Serena Williams has given birth to her first child with Reddit co-founder fiance Alexis Ohanian, after her Palm Beach hospital shut down an entire floor to prepare for the baby’s arrival.
The 35-year-old tennis star and her fiancé, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, have reportedly welcomed a little girl into the world, weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces.
According to reporter Chris Shepherd from WPBF-25 News, a source at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, said that the couple’s happy news, with Chris taking to Twitter to reveal: ‘Tennis star Serena Williams gives birth to a baby girl weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Mom and baby doing well.’
According to the reports, the 23-time Grand Slam winner checked into the hospital on Wednesday, with an entire floor of the location being cleared in order for the hospital to ensure the mother-to-be has the maximum amount of privacy possible.
Serena, who announced her surprise pregnancy with Alexis, 34, in April, was reportedly due to give birth on Friday after doctors made the decision to induce her on Thursday night.
Local news outlet CBS12 reported on Friday morning that doctors have confirmed that Serena was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday after the entire first floor of the location was shut down to all unauthorized personnel.
At the moment, nobody without official security clearance is able to access the area.
The couple revealed earlier this year that they had chosen to keep the sex of their child a secret until she gave birth, however, the sporting star did reveal to Vogue that she believed she was having a daughter – which was a guess that happily became fact on Friday afternoon.
Alexis, on the other hand, was convinced that their baby will be a boy.
‘Two weeks after we found out [I was pregnant], I played the Australian Open,‘ she recalled.
‘I told Alexis it has to be a girl because there I was playing in 100-degree weather, and that baby never gave me any trouble. Ride or die. Women are tough that way.’
Just a few weeks ago Williams took to Reddit to ask users about their experiences with packing hospital bags for the impending birth.
She wrote in her post: “1 month before? 6 weeks? 8 weeks? I’m totally stalling. But I have a lot of time still…. I think…Anything you didn’t expect to need that I’ll really appreciate having in there? (sic)”
Fans followed and flooded the thread sharing their own experiences.
One wrote: “I didn’t even have any to pack, but the hospital had a care package program that patients could get items once a week with various themes. I asked for the one with a sleep mask, chapstick, ear plugs, and a stress ball. I highly recommend all of these things (except maybe the stress ball) for hospital bags!!By day three I had gotten an hour of sleep per night, max. There was a light directly over my bed that only dimmed and even when my husband told me to take a nap between feeds I couldn’t sleep for all of the hospital noise until I got the kit.”