Feb 2025
An interesting conversation I was having with an esteemed athlete last week brought to mind an important point
that is well meaning but used too often by clinicians and coaches to pregnant athletes.
‘Listen to your body’ as a means to guiding them intuitively through how to train for their sport in pregnancy.
Whilst well meaning, it’s not very helpful.
What are athletes meant to be listening out for?
The very voice (‘athlete brain’) that makes them great athletes and successful is probably not the one to listen to the most intently in this season of your life.
Training in pregnancy is about training Smart.
But is all pain a sign of injury and not to be pushed through?
What’s safe?
Can we have black and white guidelines for what you can/can’t do in pregnancy when it comes to training?
What are the variables and what are the confounding factors?
As an Obstetrician managing high risk pregnancies and specialising in athlete health there is very little black and white and a lot of grey.
(This is true of Obstetrics in general to some degree).
Each athlete will have specific risk factors in their pregnancy and each different sport