Serena Williams had ‘near-death experience’ giving birth and ‘could not move’

Serena Williams has described her ordeal giving birth as a ‘near-death experience.’

The tennis star, 40, gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr in 2017 but required an emergency cesarean section. She was eight weeks gone when she won the Australian Open that year but five months later she had to have an emergency delivery as the baby’s heart rate was dropping during labour..

"I asked a nurse, 'When do I start my heparin drip? Shouldn’t I be on that now?'" she wrote in elle.com. "The response was, 'Well, we don’t really know if that’s what you need to be on right now.' No one was really listening to what I was saying. The logic for not starting the blood thinners was that it could cause my C-section wound to bleed, which is true. Still, I felt it was important and kept pressing. All the while, I was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t move at all—not my legs, not my back, nothing.

She continued: "I began to cough. The nurses warned me that coughing might burst my stitches, but I couldn’t help it. The coughs became racking, full-body ordeals. Every time I coughed, sharp pains shot through my wound. I couldn't breathe.

"I was coughing because I just couldn't get enough air. I grabbed a towel, rolled it up, and put it over my incision. Sure enough, I was hacking so hard that my stitches burst. I went into my first surgery after the C-section to get restitched."

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Williams also suffered a pulmonary embolism after giving birth. It left her bed-ridden for over a month and she did not play in another Grand Slam event until the French Open a year later in 2018. The veteran has 23 major wins, falling just one below Margaret Court's all-time record of 23. Since her harrowing experience, the US star has made two Wimbledon and two US Open finals.

Meanwhile, rumours of her retirement have come into play. Williams split with her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou. The coach, with her blessing, has been training rival player Simona Halep.

Williams has not played a match since June 2021.

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