LOVE AND PAIN
Serena reveals health woes after giving birth
SERENA WILLIAMS experienced a wave of medical and emotional issues last fall after giving birth to her first child.
The tennis superstar, 36, revealed to Vogue she began having difficulty breathing the day after her daughter, Alexis Olympia, was born by emergency Caesarean section due to the baby’s alarmingly low heart rate.
Little Alexis was fine after her September birth, but Williams said “everything went bad” for her personally.
Her breathing issues were the result of multiple small blood clots in her lungs, and her coughing led to her Csection incision reopening.
Doctors discovered a hematoma — a collection of blood — was present in her abdomen during the subsequent surgery, and Williams ultimately needed to have a filter placed in a major vein to stop blood clots from going to her lungs, according to Vogue. She was not able to get out of bed for six weeks after she finally left the hospital a week after giving birth. Williams says the experience has taken an emotional toll on her as well.
“Sometimes I get really down and feel like, man, I can’t do this,” she told the magazine. “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.”
Williams adds she’s broken down frequently since becoming a mother.
“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 said.
But having a child has been a dream come true overall for Williams, who married her daughter’s father, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, in November.
“Now that I’m 36 and I look at my baby, I remember that this was also one of my goals when I was little, before tennis took over, when I was still kind of a normal girl who played with dolls,” she told the magazine.
Williams and Alexis appear on the cover of the February issue of Vogue.
The star, who has won a record 23 Grand Slam titles in her illustrious career, said last week she will not participate in the Australian Open later this month. She won the tournament last year while pregnant.