Serena Williams recalls pains of childbirth
Williams and her now-husband, Alexis Ohanian, welcomed their daughter, Alexis 'Olympia' Ohanian Jr., on September 17, 2001
Tennis star Serena Williams has opened up about how she saved her own life after giving birth to her daughter Olympia, saying she had to push for the CAT scan that led to the discovery of the blood clot in her lungs.
The tennis legend welcomed her daughter—whose full name is Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.—via an emergency C-section on September 1, 2017.
She developed a pulmonary embolism 24 hours after her baby’s arrival and underwent back-to-back surgeries.
Williams, 40, detailed her traumatic birth experience in an essay for Elle, which was adapted from 'Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers,' an anthology collected by Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns.
'In the U.S., Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts. Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable,' she wrote.
'Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me; I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.'
Williams and her now-husband, Alexis Ohanian, welcomed their daughter, Alexis 'Olympia' Ohanian Jr., on September 17, 2001
Williams recalled learning she was pregnant two days before the 2017 Australian Open, saying she had her now-husband, Alexis Ohanian, fly to Melbourne so she could tell him in person.
While she experienced headaches and a 'weird metallic taste' in her mouth during her first trimester, she enjoyed being pregnant and the 'positive attention' that came with it.
The athlete said she 'had taken every birthing class that the hospital had to offer' and was prepared when doctors induced her on August 31, 2017.
'Contractions started shortly after that, and it was great! I know that’s not what people are supposed to say, but I was enjoying it, the work of labor,' she wrote. 'I was completely in the moment.
'I loved the cramps. I loved feeling my body trying to push the baby out. I wasn’t on an epidural; to get through it, I was using my breath and all the techniques I’d learned from birth training.'
Williams said her contractions were 'coming harder and faster' by the next morning and her daughter's heart rate would drop with each one. Nurses would help her turn on her side until the baby's heart rate went back up.
'Outside my birthing room, there were meetings going on without me—my husband was conferencing with the doctors,' she explained.
'By this point, I was more than ready for the epidural, but after 20 minutes, the doctor walked in, looked at me, and said, "We’re giving you a C-section."'
Williams said she was grateful for her doctor's confidence in the decision because she would have struggled to make the choice between pushing or surgery if one was given to her.
Williams' daughter, Olympia, is now four years old and a regular fixture on her Instagram page, where she often shares photos of them wearing matching outfits.