As women’s sport grows, so too does the spotlight it’s under, exposing areas where more supports are required, such as why we need to do more for athlete mothers.
With many of the existing structures within women’s sport transferred directly (if only to a diluted version in some cases) from the men’s game, such measures weren’t even thought of up until recently, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent something needs to be done to help these women, who are proving they can go on to have extremely fruitful careers post childbirth.
The ‘behind the scenes’ look into what it takes to play sport as a mother, who’s accompanied by her twins 😍 pic.twitter.com/jc2DkodQ8w
— Her Sport (@HerSportDotIE) October 6, 2021
Just last month, the FA in England made history to become the first national governing body to mandate training on female specific health, spanning from clubs right across the WSL and Championship and pertaining to a wide variety of areas from pregnancy, the menstrual cycle and pelvic health to pre/post natal health, injury risk and nutrition.
With more and more athlete mothers lighting up our screens, the fact that that move was fantastic, but it’s time and beyond that it’s made mainstream.
Studies are beginning to be undertaken into ACL injuries and their prominence within women’s sport, but such research also needs to be conducted when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood in relation to elite female sport.
Not only are there the obvious physical hurdles to overcome in terms of when and what type of exercise to engage in during pregnancy, how quick one could get back to sport post childbirth and how that trauma might effect their body, but there are also more invisible barriers that need to be combated to help women who chose to go back to sport after a pregnancy.
For one thing, on a mental level their identity pre and post having a child would alter, and so sports psychology would also need to adapt to that, but on a more practical level things could be done to help them with regards to things such as breastfeeding, childcare and time allocation.
Forgive the pun, but with the notion of mother athletes being in it’s infancy, there aren’t all of the answers just yet, but there are questions, and it’s time we began to see them answered.
