Tatyana Ali shared her horrific maternal healthcare experience in a recent interview. The “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actress, 47, shares two sons with her husband, Stanford English professor Vaughn Rasberry.
Tatyana said she is helping to raise awareness of racial bias in maternal healthcare after her horrific experience while giving birth to her first son. “I experienced obstetric violence in the hospital,” she said.
Tatyana said the doctor forced her to have a C-section when she didn’t want one. Labor and delivery staff pinned her arms and legs to the bed during her ordeal.
Speaking to Future of Personal Health, Tatyana explained: “My first birth experience led me to the reproductive justice movement. After a very joyful and healthy pregnancy, I experienced obstetric violence in the hospital. Our baby spent four days in the NICU, and we were left extremely traumatized. My journey began with questions: Why was our birth plan ignored? Why was I repeatedly urged to take an epidural when I didn’t want it? Why did they forcibly pin my arms and legs down to the bed? I discovered that my story is commonplace among Black birthing people.”
She continued: “I also realize that my family is lucky because my baby and I survived and I am able to tell my own story. I will continue to do this work until all Black mothers and families are safe.”
When asked what “some of the biggest obstacles Black women” face when giving birth were, Tatyana responded: “Bias. There are still people in the medical profession who believe that Black skin is thicker and that we feel less pain than others. There are people in healthcare who believe that we don’t want the best for our children and our families. There are people in healthcare who believe that we lack the cognitive intelligence or morality to make choices for ourselves. There are people who believe we are unworthy of bodily autonomy.”
Tatyana said the American healthcare system prioritizes profit over good patient care.
“Our healthcare system prioritizes money and centralized authority over lives,” she added. “In 2016, my emergency C-section and the subsequent NICU care my son needed after the abuse we endured cost $250,000. I am a SAG-AFTRA union member with good coverage. I was covered by my husband’s insurance as well at the time. The insurance company paid the hospital right away, no questions asked.”
Tatyana shared more details during an appearance on “Pod Meets World” on Monday. She explained she remains focused on advocating for black maternal healthcare.
“Once I realized that what happened to me and to my kids, my family… Once I realized that our story, our trauma is very commonplace, I have to tell you, it was just real anger. That something so awful could be so common.”
She continued: “Once it was time for us to leave the hospital, and this is after my son had been in the NICU — he couldn’t pee on his own for a long time, for about five or six days — and it actually 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,’ and that was the only person in the whole hospital who mentioned what happened. There was a lot of gaslighting.”
“I mean, they pushed him back inside me,” Tatyana shared. “That’s what happened. My baby was all the way crowned… In my records, it shows that he 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. It’s an incredibly dangerous thing that they did; they could have snapped his neck. This is after hours of them holding me down.”