Serena Williams is opening up for the first time about her traumatic childbirth experience four years ago, when she had her first baby, Olympia, with her husband, Alexis Ohanian.
In a piece on Elle, Williams wrote that she had an emergency C-section for Olympia as the baby's heart rate was dropping. Then, 24 hours after welcoming her first child, Williams developed a pulmonary embolism and had to press the nurses to attend to her.
Williams demanded to get a CAT scan and a heparin drip because she developed a bad cough after having a baby. However, the nurses brushed off her concerns and told her that her medicine from the surgery had been making her "talk crazy."
The tennis Grand Slam champion persisted with her request until the hospital staff relented. True enough, they discovered that she was developing a blood clot inside her lungs that could be risky if it reached her heart.
Bonding With Olympia
Williams explained that she also had blood clots in her lungs in 2010 and feared that this would resurface during her high-risk pregnancy. She also thought she would die, given that Black moms in America are three times more at risk of death than their Caucasian counterparts. It was then crucial for Williams to be "heard and appropriately treated" by the medical staff as she knew her own body better than anyone.
The tennis star underwent four more surgeries after her C-section because she developed subsequent blood clots. A week into her recovery at home, Williams said that she couldn't breastfeed Olympia, which bummed her out because she wanted to finally bond with her baby. The new mom admitted that she was nervous about bonding with her daughter because she didn't have that connection while she was pregnant with Olympia.
"I kept waiting to feel like I knew her during pregnancy, but the feeling never came," Williams confessed, per People.
However, time stood still for Williams when she finally held her daughter in her arms. The mom said she could not stop staring at her baby. While it took her six weeks of bed rest to recover from the C-section and the additional surgeries and adjust to her post-pregnancy body and a new baby, Williams said she still feels lucky to be alive.
Serena Williams and Her Mini-Me
These days, Olympia and her mother are delighting fans with their mommy-and-me moments on social media. Williams often shares photos and videos of her and her daughter in twinning outfits, playing tennis, or learning how to play the piano.
In 2020, Williams revealed in an interview with Today that Olympia is into sports, but it's not tennis. The little girl prefers to play soccer, and she completely supports it. Williams also said that she was trained to be a tough athlete who could never be vulnerable, but she was surprised to discover that she's "vulnerable to everything" as a mother.
