Entrepreneur and influencer, Hannah Fallis Bronfman, who was just named “Health and Wellness Creator of the Year” by Adweek, uses her massive social media platforms to passionately advocate for wellness, health and community. The camera-ready creator, who gives her nearly 900,000 Instagram followers an inside look into her life, shares everything from her jet-setting adventures with her husband Brendan, to curing her leaky-gut syndrome, and her many business ventures. When she began her journey to motherhood, she remained refreshingly honest and detailed the ups-and-downs of her heartbreaking three-year fertility journey. In a series of YouTube videos and Instagram posts, Bronfman documented everything, including difficulty conceiving, a devastating miscarriage, the complications of IVF, and the stress of being pregnant during a pandemic.

In conversation with EBONY, the wellness influencer and new mom explains her decision to authentically disclose her path to motherhood, the importance of raising awareness about the startling Black maternal mortality rate, and her efforts to destigmatize conversations surrounding fertility. 

Hannah and son Preston. Image courtesy of subject.

EBONY: After experiencing a devastating miscarriage, you and your husband made an emotional YouTube video detailing the experience which currently has over 250,000 views. How did you protect your mental health while sharing such a heartbreaking experience with the world?

Hannah Fallis Bronfman: It's a very vulnerable thing to share. It's even more gut-wrenching when you're actually going through it in real time. We had already opened up to close friends and family in the moment and waited to share on our platforms months later because it was just so emotional. I wanted to be in a better state before opening the floodgates and putting myself out there. Once we did it, the act of just sitting down and talking about it with my husband in front of the camera to discuss our loss was incredibly therapeutic for both of us. I kind of just felt like a weight had been lifted by sharing a story. I had a moment afterwards when I realized no one's really talking about this even though one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. Something this common needs to be normalized and talked about. After posting the video, so many people started sharing their stories of loss and had a space to continue talking about this.

Did the positive response encourage you to continue sharing your fertility journey?

Yes…my husband and I both felt very isolated in terms of what we were going through at the time. There were just so many obstacles that we were facing that it felt like we were kind of doing alone. Brendan was really like craving support from other dads. I was also really craving support from other women going through it. And when we finally started to kind of share our situation with just even our friends and some acquaintances, we realized that these fertility difficulties was something a lot of our community had been through or were going through. But we didn't know about it, because no one ever talked about it. That’s when we realized kind of how helpful that was to just be able to talk about it in a safe environment with those around us. It was a relief and that’s when we decided to go public with our story. So many of us, like suffer in silence and this kind of just felt like the appropriate thing to be discussing and emphasizing that there's no shame in this journey. And I think for so many of us, we feel that so often on the road to fertility.

You also maintained candid about how grueling of a process IVF is, both emotionally and physically. How did you maintain your health and stay positive throughout?

During IVF you’re likely to become quite bloated because you're carrying around multiple eggs. So they really recommend not doing any intense exercise because there really is a chance that you could damage your ovaries. And that can be extremely dangerous and very, very painful. With that in mind, for me it was just daily mantras, walks and not restricting myself from wine, or even cannabis for stress relief. I focused on being present and repeating positive outcomes, and visualizing a positive outcome from the process.

Image: courtesy of Hannah Bronfman.

After successfully being able to conceive through your fertility treatment, what was your experience being pregnant during the pandemic? How did you manage your stress levels?

Being pregnant in a pandemic was tough. Especially as someone who like thrives off community and being surrounded by other women. It was a really difficult feeling during peak isolation. But at the same time, I was very grateful for a change in pace of my lifestyle. I got to spend so much time with my husband and sleep in my own bed every night basically. And, you know, those are just two things that like, I would not have been able to do [because of my work schedule] if life had kept going the way it was. I developed a routine of taking daily baths during my pregnancy, just spending time being still in the water was extremely therapeutic.

You’ve spoken out about the startling Black maternal mortality rate, which is 8x higher than white women. Did you feel anxiety surrounding the statistics going into your birthing process?

I felt a lot of anxiety during my pregnancy, which was during the height of Black Lives Matter and the social justice movement that happened in the wake of George Floyd’s death. The story of the Emerald Black [who miscarried after being assaulted by police] was especially traumatic. I was overcome with emotion and had a panic attack when I learned what happened to her. With this in mind, and spending three years trying to get pregnant, I wanted to be proactive and set myself up for success in the hospital environment. I worked with a doula leading up to the birth and was extremely vocal and very communicative with my OB, who is an AAPI woman have worked with for five years. Thankfully, I feel very comfortable with her and we were in constant contact which was rare. I had a very beautiful vaginal birth with my OB and overall it was a wonderful experience. I feel very privileged that I was able to give birth in a private health care system and even have that access to doctors beforehand. Obviously, that's not what most Black women experience, and I want to do everything I can to speak out, bring awareness to the lack of access, and share resources to people who need them.

Your son Preston is absolutely adorable! What is your biggest takeaway from motherhood so far? After experiencing such an non-linear journey to conceive, does this impact your decision to expand your family?

Giving myself grace and patience as a parent is the number one thing. Some days, I feel like I'm really tested and other days are a breeze. I give myself space to deal with it all, especially weeks where I haven't been able to see Preston for five days in a row because I’m traveling for work. In those moments, I remind myself I choose to work and that means that I need to compromise my time and I have to be okay with that decision because I don't have time to guilt myself. That's not going to help me show up for my best when I'm at work or when I'm with my kid.

When thinking about expanding our family, I know that I don't have to go through the whole process of IVF again, because we have reserved embryos which is a relief. But certain processes, like going to my fertility specialist to get my blood work drawn is really triggering. So in thinking about baby number two, I want to set myself up for a positive outcome and not be triggered by repeating some of the steps that were so disheartening the first time. To prep myself I am tapping into a positive mentality and narrative using the tools I picked up in quarantine to de-stress. I think these methods are invaluable and will serve me in family planning number two, but anything that I’m looking to accomplish.