Serena Williams knows she’s lucky to be alive.
The tennis superstar, who welcomed daughter Alexis Olympia almost six months ago, is once again opening up about the terrifying complications she experienced after giving birth, this time in an essay for CNN Opinion.
“I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia. Yet I consider myself fortunate,” Williams wrote in the piece published Tuesday, before describing the complications she experienced after giving birth via cesarean section.
“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.”
Still, she feels lucky, considering the reality many black mothers face when giving birth.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women in the United States are over three times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes,” Williams wrote in her CNN piece. “But this is not just a challenge in the United States.”
She explained that women around the world struggle to give birth in poor countries where they often have no drugs or doctors to save them when complications arise.
UNICEF says 80 percent of the nearly 2.6 million newborn deaths around the world each year are due to preventable causes, Williams notes. But she points out there is a solution.
“You can demand governments, businesses and health care providers do more to save these precious lives. You can donate to UNICEF and other organizations around the world working to make a difference for mothers and babies in need,” she said. “In doing so, you become part of this narrative ― making sure that one day, who you are or where you are from does not decide whether your baby gets to live or to die.”