Serena Williams Didn’t Feel A ‘Connection’ With Daughter During Pregnancy: I Was Nervous About Meeting My Baby

April 6, 2022 by Monique Nicole in Sports with 0 Comments

Serena Williams and daughter Alexis

Serena Williams Didn’t Feel A ‘Connection’ With Daughter During Pregnancy: I Was Nervous About Meeting My Baby

Serena Williams is getting candid about the emotional struggles she faced during her pregnancy!

In a recently published personal essay, the 40-year-old tennis legend opened up about her tumultuous childbirth experience and revealed that she initially didn’t feel a connection with her daughter, Alexis ‘Olympia’ Ohanian Jr.,4, until after she gave birth! Serena Williams explained,

“I was nervous about meeting my baby. Throughout my pregnancy, I’d never felt a connection with her. While I loved being pregnant, I didn’t have that amazing ‘Oh my God, this is my baby’ moment, ever. It’s something people don’t usually talk about, because we’re supposed to be in love from the first second.”

Serena Williams & daughter Olympia

She continued,

“Yes, I was a lioness who would protect her baby at any cost, but I wasn’t gushing over her. I kept waiting to feel like I knew her during pregnancy, but the feeling never came. Some of my mom friends told me they didn’t feel the connection in the womb either, which made me feel better, but still, I longed for it.”

Serena Williams said the connection finally came after she gave birth to her daughter in September 2017. Williams wrote in her essay,

“When I finally saw her — and I just knew it was going to be a girl, that was one thing I knew about her before we even had it confirmed. I loved her right away. It wasn’t exactly instantaneous, but it was there, and from that seed, it grew. I couldn’t stop staring at her, my Olympia.”

Serena Williams & daughter

Williams continued and recalled a special moment she and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, 38, had the following morning.

“I spent the night in the hospital with my baby in the room. When I woke up, she was nestled in my arms. The rest of my body was paralyzed. I couldn’t get out of bed because my legs were still numb, but it didn’t matter. Alexis and I sat there, alone with our new baby. It was surreal to feel the presence of this third person in the room.”

Olympia Ohanian, Alexis Ohanian Sr.

As previously reported, Williams has been transparent about suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth and has also spoken out about her life-threatening experience while delivering her daughter. Reportedly, the athletic superstar had several surgeries due to having a pulmonary embolism in 2011. While under the knife for an emergency cesarean “C” section, doctors discovered a large hematoma in her abdomen along with multiple blood clots throughout her body. After it was removed, Williams was bedridden for six weeks.

“My whole life I’ve been physically pushing my body to the limits, and this is the one time where I couldn’t control anything. I couldn’t push my body. My body was pushed to its maximum. That was so hard.”