--- title: Serena Williams on Post Partum Emotions on Instagram description: Serena Williams revealed that she struggled with feeling like she was "not a good mom" after giving birth to daughter Olympia Ohanian. canonical: https://time.com/5359811/serena-williams-post-partum/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-07T19:41:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:14.671Z og:title: Serena Williams Gets Vocal About Her 'Postpartum Emotions' og:description: "It's totally normal to feel like I'm not doing enough for my baby" og:url: https://time.com/5359811/serena-williams-post-partum/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef75a0b08fc57e2a/698937330a4a227d1e9d35fe/serena-williams-postpartum-emotions-motherhood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Day Eight: The Championships - Wimbledon 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Serena Williams Gets Vocal About Her 'Postpartum Emotions' twitter:description: "It's totally normal to feel like I'm not doing enough for my baby" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef75a0b08fc57e2a/698937330a4a227d1e9d35fe/serena-williams-postpartum-emotions-motherhood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Serena Williams Shares Her Postpartum Struggles With Message of Support for All Mothers > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=448c15e7-9d2e-412f-b123-0e941f162950&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FIRSTS Serena Williams [Watch (HLS stream): FIRSTS Serena Williams](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qRrT89Xb.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2017-09-02. Serena Williams is the FIRST tennis player to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 7, 2018 7:41 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 10: Serena Williams of the United States celebrates winning her Ladies' Singles Quarter-Finals match against Camila Giorgi of Italy on day eight of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 10: Serena Williams of the United States celebrates winning her Ladies' Singles Quarter-Finals match against Camila Giorgi of Italy on day eight of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) Julian Finney—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 7, 2018 7:41 PM UTC Tennis legend Serena Williams shared that she experienced “postpartum emotions” during her past week as a mother, noting that she was in a “funk.” [Williams, who is widely regarded](http://time.com/5337263/serena-williams-wimbledon-final/) as one of the greatest athletes alive, has been vocal about the victories and challenges of motherhood since giving birth. She wrote on Instagram that she struggled with [“postpartum emotions”](http://time.com/4702079/john-legend-chrissy-teigen-postpartum-depression-support/) after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian less than a year ago. “Mostly, I felt like I was not a good mom,” Williams noted before sharing that she had read that “postpartum emotions” can last up to three years if not addressed. Williams, who survived [harrowing complications and life-threatening health issues after childbirth](http://fortune.com/2018/01/12/serena-williams-birth-story-black-women/), reached the finals of Wimbledon ten weeks after giving birth. She said that it hasn’t always been simple to balance life as a new mother and the demands of her career. “It’s totally normal to feel like I’m not doing enough for my baby,” she wrote. “We have all been there. I work a lot, I train, and I’m trying to be the best athlete I can be. However, that means although I have been with her every day of her life, I’m not around as much as I would like to be.” Williams also offered encouragement to other mothers, noting that many of them faced similar challenges. “Most of you moms deal with the same thing. Whether stay-at-home or working, finding that balance with kids is a true art. You are the true heroes.” Williams is the first tennis player to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the open era. She suffered perhaps the most lopsided loss of her career in a tournament Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic against Johanna Konta. Her post comes a day after Beyoncé shared that she experienced the condition of [toxemia](http://time.com/5358684/beyonce-toxemia-preeclampsia/), also known as preeclampsia, while she was pregnant with her twins. Read Williams’ full post below. ## Transcript [00:00] People will look at you and they'll try and define you. [00:02] Whether you're a woman, whether you're young, they'll [00:04] try and cabin off what you're able to do. But people [00:08] can only do that if you let them and so I always viewed [00:11] my job as defining myself >> If we are in a meeting [00:15] we're there for a reason, not to just sit there and [00:19] absorb. If you are only there not speaking you kind of [00:23] create the impression that you're not prepared to be [00:26] there. You need to participate and you need to know [00:29] what you're talking about. You can ask a man to do a [00:32] job that he's never been qualified to do and he will [00:34] raise his hand and say, absolutely, I will do that job. [00:37] Women always say, I'm not sure if I'm ready yet, More [00:40] experience. I don't necessarily know if there's anything [00:42] wrong with being more cautious and careful. I mean [00:44] why have we come to decide that being brash and [00:47] overly aggressive should be the way we are. But we [00:51] should also know that we're not going to feel any wiser [00:55] or any more ready in ten years than we did ten years [00:59] ago. So we might as well just leave. There is [01:03] a lot of perception of, My gosh, it's really hard because [01:06] of the gender. What are you gonna do about that, just [01:09] not do it? If you want to do something, you just do it, [01:13] and then hope that people catch up to you. For girls [01:18] that are going to be playing little league, anything [01:21] could happen. You could be up by 10 runs, and you [01:23] can loose the game. So stay focused, make sure you [01:26] play as a team, and hopefully you hit a home run, [01:29] because no girl has ever hit a home run, and I'll be [01:32] cheering for you. You'll never make everyone happy, [01:36] so you just have to be exactly who it is that you are, [01:39] and at least know that you've been true to yourself. It's [01:43] about attitude, aptitude, and opportunity. Who knew [01:47] I would be here? But it all started with [01:51] folks that thought I had a good attitude. That put me in [01:54] places that challenged me and then provided [01:58] me opportunities because I met and exceeded the [02:02] standard. You often don't realize, people want you to [02:05] succeed, and they often have very good solutions, both [02:08] practical and in terms of thinking of opportunities for [02:11] you. And the other thing is, I think it's not too bad [02:15] Periods of great intensity doing one thing or the other. [02:19] Meryl Streep once said, " Every successful woman's life [02:23] has its ebbs and flows ." Know your power, know the [02:26] power of your intellect, of your values and [02:29] commitment, the courage that you have, and don't let [02:32] anybody trivialize How you have spent your years. All [02:36] of them have contributed to making a very unique and [02:40] special person. Just take joy, don't let [02:44] anyone discourage you from that thing that you love [02:48] the most. It's more about making life. 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