Tolani Eweje, a Petroleum Engineer, Saw First-Hand Racial Inequality During Labor, and is Tackling Postpartum Confidence through Diet, Exercise, and a Golden Serum. 

This Houston-based mother of two and petroleum engineer shares how she built her confidence back after stretch marks. 

Meet Houston-based petroleum engineer and content creator, Tolani Eweje. By day, she’s finding oil and gas to meet the country’s energy needs, and by night, she’s sharing her beauty, skincare, and lifestyle tips to over 87,000 followers on Instagram. But beyond her online presence and work, she’s a mother of two children: a two-year old and five-month old. 

Thankfully, Tolani’s pregnancies were complication-free and mostly smooth sailing throughout. This suddenly changed during labor. During Tolani’s second delivery, her doctor didn’t show up. As the statistics about U.S. Black maternal mortality–where Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related complication than white women–loomed through her head, she couldn’t help but feel anxiety and fear about her health and the health of her baby. 

“I’m just laboring and the nurse tells me, your doctor is not able to make it. I’m freaking out because the stats of the mortality rate with Black woman are running through my head,” Tolani says. Instead, against Tolani’s wishes to see a doctor,  a team of medical students broke her water. “They completely ignored me. So it was a chaotic experience and kind of traumatizing,” she recalls. “That was one of the scariest experiences that I had.” 

While a complication-free pregnancy, and even making it through her shocking second labor experience, she experienced physical transformations to her body that had a negative impact on her mental state. “I did get a bit of stretch marks toward the end [of pregnancy]. And I remember being so frustrated,” she says. Having her postpartum body and stretch marks slowly chipped away at her confidence, but she worked at building her confidence back. 

She did this by changing her eating habits and taking on an exercise routine. During the pandemic, she bought a Peloton and hopped on it several times a week. “I was riding that bike pretty much four or five times a week and obviously eating well. So that helped me lose the weight and get my confidence back for sure,” she says. While the weight shed off, she still sought help of skincare remedies that could care for and help reduce her stretch marks.

Tolani tried a myriad of shea butter and oils on her belly to tackle her postpartum stretch marks during her first and second pregnancies. She also added one specific product to her skincare regimen that made a difference: Evereden’s Golden Belly Serum. After using the product for two weeks, Tolani started noticing results. “I can definitely see it improving because the old stretch marks [from the first pregnancy] are less visible and don’t stand out as much,” Tolani says. “I love using the belly serum every night after I shower. It is super moisturizing and makes me feel great that I’m taking care of my skin, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it improves my stretch marks over time,” Tolani explains. 

Coupled with her skincare routine, exercise, and healthy eating, Tolani was able to build back up her postpartum body confidence. “I was able to realize this body carried two babies and it’s something that I should be proud of, and not something I should feel ashamed or discouraged about because it’s completely natural,” Tolani says.