Serena Williams has detailed how strangers on social media helped her forgive herself for missing her daughter’s first steps while she was at tennis practice.

The 37-year-old athlete sat down with Ashley Graham to record a live episode of the model’s podcast Pretty Big Deal last Saturday at her Dallas pop-up shop promoting her new activewear line, Serena.

During the candid conversation, Serena opened up about the online community she has created with her launch of the hasthag #ThisMama, which she has been using to share stories about her mom struggles and her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.

Balance: Serena Williams, pictured with daughter Alexis Olympia, has opened up about how social media helps her to deal with the ups and downs of motherhood

Struggle: In July, the 37-year-old revealed that she had cried after missing Olympia’s first steps because she was in practice while at Wimbledon

Sharing: After receiving words of comfort from other moms, Serena has started opening up more frequently about motherhood struggles, using the hashtag #ThisMama

Over the summer, the 23 Grand Slam champ revealed on Twitter that she had cried because she had missed Olympia taking her first steps while she was practicing at Wimbledon.

‘That was really hard for me because I was at practice,’ she told Ashley. ‘I didn’t even have a match that day. I was just at practice, and, you know, she took her steps and I was so disappointed.’

Serena ended up receiving an abundance of support from other parents who had gone through the same thing.

‘Everyone was like, “Oh yeah, that happened to me too.” There were so many comments. I had so much engagement on that particular post,’ she said.

‘It was so many comments and so many people were like, “Yeah, yeah me too, I was at work, I was in the bathroom.”

‘And I was like, “Oh, OK, so it’s only in the movies where the mom is there and the dad is there too and they’re perfect and the baby takes the first steps.”‘

The businesswoman said she has received such great parenting advice since she started using the popular hashtag.

‘I love when I hashtag #ThisMama because I feel like I can get this incredible group of people and women that give me, basically, feedback. It’s like my community of help,’  she explained.

Friends: Serena spoke out about the importance of social media in her life while chatting with Ashley Graham for the plus-size model’s podcast Pretty Big Deal

Moving forward: The 23-time Grand Slam champion spoke to Ashley, 31, while promoting her new activewear line, Serena

During the interview, Ashley brought up the HBO documentary series “Being Serena,” recalling a difficult scene in which the athlete’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou tells her she needs to stop breastfeeding if she wants to lose weight and make her return as a world-class tennis player.

Serena admitted that things she has read and heard led her to believe that she would lose all of her baby weight while breastfeeding but that wasn’t the case.

‘I was breastfeeding, and I’m like, “Why am I not losing weight?’ I should be 100lbs now. Hello, that’s why I’m breastfeeding,’ she recounted. ‘Actually it works when you first have the baby. You lose a lot of weight if you breastfeed, but then you plateau.

Serena learned that in order to lose the rest of the weight, she had to stop breastfeeding, although she noted that doesn’t work for everyone.

‘So it was through this whole process that I learned that every body is different,’ she said.

‘My body went as far it was going to go, and it wasn’t going to go any further until I stopped breastfeeding.’

Serena said when her coach told her that, she said she got it, but she had no intention of stopping in that moment. In fact, she said she went and nursed Olympia right after that conversation.

Milestones: Serena also spoke about her decision to stop breastfeeding Olympia, explaining that she took time to think about it because it was such an important aspect of their bonding

Solid: Although she is focused on her tennis career, Serena says her main job is raising Olympia with her husband Alexis Ohanian

‘I breastfed for another six week after that because I had to be ready,’ she explained. ‘You never can let anybody tell you what to do. You have to make your own decisions and I wasn’t ready. I could always play tennis, but I am never going have these moments with my daughter again.’

The athlete said she eventually stopped because she knew she had to get ready for the French Open, but she did it on her own terms.

‘I talked to Olympia about it,’ she explained. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but I talked to her and I said, “Okay, honey, mommy is going to stop and this is really hard for me.”

‘We prayed it about it, and then she didn’t even try. She didn’t even grab at me after that,’ Serena recalled. ‘It was the weirdest thing. It was the weirdest, weirdest thing, and she got a tooth like the next day too, so it was like perfect timing.’

The tennis legend said once she stopped nursing and ‘dried out’ she lost ‘like 10lbs in two days.’

And while she is juggling multiple careers, Serena believes her most important job is raising Olympia with her husband, Alexis Ohanian.

‘Honestly, success is just having my daughter and just having her be an addition to this world and just adding something and giving and just being a bright spirit here,’ she said.

‘If I can raise a good kid in this environment, that’s my next job and only job.’