Serena Williams Gives an Update on Her Breastfeeding Journey — & One Annoying Side Effect
Eight months after welcoming baby Adira, Serena Williams is officially done with breastfeeding! She shared an update about her nursing journey on TikTok this week, and revealed the one annoying side effect from quitting that she is still experiencing.
“I am finished breastfeeding… ???????????? and ‘they’ are still hanging out,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion wrote on TikTok. The “they” in question? Her big breasts!
In the video, Williams is lying down on her bed with one arm over her head. She’s wearing a pink tank top, and her breasts are spilling out the top of the tank. “Seriously trying to figure out when these things are gonna go down,” she says in the video, looking down at her breasts.
I remember those days all too well! My breasts felt tingly and swollen when I first found out I was pregnant with my first, and then they grew even more after having my son and my breastmilk coming in. But now that Williams is done breastfeeding, she is ready for her breasts to go back to normal!
Registered nurse and International Board-certified lactation consultant Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC, previously told SheKnows that it may take some time for your milk production to decrease following the end of breastfeeding. This can make your breasts feel full or engorged.
Dr. Constance M. Chen, board-certified plastic surgeon and breast reconstruction specialist, previously told SheKnows that your breasts may not ever go back to their pre-baby form. “During pregnancy, your breasts are engorged with milk during pregnancy, and then involute after breastfeeding ends,” Dr. Chen said. “Throughout this process, the breast skin stretches, and breast skin usually does not snap back completely. For this reason, older women will usually have more fatty breasts, and the breasts may also be more droopy, especially if they have had pregnancies and breastfed children.”
The Olympic gold medalist, who shares Adira and daughter Olympia, 6, with husband Alexis Ohanian, has opened up about her experience breastfeeding Adira before. In February, she shared a video of herself up in the middle of the night.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve woken up at 4 a.m. having to pump, but whoops!” Williams said in the video, where she is wearing a black nursing bra with a pump attached. She captioned the cute TikTok, “My 4am wakeup. I want to go back to sleep ????.”
It’s not clear why she stopped breastfeeding Adira, which she doesn’t have to share with us, but we do love how much she keeps it real! From enlarged breasts to middle-of-the-night wakeups, Williams’ motherhood journey feels a lot like ours.
These celebrity moms have shared their journey with breastfeeding as Black women.