‘It doesn’t need to be a setback’: how elite athletes return from pregnancy

Serena Williams has never liked the word “retirement”. Her move away from tennis, announced in an essay in the September issue of Vogue, is an “evolution”, she says. In her transition she will shift focus from tennis to “other things” that are important to her. One is her wish to have another child.

Williams and her husband have been trying for a baby in the past year, a move apparently encouraged by their four-year-old daughter, who has hopes of becoming a big sister. But, as Williams told the magazine: “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”

Williams was two months pregnant when she won the Australian Open in 2017. She gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, on 1 September that year. It was not a straightforward pregnancy, however. Williams had a caesarean section after developing a blood clot in her lung during labour, and went on to play through postnatal depression.

There is no doubt pregnancy can take a toll on elite athletes. The weight gain and change in body shape affect balance and posture, which take some adjusting to, and training at maximum intensity should be avoided, says Prof Kari Bø at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo. Any training that carries a risk of the bump being hit, either through impact or a fall, is also strongly discouraged.

But while training tends to be scaled back, athletes do continue to exercise through pregnancy. How soon elite female athletes return after giving birth depends on how smoothly it goes. Beyond any muscle weakness from disrupted training, the two muscles that run down the middle of the stomach often separate in pregnancy as the expanding womb drives them apart.

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