Serena Williams Says She Almost Died After Giving Birth

Serena Williams gave birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. in September. In a video announcing the birth, Williams and her then fiance, Alexis Ohanian Sr., said as they left the hospital that they had "a lot of complications."

Williams, 36, gave a first-person account of the complications in an opinion piece for CNN published on Tuesday.

"I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia," the piece begins.

Williams writes that her daughter was born by emergency C-section when the baby's hear rate dropped dramatically during contractions. Just 24 hours after the surgery, Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism, a condition where one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked by a blood clot.

"Because of my medical history with this problem, I live in fear of this situation," Williams wrote. "So, when I fell short of breath, I didn't wait a second to alert the nurses."

In March 2011, Williams was hospitalized after suffering a pulmonary embolism and a blood clot in her lungs.

The pulmonary embolism Williams suffered after giving birth led to other complications.

"First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism," she wrote. "I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs. When I finally made it home to my family, I had to spend the first six weeks of motherhood in bed."

It's not the first time Williams has recounted her story. In an interview with Vogue in January, Williams said that when she first alerted a nurse that she needed a CT scan and a blood thinner, the nurse thought the pain medicine might have been making her confused. Doctors gave her an ultrasound that revealed nothing before she was finally given a CT scan.

Williams considers herself fortunate and is drawing attention to the issue among mothers in the U.S. and the world who don't have access to quality medical care.

She highlighted a CDC statistic that says black women are over three times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. Williams also notes that women around the world in the poorest of countries often have no access to drugs, health facilities or doctors when they face complications.

In a joint investigative series, ProPublica and NPR have told the stories of more than 200 black mothers and the complications they face during childbirth. ProPublica writes that the common theme in these stories was "the feeling of being devalued and disrespected by medical providers."

As one piece in the investigative series notes of the theme:

"The young Florida mother-to-be whose breathing problems were blamed on obesity when in fact her lungs were filling with fluid and her heart was failing. The Arizona mother whose anesthesiologist assumed she smoked marijuana because of the way she did her hair. The Chicago-area businesswoman with a high-risk pregnancy who was so upset at her doctor’s attitude that she changed OB-GYNs in her seventh month, only to suffer a fatal postpartum stroke."

Williams, one of tennis' all time greats who won the Australian Open in 2017 when she was about eight months pregnant, is now calling for change and encouraging everyone to take action.

Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian Sr., the co-founder of Reddit, has separately spoken out on the issue of paid parental leave. Ohanian said what changed his perspective on the issue was the complications Williams suffered during birth. Ohanian announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down from his daily role at the company.

“I was a believer before, but now I whole-heartedly believe that every single dad should take it," Ohanian told Fortune. He added that the problems Williams faced during childbirth really put into perspective how important such policies are.

• You can read Williams' full piece for CNN here.

Image: Serena Williams, left, takes a selfie with husband Alexis Ohanian, top right, and their baby, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., before a match in the first round of Fed Cup tennis competition in Asheville, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018. Photo by Chuck Burton/Associated Press