Finding Steadiness Through Sauna After Postnatal Depression

A lived experience by Sian Hurrell

Content note: This story discusses pregnancy loss and suicidal thoughts. Please read with care. Support is available via your GP or Samaritans on 116 123.

In this lived experience, Sian shares her journey through pregnancy loss, postnatal depression and the role sauna has played in her recovery.

What was life like for you during that period?

After the birth of my second child, I fell pregnant again very quickly. At four months, I experienced a late miscarriage. My baby was born with signs of life, and his heart beat for a few hours.

At the time, I felt a deep understanding and acceptance of what my body had been through. Two pregnancies so close together, alongside recovery from a caesarean birth, felt like too much for my system, and I trusted my body. I believed I had made peace with the loss.

In the months that followed, I began to experience profound lows. Looking back, I think I was completely depleted, hormonally, neurologically and emotionally. I was suffering with postnatal depression and became very isolated. We had no nearby family support, and my world shrank rapidly.

Daily life became overwhelming. I would analyse simple decisions until I felt paralysed. If I managed to get dressed and take the dog for a short walk, that felt like a huge achievement, though I couldn’t recognise it at the time.

I developed obsessive patterns around cleaning and order. The house had to be immaculate before I could think clearly. This trapped me further. Sleep deprivation, loneliness and helplessness fed into a downward spiral.

I reached out to mental health services, but nothing seemed to reach me. As a holistic practitioner, I knew the tools often recommended, yoga, nature, breathwork, nourishing food. Yet none of them were accessible. My nervous system was too dysregulated.

Over time, I began to believe I was a failing mother and partner. My thoughts became darker. I reached a point where I felt at risk of making a permanent decision in response to what I now understand was an unbearable but temporary state.

I was suicidal.

I reached out to my GP, crisis services and Samaritans. It was a very fragile and frightening time.

How did sauna first enter your life?

I went to my first sauna almost by chance. I didn’t go seeking a cure. I just needed space.

The heat was intense, but it felt welcome. It wasn’t overwhelming in the way my thoughts were overwhelming. It was physical and contained. The heat asked nothing of me other than to sit and breathe.

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I wasn’t needed by anyone. I could just be. That felt radical.

Physically, something began to shift. I remember noticing what felt like stress and rage leaving my body. It wasn’t dramatic or mystical. It was visceral. My breath deepened. My jaw unclenched. My shoulders dropped.

Each time I left, I felt slightly more regulated, slightly more myself. There was a clear beginning, middle and end to the experience, which felt reassuring during a time when everything else felt chaotic.

Sian Hurrell in the sauna.

What did sauna offer that other support didn’t?

Discovering guided sauna rituals was a turning point.

There was something about the intention and being guided that created a sense of containment I hadn’t felt before. The heat was held within a framework. There was space to speak, to be still, to sit in collective presence. Realising I wasn’t alone gave me a deep sense of connection.

After one ritual, I remember thinking it felt like ten years of therapy condensed into a single session. Not because I had analysed anything, but because something in my body had released. The emotional charge I had been carrying felt lighter.

The combination of heat and cold, breath and shared experience felt deeply regulating. I remember roaring in one ritual, a deep, feral release of anger I had been holding. I felt a sense of returning home to myself.

Over time, attending rituals when I could, I began to feel genuine healing taking place. Gradually, I started to feel like myself again.

Sian Hurrell in the sauna.

What role does sauna play in your life now?

Sauna is now an essential part of my life — personally and professionally.

After experiencing such profound support through sauna and ritual, I felt called to deepen my understanding. As a bodyworker, clinical aromatherapist and Yoga Nidra facilitator, I could feel how naturally these disciplines belonged within the sauna space. I undertook sauna master training and began developing my own guided rituals. Creating a container for those who needed to feel held, guided and genuinely cared for.

Sauna is part of how I regulate my nervous system, how I stay present in my body, and how I remain resourced — as a parent, a practitioner, and a human being.

As serious as my story is, sauna has also brought immense joy into my life. Some of my happiest memories are in the heat — laughing, crying, sitting in silence with others. In the sauna, everything feels allowed: grief, anger, tenderness, humour, connection.

For me, sauna is no longer just a tool for survival. It is a place of steadiness, creativity, friendship and joy.

Sian Hurrell after a sauna ritual.

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This story is part of our growing collection of lived experiences exploring how sauna is being used within communities to support physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.