Serena Williams and renowned American journalist Elaine Welteroth joined hands for a birth fund for black mothers amidst the worsening maternal health crisis in the United States for black women.
A few days ago, Welteroth wrote for TIME Magazine about the harrowing conditions of black women in America. She wrote about Williams’ experience after childbirth and explained how black women are more likely to die after giving birth than white women.
Serena Williams, Elaine Welteroth (Images via Imago, X)
Last year as well, Welteroth wrote about her experience with doctors, which led her to start a new project involving black midwives. Welteroth and Williams have joined forces to prevent the deaths of black mothers after childbirth.
Welteroth launched a fundraiser, ‘Birth Fund‘, last December through Instagram, to help families in the USA who are not able to arrange midwives due to financial difficulties.
Both the mothers, Welteroth and Williams, nod in unison that this initiative is a big step in a country that boasts of having the largest economy but still hasn’t raised much awareness about the cause.
Serena Williams once revealed her harrowing experience after childbirth
In 2022, Serena Williams published an essay for Elle Magazine. She described how, despite being Serena Williams with 23 Grand Slam titles, she was close to losing her life after giving birth to her first child, Olympia, in 2017.
She told the doctors repeatedly about the blood clot issue she had dealt with previously. The doctors initially thought the problem was a minor one that didn’t need treatment.
The 42-year-old then wrote that she was thankful after the doctors heard her and performed surgery. Williams, however, feels not every black woman is being heard and, as a consequence, has to lose their life.
In the U.S., black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts. Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable. Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life and death for me. I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.Serena Williams added
After the birth of Olympia, Williams and her husband Alexis Ohanian welcomed their second daughter, Adira, in 2023. Williams retired in September 2022 after featuring in the US Open after winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 in doubles and two in mixed doubles.
After retirement, she has become an entrepreneur and recently launched her cosmetic brand, Wyn Beauty. She also runs her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures.
