MÈRE Stories: Haley Roos
Postpartum is not one-size-fits-all—and no one prepared me for just how different each experience would be.
I had 3 babies in 4 years.
After my first two, I had what felt like typical baby blues—moments of overwhelm, anxiety, and sadness, but nothing I couldn’t handle with self-care and support.
But after my third, everything shifted.
Around 10 months postpartum, as I started weaning from breastfeeding, I developed crippling insomnia—night after night, I simply could not sleep.
And it wasn’t just a few rough nights.
It was 9 straight weeks of staring at the ceiling, physically exhausted but completely unable to rest. It wrecked me.
I started spiraling. I couldn’t be present with my kids. I had daily panic attacks. Every morning felt like I was drowning in anxiety.
I tried everything—supplements, sleep hygiene, meditation, acupuncture. I ran labs, saw a functional doctor, an OB, a sleep specialist.
But nothing helped until my OB gently told me what I needed to hear: not sleeping is not okay.
My body was shutting down. I was depleted—mentally, hormonally, emotionally—and it was time to support my system with medication. Starting Zoloft was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made, but it was also the one that brought me back to myself.
That season cracked me open. But it also gave me clarity.
It forced me to face the unhealthy ways I had been pushing through, ignoring my own needs. It became the catalyst for everything I do now. I left my career as an attorney and became a women’s health coach. Because no woman should go through that alone—and no woman should have to suffer in silence.
If you had to summarize your journey in motherhood with all its challenges, how would you describe it now? How have you found a way to reclaim your strength or identity? What have you learned?Motherhood broke me open and rebuilt me stronger—but not in the way I expected.
My breaking point (that long season of postpartum insomnia and anxiety) forced me to stop ignoring my own needs. It gave me no choice but to face the unhealthy patterns I’d been calling “strong.”
Through that unraveling, I found my identity again—not just as a mom, but as a woman with purpose.
That’s what led me to walk away from a career in law and become a health coach for women and postpartum moms. Now I help women rebuild from the inside out—mentally, emotionally, and physically.
We don’t need to bounce back. We need to redefine what strong really means.
What advice or words of encouragement would you give another mom walking through a similar chapter? The only thing constant in motherhood is change.
Everything is a season—but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer through it just because it's “common.”
Struggling with sleep, anxiety, mood swings, or identity loss isn’t a badge of honor. It’s a signal. It is so important for us women to LISTEN to the signals our bodies are giving us instead of playing the victim and saying "this is just how it is."
And asking for help doesn’t make you weak—it makes you wise. Don’t wait until you’re completely burned out.
Support—whether from a friend, a coach, a doctor, or medication—isn’t failure. It’s survival. And from survival, we rebuild.
How has your journey changed you, both in ways you expected and in ways you never could have imagined?I thought motherhood would make me better at multitasking. Instead, it made me obsessed with survival. But that struggle gave me clarity. I never imagined I’d leave a legal career to coach women on how to prioritize their health, reclaim their energy, and rebuild their strength—but here I am. And I’ve never felt more aligned. My journey taught me that rock bottom can be the start of something beautiful—and that when we take care of ourselves, we become the moms (and women) we’re meant to be.
— Haley Roos
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