Serena Williams describes near-death experience she had after giving birth to daughter Olympia
Tennis star Serena Williams may still be thinking about a possible comeback, but at age 40, she's quite content with being a mother first.
"(W)inning is now a desire and no longer a need," Williams writes in a first-person essay for the April edition of Elle magazine. "I have a beautiful daughter at home. I still want the titles, the success, and the esteem, but it’s not my reason for waking up in the morning."
But simply waking up in the morning is not something the 23-time Grand Slam champion takes for granted.
In the essay, Williams reveals the harrowing experience she had in the hospital after giving birth to her daughter Olympia in 2017 -- one that required four surgeries, including a C-section, and put her perilously close to death.
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Her story starts out as a routine pregnancy, though an unexpected one. Although she still competed for a while in 2017 after finding out she was expecting, she says her body made its preference very clear.
"Being an athlete is so often about controlling your body, wielding its power, but it’s also about knowing when to surrender," she says.
As she got closer to her due date, she came to a stunning realization: "I guess I’m one of those women who likes being pregnant; I enjoyed the positive attention. I’m used to getting negative attention from the press and critics, but this was different."
When it was time to give birth, she was as prepared as she would be for any tournament. Except this was different.
In 2010, Williams was diagnosed with blood clots in her lungs, and doctors discovered a hematoma in her abdomen. Her condition was treatable, but she was at a high risk for clots going forward.
After giving birth, Williams began to lose feeling in her legs. And her pain increased.
Although the hospital staff didn't seem overly concerned, she insisted on getting tests to see if blood clots had formed while she was off her regular medication.
"They were trying to talk to me, and all I could think was, “I’m dying, I’m dying. Oh my God.' ”
When her doctor finally agreed, the tests revealed that immediate surgery was necessary to keep the clots from reaching her lungs.
"Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me," she writes, calling attention to a chilling statistic.
"In the U.S., Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts," Williams says. "Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable."
In telling her story, Williams highlights what could have happened had she not been a famous professional athlete. Would she still be enjoying the life she has right now as a mother first and tennis player second?
"This kid has me under her finger," she writes. "I didn’t know what kind of mom I’d be, and I still don’t know. Instead, maybe for the first time in my life, I’m just being."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Serena Williams describes nearly dying from childbirth complications
