By Serena Williams
I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia. Yet I consider myself fortunate.
While I had a pretty easy pregnancy, my daughter was born by emergency C-section after her heart rate dropped dramatically during contractions. The surgery went smoothly. Before I knew it, Olympia was in my arms. It was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life. But what followed just 24 hours after giving birth were six days of uncertainty.
It began with a pulmonary embolism, which is a condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked by a blood clot. This sparked a slew of health complications that I am lucky to have survived.
You have to really advocate for yourself, especially women of color, because we are often treated differently in hospitals in general across the country and actually across the globe.
Serena Williams
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. But this is not just a challenge in the United States. Around the world, thousands of women struggle to give birth in the poorest countries. When they have complications like mine, there are often no drugs, health facilities or doctors to save them. If they don’t want to give birth at home, they have to travel great distances at the height of pregnancy. Before they even bring a new life into this world, the cards are already stacked against them.
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