Two months into motherhood, actress and writer Bresha Webb is doing great. As she tells me on the phone, “I’m adjusting quite nicely.” She admits that being a parent to her baby girl, Brave, has been a significant transition, but she’s had some amazing support. For one, she’s got a Willow Go breast pump, a supremely discreet wearable that offers her freedom from being plugged into a wall.
“It’s been such a great help because I am exclusively just breastfeeding,” she says. “I’m always thinking about, okay, the dog needs this. I need to go do that. So Willow really helps me get out of the house. And that’s such a big step in postpartum and just trying to find yourself again outside of having a baby. So it’s really helped me with that.”
Whether she’s going out solo or walking through the mall with Brave, Webb says she keeps her Willow with her—or, better yet, on her.
“I really love the flexibility of Willow and being able to go shopping. I went to a mall, and no one even knew that I was pumping. I just had my jacket on and no one knew and it was perfect. It was my little secret,” she says. “I was like, I feel like I’ve got the best thing on the market! So it was really fun. I really love having it. It’s made my life very convenient.”
She’s also found great support in her tribe, including her husband, Nick Jones Jr., and her best girlfriends. Her girls, including Kelly Rowland (who called her during our interview), have been her rock. She was the last of the group to have a baby, and they helped her get rest, made sure she was stepping outside for a break, offered her advice pre and post-pregnancy, and were clutch in her ability to keep her head in the early days of her breastfeeding journey.
“I had a very high-risk pregnancy, so I wasn’t able to go to any of the classes or do anything. So all of my friends were literally telling me how to breastfeed,” she says, noting that they helped her feel very prepared once Brave was born. She latched immediately, and mommy and baby began their journey. But Webb says concerns from her pediatrician about her daughter’s weight almost left her second-guessing her efforts — until her girlfriends stepped in.
“The first doctor’s appointment, they’re comparing the baby to a formula baby. My baby was premature, and it was devastating that she was losing weight. And I was like, wait, what do you mean she lost weight? She’s eating every hour it seems. And the doctor even was trying to persuade me to supplement. I was distraught about it. It was like, I’ve already failed,” she recalls.
“My friends just were like, girl, they do this to all breastfed babies. My girlfriends gave me a regimen. They were like, this is what they’re going to do, and this is what they’re going to say. We got this,” she adds. “You got to wake up every two hours. You got to feed that baby on command and every two hours. So we got to get her weight up in the next three days. And after that, she was great.”
By having her friends advocate for her, Webb also began to advocate for herself through education and finding community with other new moms. She learned about the importance of asking for a breastfed baby weight scale versus the traditional option at the doctor’s office (the more you know…), about being careful when it comes to what she eats for baby’s sake, and more. It’s still early, but Webb says her goal is to go at least six months, though she’s giving herself grace.
“I’m very grateful that I’m still breastfeeding. I celebrate every month. I said I want to go as long as Brave will let me,” she says. “But I’m just taking it one step at a time and just letting the people that know about breastfeeding, listening to them and taking notes. I’m just a sponge right now.”
She’s also been practicing self-care. Webb finds joy in going to the spa for facials and lymphatic massages and getting moving, including by going to dance classes. That activity is important to Webb, as she has had those moments, as many moms have, of finding herself stuck in bed with her baby all day. And prior to Brave’s arrival, Webb was in bed for a significant amount of time because she had a high-risk pregnancy due to a genetic disorder called hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, or HHT.
“My body tricked itself into thinking that I was pregnant with triplets,” she states. “So my heart was beating really fast. And my liver was overworking, and it was pretty dramatic. It was really hard. And I was on bed rest for the majority of it. The baby was fine, though. Brave really owned up to her name, and she fought through and she was completely healthy the whole time. And my body went right back to normal after the baby came out.”
As Webb’s pregnancy came with some unexpected hurdles, so did life. The star of the sitcom Run the World found out shortly before she learned that she was expecting that the Starz show wouldn’t be renewed for a third season. But just as her pregnancy turned out fine and Brave was born healthy, Webb believes that something great will be born from her following the series’ abrupt end.
“I just truly believe everything happens for a reason. And when one door closes, another bigger door opens, and the bigger door was motherhood for me,” she says.
“I know if I would’ve been in season three of Run the World, I probably wouldn’t have given myself the space to be pregnant and to have the baby,” she adds. “And especially seeing how high-risk and focused my pregnancy was, I definitely would’ve been even more stressed knowing that I knew what was coming. So I just take it as that.”
She and her co-stars, Amber Stevens West and Corbin Reid, were devastated, she says, but decided to use the time following the news to put themselves first. And that’s when she got the big news.
“I’ve been a part of so many shows that have ended, Marlon, so many shows that never make it to a third season,” she says. “So I was kind of just like, okay, there’s something else. There’s another story that needs to be told, or there’s something in me that needs to be birthed. So right around that time is when I found out I was pregnant, and so I was like, oh, this is the story that needs to be birthed. My own baby.”
“I was like, listen, all I can do is trust God throughout this process and know that there’s something bigger coming. That’s all I can do,” she adds, noting that she’s also back writing and being creative while balancing mommy duty. “But I’m very grateful that I listened to my intuition and listened to what God was saying, and what He was saying was, you need to sit down because I’m about to give you a baby.”
All of these things, including the end of Run the World, the surprise pregnancy and high-risk nature of it, and navigating motherhood in its earliest stages, including the ups and downs of breastfeeding, have helped Webb see that she’s stronger than she realizes — and very blessed.
“It’s so amazing how God made us because your hormones kick in and you’re so just about this person. You’re just so hyper-aware about everything. And I was shocked to see that my body naturally went into that. And I was like, every two hours? That’s going to be super hard. And now I just do it without a drop of a dime and sometimes I’m up before she is waiting for her to wake up. And I’m just really surprised at how I’ve risen up to the task,” Webb says.
“That makes me so emotional,” she adds, tearing up. “Just how you can just love someone so much that you will sacrifice your sleep, you’ll sacrifice your everything, just your comfortability, just to make sure that they’re fed and just to make sure that they’re comfortable. Breastfeeding just creates this amazing bond. You just know that you are giving your baby something that you know you can only give them, and they’re dependent on you. It’s just so beautiful. I am so grateful that I get to be a part of that process.”