The two week wait is finally over for ‘Tia & Tamera’ star Tamera Mowry-Housley as she and husband Adam Housley welcomed their son Aden Housley on November 12, 2012. Tamera planned a natural birth for baby Aden and it hasn’t yet been reported whether the ‘Tia and Tamera’ star was able to stick to her plan. However, sister Tia Mowry-Hardict shared her story about planning for baby Cree, having an unplanned C-section and how her view childbirth and motherhood was reshaped through it all.
Childbirth is certainly hard enough, but we women can certainly make it harder on ourselves regarding our expectations of what it means to be a ‘real woman’ in labor. Some women believe that natural childbirth is a rite of passage into complete womanhood. Before the birth of her son, Tia Mowry-Hardict was one such woman.
In a blog featured on the iVillage series entitled CelebVillage, Mowry-Hardict admits, “While pregnant with Cree, it was told to me many times that when a woman has a child, their life will have a new meaning. So, I am a mom now, I have given birth, I am woman — hear me ROAR, right?” Although Tia admits that she was over-the-moon about her baby boy, she still didn’t feel that feeling everyone told her she would after giving birth.
While the former Sister, Sister star planned to have a natural childbirth for her son Cree; he had other ideas. Because he was breech for the last two months, the option of a natural delivery was out of the question. Mowry-Hardict had to deliver via C-section and she admitted that she questioned her womanhood because she couldn’t deliver her son the good, old fashioned natural way. In her words, “I always thought, like many other women, that if you gave birth the natural way, that’s what made you a woman. Giving birth the natural way was a passage every woman should take in order to experience what being a woman was all about.”
Eventually, Tia evolved to realize that no matter how a woman has her child, that she is still a mother and a woman in her own right. She made that change not a moment too soon as her sister Tamera became pregnant and began her own labor and delivery journey. Putting her newfound knowledge into action, Mowry-Hardict volunteered to be her sister’s labor and delivery coach. Tamera Mowry-Housley planned to follow in her sister’s footsteps and opt for natural delivery as well. Again, it has yet to be determined if she was able to stick to that plan but Tia had her doubts. “She is my sister and we can’t take pain,” Mowry-Hardict said, expecting her sister to change her mind about having a natural birth. “Pain and us, we just don’t mix! She is trying to be brave, which is good . . . but I don’t think she is going to make it.”
Tamera did make it. Her and little baby Aden are doing just fine. No matter how he came into this world, Mowry-Housley is now a mom and she joins the ranks of women like her sister who, no matter how it was done, are happy and proud mothers…and women in their own right.
