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Tatyana Ali has become an advocate for black maternal health after experiencing her own horrible experience.
Tatyana Ali grew up before our very eyes, so it might be hard to remember she is a grown woman these days. The former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star is now 44 years old and a happily married mother of two. She tied the knot with her husband Vaughn Rasberry in 2016 and has become a big advocate for black women and education about pregnancies after a traumatic experience while delivering her son.
Tatyana Ali and Rasberry met on the dating site eHarmony in March of 2016. He is a Stanford University assistant professor. They married on July 17 of that same year and had a ceremony in Beverly Hills.
They welcomed their first son, Edward Aszard Rasberry, on September 16, 2016. Their second son, Alejandro Vaughn Rasberry, was born on August 15, 2020.
That same year, Tatyana was part of a growing discussion about black maternal mortality rates and how they were increasing in America. Black women are three to four times more likes to die from pregnancy-related complications than any other race.
It has left many women scared to even have children. Part of the reason is that black women are more likely not to be properly taken care of in hospitals. A study confirmed, “Mistreatment is experienced more frequently by women of color when birth occurs in hospitals and among those with social, economic or health challenges.”
In a piece she wrote for Essence Magazine’s website, Ali details how she nearly died while delivering her first child. Tatyana Ali says that she had a low-risk pregnancy but was “harried” by the hospital and forced into an emergency c-section.
Tatyana Ali’s son was pushed back into her womb midway in order to perform the procedure. The shock from the force caused her to pass out. “My delivery room had become a circus. There were people everywhere but no one to help me deliver.” The move is called a Zavanelli maneuver.
Zavanelli maneuver is described as an “obstetric maneuver that involves pushing back the delivered fetal head into the birth canal in anticipation of performing a cesarean section in cases of shoulder dystocia.” Ali says she, her husband, and their child spent their first year together trying to heal from the experience.
