The Group Chat: Like a mother

In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re chatting about how elite women athletes perform with changing bodies throughout and beyond pregnancy — and what you can take away from their experiences, even if you never want to have kids yourself.

Remember USWNT star Alex Morgan’s April 2020 video that broke the internet? You know the one: Morgan, working out in her garage as the COVID-19 pandemic stretched on, nine months pregnant with her daughter, Charlie.

• There’s a reason this video fascinated sports fans everywhere — pregnancy is notoriously hard on your body, and many wonder how professional and elite athletes who carry pregnancies keep up their extreme levels of fitness.

Working out while pregnant or postpartum is no joke: Pregnant bodies can operate at 2.2 times the average resting metabolic rate, which is the kind of energy output it takes to run a marathon…every day, for 36 to 40 weeks. And that’s not to mention the mechanical changes that come with enduring fluctuating hormones and carrying an extra 30-plus pounds.

• Many experts recommend avoiding extreme exertion during pregnancy. But there’s not nearly enough research on sports’ highest achievers, and the data we do have suggests that many can continue training at their normal level. As such, it’s becoming increasingly common for elite athletes to compete long into their pregnancies.

More and more women are proving that pregnancy doesn’t have to be a setback in elite athletic careers. Here are some mamas who continued to win at the highest levels of their sport despite the challenges of pregnancy and the postpartum period:

• 🎾 Tennis legend Serena Williams famously won the 2017 Australian Open, her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, while about eight weeks pregnant with her first child, Olympia. Now retired from pro tennis, she laid the groundwork for a career as a pregnancy fitness influencer while carrying her second child, Adira, in 2023.

• 🏀 WNBA superstar Skylar Diggins played her 2018 WNBA season while secretly pregnant with her first child, Seven, and logged some serious playtime. “I was top three or five in minutes per game and total minutes for the year. …I was exhausted, and I was an All-Star.”

• 👟 Many elite runners don’t just train through their pregnancies — they even get faster after giving birth. Pregnancy means increased cardiac output, which can equal a boost for runners and other cardio-intensive athletes, from Team USA sprinter Allyson Felix to the world’s best marathoners.

• 🏒 Hockey juggernaut Kendall Coyne Schofield gave birth to son Drew in July 2023 after playing with the PWHPA while pregnant. She also helped launch the PWHL just six months after he was born. Impressive doesn’t even begin to cover it.

How do they do it? Usually, with a lot of help. Many athletes work with teams of healthcare professionals, from OB/GYNs to nutritionists, to accommodate their changing bodies.

• Altered training regimens often include physical therapy for the core and pelvic floor, which undergo massive changes during pregnancy. They also focus on strength and mobility, because hormonal changes make pregnant bodies more flexible — sometimes, too flexible.

Training and competing while pregnant offer unique physiological challenges, but in the postpartum period, needs can be more complex. Birth experience, breastfeeding, sleep deprivation, and other physical demands of motherhood affect each athlete differently — some will be back in action right away, while others need more time to heal.

• And that’s not to mention the mental load of adjusting to a major life change. For example, the aforementioned Diggins needed more rest and support from her team while dealing with postpartum depression after her first and resisted pressure to “snap back” after her second.

• Last year, FIFA commissioned a comprehensive guide for returning to play, with input from global superstars like the USWNT’s Crystal Dunn. Other leagues, from the WNBA to the PWHL to the NWSL are including more support for expecting and new moms in their collective bargaining agreements. There’s more to do, but it’s a great start.

Even if pregnancy isn’t in your past, present, or future, there are valuable lessons to take away from elite athletes’ journey to motherhood.

• 🧘 Listen to your body — we all have intuition when it comes to our health. Learn about when to push yourself, and when to give yourself a break.

• 💪 Work functional strength training into your fitness routine, whether that’s building up your pelvic floor in postpartum recovery or working in lunges to make climbing the stairs to your apartment easier.

• 📣 Take a page out of the aforementioned Diggins’ book and advocate for your needs with your employer, and lean on your friends and coworkers for support when you need it. Pregnant or not, we all have moments where we can use a little extra grace.

• ♀️ Advocate for mothers’ rights and proactively check in with your mama friends. Even if you won’t be a mom, defending mothers’ equal rights in the workplace is a feminist project.