Black Women Who’ve Had Children Unconventionally

There are a many ways to be a mother, and there are a number of ways a person can become one. Fully embodying the role of a mother goes far beyond biological processes. Now, one doesn’t have to use the traditional methods to bring a baby into your family.

Some of the society’s favorite celebrity women figured out a way to fulfill their dreams of becoming mothers through unconventional means. Here are some Black women who have become a mother through unconventional means.

Gabrielle Union

Actress Gabrielle Union has been open and candid about her journey to become a mother. She shared her stories on social media of her journey with in vitro fertilization and “more miscarriages than she could confidently count.” Union wanted the experience of carrying a baby to term. However, her health started to suffer. Her husband, Dwyane Wade, stepped in and offered another solution.

“As much as we want this baby, I want you,” she recalled him saying in an essay for Time.

Though Union struggled watching another woman carry her child, in her second memoir, she discussed the deep bond she now shares with her daughter: Kaavia James.

Kandi Burruss

Kandi Burruss is the mother of three children. She carried her first two children naturally. Burruss’ pregnancy with her son Ace was high risk because she had fibroids and faced some complications. When the Tuckers decided to have another child, they decided to use a surrogate. The couple implanted two embryos, but lost one of them.

“We actually was supposed to be having twins, and then one of them didn’t continue,” she shared. “I was sad at first, but then I just had to be grateful that the one made it.”

T-Boz

T-Boz is a mother of two. One is the daughter she shares with her former husband, rapper Mack 10, and the other is her adopted son Chance. In 2017, T-Boz spoke about her decision to adopt him and the long process to do it during an interview with PEOPLE. She shared that she made plans to adopt from a woman in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. However, when it came time to sign the papers, the mother decided she couldn’t go through with it. In 2015, that same woman got pregnant again and promised T-Boz that the child would be hers.

“Chance has brought new life and fulfillment in our house and made us feel even more complete,” she wrote in her memoir. “I can’t thank his birth mother enough for that.”

Viola Davis

Shortly after actress Viola Davis turned into a household name, she became a mother. Davis’ daughter Genesis Tennon was born in July 2010. She was adopted by Davis and her husband Julius Tennon in October 2011. Davis said she decided to adopt because she wanted her life to mean something.

“It was great, but it was not fulfilling,” Davis said of her Hollywood stardom. “I wanted my life to mean and be something deeper. That’s when the urge came, and the urge was just very, very, very, strong. So I have a kid now, and she is just the light of our lives.”

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes adopted her first daughter in 2002. The decision to bring a child into her life was influenced by the September 11 tragedy. She told Oprah during their Super Soul Sunday sit down that the tragedy was the thing that her wake up and realize there were “things I need to do.”

She adopted her daughter Harper Lee the next year. She adopted her second child, Emerson, ten years later. In 2013, she welcomed a third daughter into her family through surrogacy.

“Been AWOL from Twitter. I totally have a good reason: TINY HUMAN #3 is here and she’s perfect!” she shared on Twitter. “Babies are good. Life is good. #2shows3kids.”

Kimora Lee Simmons

Model turn mogul Kimora Lee Simmons has delivered four children into the world traditionally. After four successful pregnancies, Simmons decided to adopt her 10-year-old son.

“I’m blessed and super fortunate to have a boy like him and it’s been a very painless sensation,” she said in an interview with Us Weekly. “He just dropped in like he was born there.”

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett and her husband Courtney B. Vance underwent seven rounds of in-vitro fertilization before they decided to use a surrogate. Though conceiving naturally proved challenging, Vance had a sense that they would have the children they desired.

“I had a dream about seven years ago that we were going to have twins,” he said in an interview with Oprah in 2007. . “I didn’t know how it was going to happen.”

In 2006, that dream came true with the birth of his children Bronwyn Golden Vance and Slater Josiah Vance.

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