Comiah reflects on adjusting to motherhood and offers guidance for fellow moms

Comiah Bryant had a strong feeling she was pregnant. An unexpected hospital visit provided an opportunity for her to confirm it.

“My boyfriend C.J. was sick at the time, so we went to the hospital here in Oxford to have him checked out, and we sat there for hours,” she said. “I realized my phone was about to die, and neither one of us thought to bring our chargers.”

When she ran home to grab the charger, she found herself with a rare, quiet moment alone. That’s when she decided to take a pregnancy test. “Something told me to do it. Since my cycle was late, I figured I probably was.”

Instead of telling C.J. right away, Comiah waited until they were back home, leaving the positive test on the bathroom counter for him to find. When he saw the positive test, excitement took over his illness. “It was like you couldn’t even tell he was sick anymore after he found out,” she said.

After sharing the news with her sisters in a group text, Comiah came up with a plan to surprise her parents during the family’s New Year’s Eve fireworks tradition.

When the time came, she and C.J. grabbed smoke bombs — one blue and one pink — and stepped into the road. They tossed them down, and Comiah’s sister asked, “What’s it going to be?” As the smoke swirled, the family's attention shifted from the fireworks to the baby announcement.

After the reveal, the whole family gathered inside for a conversation about this exciting new chapter.

The Pregnancy Roller Coaster

Comiah described her pregnancy as an “emotional roller coaster.”

“Some days I felt happy, others I felt sad. And there were some days I just didn't even know,” she said. “Even though I was stressed about doing things wrong as a first-time mom, I was mostly happy to be pregnant.”

Fortunately, she didn’t experience many physical challenges while pregnant.

“I think the upside of my pregnancy was I didn't get the common pregnancy symptoms, like nausea. I was able to work through my whole pregnancy without swollen feet and rarely got heartburn.”

Comiah is grateful to have had strong prenatal care and support from Oxford Clinic for Women’s Hannah Korte Dye.

“She understood what I was saying to her, where I was coming from. She gave me good advice on what she thought would be best for me,” Comiah said. “Whenever I told her my concerns, whatever I had to say to her, she always had the right solution. I’d come back and see her the next visit with a better feeling every time.”

During her gender reveal party, Comiah was excited to find out she was having a girl. “I was ‘Team Boy’ at first. I was blessed with the most beautiful baby girl, she said.

She was also excited about preparing for her arrival. There was plenty to sort through and organize after having a baby shower. “I’m talking about clothes, Pampers, wipes. I just had to make sure all that was ready to go before she got here, because I know when she got here, it was going to be too much for me to just be moving around like that.”

Childbirth at Baptist Memorial Hospital

While getting ready for her hospital stay, Comiah used TikTok to research what moms-to-be need to pack in their hospital bag for delivery day. An item that caught her attention was a mini instant camera she could use to document the experience.

“I'm grateful that I had that in my bag because I took pictures the whole day, and literally all the way up to when it was time to go.”

After a 40-week pregnancy, and nearly 18 hours of labor, Cha’Myri Tenae arrived August 29, 2024, at 10:10 a.m.

“Pushing her out went great for the most part, but I don't think I would have been able to stand those contractions if I hadn't got an epidural, because that was a pain I had never experienced.”

Looking back on her labor and delivery, Comiah remembers the mix of excitement and nerves that came with it. She wants other expectant moms to know that feeling anxious is normal. “Everything you’re feeling is valid,” she said.

Because of her relationship with her healthcare providers, she learned that it’s important to voice concerns as they come up, and to remember that every birth experience is personal. “Everyone’s experience is different. Just because something happened to someone else doesn’t mean it will happen to you. And let the doctors help and guide you through it because only they see what's going on.”

Support During Postpartum

Comiah relied on C.J. once they returned home. “When I got back to the house, my boyfriend was literally my helping hand.”

He was there to clean the house, wash dishes, do laundry and take on other household tasks. “On a lot of days, I wanted to do more, but I know I was just too tired to get up and accomplish those things.”

Her family also helped out. “One thing I can say, I had a lot of support after the baby was born. People came to check in on me. They wanted to give me a break by watching the baby sometimes while I slept.”

Even with a reliable support network, Comiah wasn’t immune to the difficulties of the postpartum period. “If I could explain it, it's like a dark, rainy cloud that comes drifting over you out of nowhere. You just never know when the gloomy side of you is going to come. You can keep telling yourself ‘You're okay, I'm fine, I got it.’ But deep down, it's just a feeling you can't shake.”

What helped her during that experience was participating in calming activities. “Just go out for a walk, go get some fresh air, go look at the river. Interact with stuff that soothes your mind. That's what I did.”

Learning to be Mom

Now that her daughter is a year old, Comiah is reflecting on what it’s been like to grow into motherhood.

“It's literally such an amazing experience,” she said. “You're learning your baby while you're also discovering this new person within yourself as well.”

Over the past year, Comiah has balanced new motherhood with big transitions of her own. She spent time at Base Camp in Wisconsin before returning to Mississippi, where she now works as a sheriff’s deputy.

She’s also spent the year re-orienting her life around Cha’Myri’s needs and rhythms. “I really overthought the process a lot. Now that I'm taking my time to learn her—knowing what she's doing, what she's crying for, what's wrong—now that I realized all that, it's really easy, but at the same time it can be stressful. At the end of the day, even with all the ups and downs, it's amazing.”

Even at a few months old, Cha’Myri’s personality was already shining through. “I could definitely tell she was not a morning person because she gives me the ugliest face ever when I wake her up just to change her Pamper,” Comiah said, laughing.

She’s also surprised at how motherhood has transformed her. “The person people knew before I became a mother, they would no longer know. I don't place myself in situations or risk putting myself in any harm's way because I have a daughter to think about now.”

Through it all, she’s learning to give herself grace and encourages other moms to do the same. “It's okay to not feel okay some days, to not feel pretty anymore, to feel like your world changed, because your world literally has changed, and your body is slowly changing day by day.”