Allyson Felix thought her pregnancy would go as smoothly as her signature running style after a stellar track and field career that saw her win seven Olympic gold medals and fourteen world championship golds.
“All my life, I’ve taken care of my body; my body has been my tool, and it has never really failed me,” Felix adds. “My body has consistently functioned when I’ve exercised and placed demands on it. [Therefore], I had considered having a lovely natural birth, had gone to hypnobirthing, and so on,” she explains.
Felix was horrified to learn that she had severe pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy problem that results in dangerously high blood pressure levels and organ damage, and that she needed to be admitted to the hospital right away when she went for a routine checkup at 32 weeks. Her daughter Camryn was delivered two months early the next day after physicians performed an emergency C-section, and she spent the first month of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit.
