Serena Williams revealed in a recent interview with Vogue that she had to have an emergency C-section when giving birth to her baby girl.

 

The tennis pro had to undergo the procedure because her heart rate was so low during contractions. The operation itself was thankfully quite straightforward, and the mum got to hold Alexis Olympia after the Caesarean.

 

"That was an amazing feeling,” Serena told Vogue. “And then everything went bad.”

 

The following day, the mum-of-one felt short of breath. The athlete has a history of blood clots and wasn't taking her usual anticoagulants because of the surgery.

 

Serena immediately worried that she was having a pulmonary embolism (a blockage of an artery in the lung caused by blood clots). She asked a nurse for a CT scan and blood thinners. The nurse thought Serena's requests were part of some pain-med-induced confusion, but the new mum was insistent.

 

 

Before long, a CT came back showing small blood clots in her lungs and she was put on a drip. "I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!" Serena recalled.

 

The 36-year-old's medical scare wasn't over yet, though. The pulmonary embolism made her have terrible coughing fits, which burst open her C-section scar.

 

When she returned to the operating room, her doctors found that haematoma, or a solid collection of clotted blood, had come into her abdomen. The blood thinner that helped stop the tennis champ's pulmonary embolism was now causing her to haemorrhage from her C-section wound.

 

Serena had yet another operation, this time to insert a filter into her vein in order to stop more clots from shifting and travelling to her lungs.

 

When she was finally able to come home a week later, she found out that their night nurse didn't work out. On top of that, the Olympic athlete, hailed as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, was confined to her bed for her first six weeks as a mum.

 

"I was happy to change diapers, but on top of everything she was going through, the feeling of not being able to help made it even harder," her loving husband Alexis Ohanian told Vogue, "Consider for a moment that your body is one of the greatest things on this planet, and you’re trapped in it."

 

 

Those first few months proved tough for Serena. She compared the trials she went through to the sport she loves so dearly, saying, "It’s that same negative attitude I have on the court sometimes. I guess that’s just who I am. No one talks about the low moments—the pressure you feel, the incredible letdown every time you hear the baby cry.

 

"I’ve broken down I don’t know how many times. Or I’ll get angry about the crying, then sad about being angry, and then guilty, like, Why do I feel so sad when I have a beautiful baby? The emotions are insane."

 

She's received plenty of support though, especially from her mother Oracene Price. Even her tennis mates have lent a helping hand, with Novak Djokovic messaging her parenting articles and Stanislas Wawrinka sending little loafers to Alexis Olympia.

 

The mum said some of her fellow female tennis players have been her biggest supporters since she entered motherhood, and that she wishes more people saw how women in tennis care for one another.

 

We admire Serena so much for her strength both on and off the court.

Latest

Trending