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Female athletes still have to tread a hard road back to action post-pregnancy | Megan Maurice
As professionalism of women’s sport grows, there is even more at play for elite athletes returning to work after becoming mothers
When Kim Ravaillion took a break from international netball in September 2018 she had no idea of the rollercoaster she would be on over the next four years. In 2019 she learnt she was pregnant with her first child and a return to the Diamonds was the last thing on her mind. But after making a stunning comeback to Suncorp Super Netball with the Queensland Firebirds in 2021 and consolidating that form over the initial rounds of the 2022 season, many were sure she would be in the mix for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year. Instead Ravaillion was a conspicuous absence from the 18-player squad named this week, highlighting the difficulties that female athletes face in returning to sport after pregnancy.
Former Diamonds’ captain Caitlin Bassett brought the issue into the spotlight in a News Corp column this week, when she spoke of the way players in the past were urged to be “smart” with contraception and not risk losing their place on the team. It is a difficult line to tread. In most careers, parental leave provisions guarantee that someone returning to work after the birth of a child is entitled to come back into the same role that they held previously. But for female athletes there is more at play. Pregnancy takes a heavy toll on the body and there are often traumatic effects of childbirth that simply cannot be planned for. The pressure to return to their previous standard of play is immense and to make things even more difficult, they have a whole group of often younger, fitter players breathing down their neck and vying for their position.
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