For years, ComebackTV Presents CEO Erica Cobb has spoken candidly about her need to change into a mom and the challenges of attaining that dream. After a decade-long journey stuffed with fertility therapies, miscarriages and the choice to work with a gestational service, the channel is celebrating a brand new chapter: motherhood.
The printed veteran and her husband, Anthony Cobb, not too long ago welcomed their child boy, Leon Cobb, whose arrival is a achievement of hope. Though the trail that led her to satisfy her son turned out to be completely different than she had initially imagined, she found a higher appreciation for the timing.
“This new chapter of motherhood has actually been the manifestation of one thing I have been praying about and considering for a decade at this level,” she says. Léon’s arrival at the moment can be symbolic, because the Cobbs are celebrating their tenth anniversary this yr.
The couple started attempting to conceive shortly after getting married. She was then 35 years previous. Whereas they deliberate to start out a household pretty shortly, she confronted infertility points that modified their plans. Consequently, their authentic view of parenting started to vary. Wanting again, Erica now understands why the journey went the best way it did.
“It’s a manifestation of abandonment in all facets of my life,” she explains.
In a dialog with ESSENCE in 2025, Erica opened up about her expertise with infertility and the significance of sharing it, particularly as a Black girl who hardly ever noticed herself represented in that panorama. After discovering that she wouldn’t be capable of conceive naturally, she opted for IVF, ultimately present process a number of egg retrievals and embryo transfers. After a miscarriage and one other unsuccessful switch, she and Anthony determined to vary course and contemplate a gestational, somebody who carries and provides beginning to a child for a pair.
For the storyteller and businesswoman, selecting this path meant prioritizing her objective of changing into a mom over the trail to get there.
“It is not likely about being pregnant, it is about motherhood,” she says, reflecting on how her perspective has developed all through the method. The choice additionally compelled her to take care of feelings she hadn’t anticipated. Though she was grateful to have discovered a surrogate she trusted, Erica says the expertise additionally introduced emotional complexities. She prioritized nurturing a significant relationship along with her service and supporting her all through the being pregnant.
“What individuals do not perceive when another person is carrying your baby is that there’s nonetheless a large switch of vitality that occurs,” she shares. “The worry is kind of amplified since you do not essentially have day-to-day management of what occurs in utero.”
Nonetheless, their relationship grew to become an necessary a part of the expertise. Erica discovered consolation in understanding that her profession helped create a bond between her and Leon earlier than they met in particular person. She recorded herself, left voice notes and requested her service to play her podcast so her son might get used to her voice. Leon was born six weeks early and spent 15 days within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). On the second day, the service got here to carry him and assist him produce milk. When Erica started to talk, child Leon turned to her voice, reassuring her that he acknowledged her.
“That is after I knew, like, he is aware of I’m mother,” she remembers.
Though she did not expertise being pregnant the standard method, she plans to bond along with her son. Pores and skin-to-skin contact, spending time collectively in mattress every morning, and conserving him shut all through his each day actions have change into necessary elements of their routine.
“I really feel like I wasted a variety of beneficial time with him,” she admits, noting that she was reluctant to rent a nanny or babysitter throughout his first six months. “I really feel like there are a variety of issues we have to study one another.”
Motherhood additionally introduced surprising surprises. His vitality, regardless of considerably lowered sleep, stands out. Even on powerful days, she marvels on the resilience that comes with caring for her baby.
“There may be a lot pleasure and vitality, and my coronary heart is full on a regular basis,” she says. “I perceive now what ladies would all the time say. There’s actually no such factor. It is inexplicable.”
Past the enjoyment of welcoming Leon, Erica hopes her expertise will encourage extra open conversations about infertility throughout the Black group. She believes sharing private tales can enhance entry to sources, schooling and professionals who perceive the distinctive experiences of these going through fertility points and can assist convey in regards to the completely satisfied ending they’re looking for.
She additionally encourages ladies to study their fertility well being earlier fairly than ready till they’re prepared to start out a household.
“Understanding your fertility standing early is essential as a result of it opens the door to a number of completely different choices for a way you would possibly wish to transfer ahead within the course of,” she says.
Though she is now a brand new mom, Erica nonetheless intends to carry house for girls affected by infertility, no matter the place they journey. “I feel everybody has their blessings and their classes and their stroll,” Erica says. “All this stuff should be revered, particularly in interpersonal relationships.”
For her, Leon’s arrival is the beginning of a brand new journey formed by religion, abandonment, group and the understanding that households can exist in some ways.
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