Tatyana Ali, known for her role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, disclosed that her son was “pushed” back inside her amid the intense and traumatic delivery.
After the "traumatic" delivery of her eldest son, Edward, Tatyana Ali is still in shock. The former cast member of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air described the incident, saying that she was "held down" during the 2016 delivery of her first child with husband Vaughn Rasberry.
"I mean, I'll be real with you: They pushed him back inside me," on the April 27 episode of her Pod Meets World podcast, Tatyana revealed this to Danielle Fishel. "My baby was all the way crowned."
The 47-year-old, who is also the mother of a 6-year-old kid named Alejandro, continued to explain that the treatment was "not a real procedure." “In my records, it shows that [Edward] goes from the lowest station—I saw his hair, I touched his hair—to the highest station, and it doesn't say how that happened.”
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“It's an incredibly dangerous thing that they did,” she stated. “They could have snapped his neck. But this is after hours of them holding me down, not allowing me to move."
Despite experiencing a "really healthy pregnancy," Tatyana added that the physicians "did not follow" her birth intention.
In her words, "All of that changed once we got into the hospital.”
Due to issues Tatyana ascribed to his delivery, Edward, who is now nine years old, spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) following the birth.
“He couldn't pee on his own for a long time, about five or six days,” she clarified. “Actually, it was a pediatric urologist who is the only one who came to my side and said, ‘I saw what happened during your birth, the things that resulted in this emergency C-section.’ She said, ‘I think the traumatic nature of his birth is what is causing this.’”
Since discovering that her encounter is really "very commonplace," particularly among women of color, Tatyana has used the experience as a platform for advocacy.
"It's been happening for a very long time," she revealed. "Black women are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth. And I think a lot of times people go, 'Oh, well, those are other health risks.'"
Tatyana now considers the message to be her purpose.
“I'm supposed to say something because all the people I'm talking to, no one puts a mic in their face,” she came to a conclusion. “It's kind of just was like, ‘God, I'm going to take all the things you give me—the good and the bad—and do something with it.’”
