- In a personal essay for Elle, Serena Williams detailed her entire birth journey and recovery.
- She said she has to beg doctors to do lung tests, which detect life-threatening blood clots.
- Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than white women.
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Serena Williams says she asked healthcare workers for lung tests, which she was initially denied and may have saved her own life after her daughter was born in 2017.
Williams said in a recent essay for Elle magazine that she developed life-threatening blood clots in her lungs after her cesarean. The tennis star detailed her experiences from pregnancy to birth and postpartum to highlight how black women are often unheard and neglected in maternal healthcare. Black women in the United States are three times more likely than white women to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or immediately after childbirth.
“Being heard and being treated appropriately was the difference between life and death for me. I know these statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every black woman’s experience,” Williams wrote in her paper.
Williams said she had to “fight hard” several times to get tests for blood clots
After a successful c-section, Williams wrote that she held her baby in bed and admired her. The next thing she knew she woke up in excruciating pain.
Before the birth, Williams knew she was at high risk of developing blood clots. In 2011, she underwent surgery for two clots in her feet, which could have killed her as well.
But when she started asking about certain tests, like a heparin drip to thin her blood, from her nurses and doctors at the hospital after the birth, they said they were holding back because of the cesarean wound. Williams said she then had a clotting-related coughing fit, which ripped open her wound and led to the first of four back-to-back surgeries.
Still, it took several pleading attempts with various nurses and doctors before Williams received the lung scans that ultimately saved her life.
“Lo and behold, I had a blood clot in my lungs and they had to put a filter in my veins to dissolve the clot before it reached my heart,” Williams wrote.
This isn’t the first time Williams has spoken out about her postpartum health scares. In a 2018 Vogue cover story, Williams first shared details of how her near-perfect pregnancy quickly turned into a life-threatening situation.
Beyoncé, who said she experienced life-threatening pregnancy-related preeclampsia, has also shared her story as a wake-up call for better health care for black women.