Naomi Osaka, 26, has no plans to have “any more” children after the traumatic birth of her daughter.
The tennis player posted a video to her TikTok account on Sunday in which she responded to a comment asking if she was pregnant and expressed her hope for more children.
“I’m not pregnant, but even if I were, I don’t think I want any more children because childbirth would be so traumatic, but I’m grateful for all the well wishes,” Osaka said in the video, which has been viewed nearly 60,000 times.
Osaka welcomed her first child, a daughter, Shai, with her partner, rapper Cordae, in July 2023.
She has previously spoken about her complicated pregnancy and birth experience.
In a December interview with InStyle magazine, Osaka revealed that she tested positive for group B strep while pregnant — a bacteria that can cause stillbirth and sepsis and meningitis in newborns — and that she had written a will before giving birth.
“I don’t think people realize how hard pregnancy is. No one really talks about it,” Osaka told InStyle magazine. “When you’re pregnant, you think, Oh, this is an amazing journey. But it’s really hard.”
She also told the outlet that the birth took more than 12 hours and that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck.
“I remember in that moment thinking this was the worst pain of my life,” Osaka said, recalling the moment her doctor told her to push, “and knowing that if I could get through this, everything else would feel so much easier.”
In January, she told Glamour magazine that her body underwent frightening changes after giving birth to her daughter.
“Giving birth completely destroys your pelvic floor,” Osaka told Glamour magazine. “I was shocked because I couldn’t get out of bed. I had to roll onto my side, and it was a really long process. Because for me, the immediate thought was, ‘I have to do a lot of abdominal work to rebuild this,’ and I learned that’s not what you should do at all. You have to work on your pelvic floor deeply.”
She began training 15 days after giving birth, adding that she was glad to have had a “great team” around her to advise her on her recovery, but acknowledged that it’s a privilege not many new mothers have access to.
According to the CDC, about 700 women die each year in the United States from pregnancy or pregnancy complications, and Black and Native American women are two to three times more likely to die than white women.
By comparison, the number of births in the United States in 2023 will be just under 3.6 million.
Lenore Clark, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Riverside University Health System in California, previously told Business Insider that it’s important for women to advocate for their own health.
“Find a doctor with whom you can have a good doctor-patient relationship, get early and regular prenatal care, and never be afraid to speak up,” Clark says. “Ask questions and make sure your care plan is clear to you.”
Officials with the city of Osaka did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside normal business hours.
