"I nearly died after giving birth to my daughter": Serena Williams looks back on emergency C-section in having Olympia
WTA
WTA legend Serena Williams spoke about the complications and difficulties she faced when giving birth to her first child, daughter Olympia.
In an article for CNN, Williams opened up about the life-threatening experiences she suffered after giving birth via emergency C-section, in an effort to raise awareness about stillbirths in African-American women in the United States and women with limited access to adequate healthcare worldwide.
"I nearly died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia," said the 23-time Grand Slam champion. "Still, I count myself lucky. This set off a series of health complications that I'm lucky to have survived. First my C-section injury healed snapped open due to the intense cough I endured from the embolism.
"I returned to the operating room, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room surgery for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs."
The 42-year old revealed she was bedridden following the delivery, and the outcome may have been different were it not for the professional care she received.
"When I finally returned home to my family, I had to spend the first six weeks of maternity bedridden," she said. "I am so grateful to have had access to such an incredible medical team of doctors and nurses in a state-of-the-art hospital.
"They knew exactly how to handle this complicated turn of events. If it wasn't for their professional assistance, I wouldn't be here today."
Williams was quick to compere her situation to that of other African-American women in the US who lacked adequate healthcare, as well as women in poorer nations who did not even have access to that sort of treatment.
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women in the United States are three times more likely to die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes," she added. "But this is not just a challenge in the United States, the world, thousands of women struggle to give birth in the poorest countries.
"Before they even bring a new life into this world, the cards are already stacked against them. That world is possible. And we must dare to dream it for every Black woman, for every woman in Malawi and for every mother out there. Together, we can make this change. Together, we can be the change."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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