right as baby come out, caught baby and gave her to Sunni!
The first edition of her book was published in 2003 and we talk about her new book that was released in May 2017. Sunni talks about how consciousness has changed and uplifted, and how she grew up and thus the information in the first book had to grow up along with her. The second edition according to Sunni offers much more clarity from her following 14 years of birth work.
We hear from Sunni about her next transition in life from mother to grandmother, she was at the birth for two of her grand babies thus far. Interestingly Sunni reflects on her emotions during this time.
Excerpt from Sacred Birthing 1E – You can find these amazing images on the second edition to!
We talked in detail about Sunni’s time in Hawaii, birth was an event for the parent’s community, and how the whole event is based around a field of ‘trust,’ no matter how many people are there. Sunni describes seeing rows of spiritual ancestors when baby comes! We talked of the goddesses and gods in the culture and how that looked in relation to birth.
Check out Sunni’s article on Lotus birth here
We talked in detail about Sunni’s time in Hawaii, birth was an event for the community and how the whole event is based around a field of ‘trust’ no matter how many people are there. Sunni describes seeing parties where baby comes! We talked of the goddesses and gods in the culture and how that looked in relation to birth.
Sunni and I talk wisdom, midwifery, Doulas and HOW can we support each other. Lessons and gifts and some great advice for birth workers.
sacredbirthing.com
From Sunni
“In my book I talk about our firstborn as a sacrificial lamb, because we don’t know what we don’t know”.
“Surrounded by love and trust creates the highest vibration to protect baby’s consciousness”.
“We want the baby to birth in a place of openness and trust”.
“I was so in my uterus when giving birth. No mom can think then!”
“The gift of this birth was that I felt a presence around me”.
“Natural law is such a deep instilled knowing, this is what it takes to birth, death and conceive”.
“This present body in this present time is pretty damn amazing”.
“If you birth at the highest vibration all the energy is calmed”.
“Making sense of my birth is why I have stuck to everything Sacred Birthing is about”.
“You’re standing at this birth and you feel it, you can never forget it, then you come back and do that for the next person”.
“All of us all mothers all women have been midwives in the past, we have all held the space for birth and death”.
“I think of a Doula as the way of the future, I love them, they can do so much more than midwives because so many of our hands are tied”.
“Every mum deserves a mentor for her birth”.
“What I would like to say to men is please go with your partner to her prenatal’s.
If we want men to show up for the birth they need to take part in the whole story”.
“Just love that baby, no matter what, love heals everything”.
Resources:
Connect with Sunni Karll & Sacred Birthing:
Website: http://sacredbirthing.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SacredBirthingwithSunniKarll/
About Sunni
I doubt that I can say more than I have told you in the first chapter of Sacred Birthing, because it’s all about me! Yet, if you haven’t read it, here’s my abbreviated blurb:
I was born in Paris of American parents, and grew up in Maryland. I had a very difficult birth which spurred me into the field of birth for my whole life. At 10, I told my mom I was going to deliver babies when I grew up. I came in with this understanding, for I had been a midwife many many lifetimes before. As excited as I was about that, I was to do other things first, in order to come to birth from a larger perspective. I had a son, Bryce, in ’73, and a daughter Alec, in ’76, who initiated me into the whole spectrum of birth.
I founded the Lancaster Waldorf School, in ’79, (that later moved and became the Susquehanna Waldorf School,) and taught Kindergarten for six years. This experience taught me all about the endless flow of creativity that comes from other places; it also reinforced my dream of midwifery, and gave me a overview of children’s wounding, through a weekly practice called the “Child Study.”
After a divorce, I became a Past Life Therapist, (’87,) and was shown that every client of mine remembered their birth experience! As unexpected as this was, to them and to me, it was even more amazing that they all told me the same thing: that these protocols of ‘normal’ birth hurt. Knowing that I was headed into the field of midwifery, my ears perked up, and I knew that I would create something that didn’t hurt a newborn baby. I specialized as a Birth Therapist when I understood how healing it was for an adult to make their birth experience conscious.
I finally became a midwife in ’92, being given the births at midwifery school that showed me wonderful ways to practice and why.
Birth Trauma became a passion of mine. The inner work it required was the same inner work that was needed by pregnant parents. After doing that, I could move forward to finally become the midwife I knew I could be.
In 1996, my birth assistant, David, and I wrote up all we had learned from our birth clients and it became Sacred Birthing Seminars that traveled the Northwest US and Canada to teach about SoftBirth for babies. As that was put to rest, it was rolled into the Sacred Birthing Insights and this book that took 7 years to write. It was published in 2003.
I founded Sacred Birthing Foundation in 2001, and gave The Sacred Vision, (2005,) a workshop for midwives and Doulas, on Maui, Hawaii. A wonderful international group of Birth Keepers gathered and later created the Guiding Circle, (Board of Directors) of Sacred Birthing. Kauai became its home because of a call from the whales, and the Sacred Birthing educational center was born: conception, pregnancy, birth classes and workshops came about: from Infant Massage, to Preconception classes, to Heal Your Own Birth weekend workshops, to Parent’s Birth Classes and Sacred Birthing Community Doula Training, and a Birth Symposium. It was a vital inspiring time with many aligned hands and hearts.
Times shift and I chose to write a dissertation on Lovemaking and Conception, my next book, and in 2015, graduated as a Doctor of Divinity. And when that was complete, the Second Edition of Sacred Birthing, Birthing A New Humanity, received my attention and is just out, May 1, 2017.
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