Did you run while you were pregnant? Many women do. I did.
I had the full support of my doctor to run during both my pregnancies. She found me to be healthy and fully capable of running while pregnant, particularly because I am a longtime runner, and she gave me the following common-sense advice: Don't get your heart rate up too high, which means you are going to have to slow things down and take it easy. Other than that, she said to only keep up the activity as long as it felt good to do so. I ran with Sonja until I was almost eight months and loved every step. It was a different story with Haven, since I simply didn't enjoy running for most of the pregnancy, so I stopped around six months. The bottom line was that I didn't have anything to prove to anyone, least of all to myself. I wasn't running during pregnancy to keep in shape, I was running because running is something I love to do and I didn't (and my doctor didn't) see the point in stopping if there was no medical reason to stop.
I ran four races while pregnant with Sonja and three races while pregnant with Haven. None of these races was over 8km, but I ran considerably farther that 8km on some of my regular runs. I want to be clear: I wasn't setting any Personal Bests at any of these races, I was just out there to have fun. By the time I gave up running during my first pregnancy, I was running about two or three times a week, very slowly.
For the most part, I had a good experience as a pregnant runner. People were largely supportive and encouraging, although I admit that many of those were runners themselves. I recall quite a few shocked looks from folks walking on the street and I was always thankful that I was moving too fast for them to give me their opinion. I simply smiled, said hello and kept on my way. The fact was that I didn't much care what anyone thought; my doctor, my husband and I were OK with me running during pregnancy and the last thing I needed was the two cents from an armchair critic.
So when a friend of mine sent me this old article from the Winnipeg Free Press (originally printed June 20th, 2009), I read it with a lot of interest and a smile on my face. It's a fun and inspiring story that's close to my heart. If you were a pregnant runner or even hope to be a pregnant runner someday, please read this and let me know what you think.
Pregnant and pumped for their run on Sunday
Posted: 06/20/2009 1:00 AM
They call themselves "Knocked Up, But Not Out" because this team of five women will deliver a lot more than a big finish at the 2009 Manitoba Marathon.
Joan St. Laurent, Chantelle Harder, Laura Masterson, Sarah Johnson and Sam Czemerynski are all experienced runners who are between four and eight months pregnant and all will give birth to their babies later this year.
But first, each will run a leg of the Manitoba Marathon relay, a distance of about six miles per person, with their unborn running partners along for the ride.
"We're super excited, we're ready to get out there, and with every day that passes, we laugh about 'oh, are we going to be too big, are we going to pop one day?' " laughed Harder, 31, who is pregnant for the third time. She is the mother of two sons, five-year-old Tobin and 17-month-old Tristan, and stepdaughter Hailey, 5.
Harder started the team by posting an ad on a local online classified advertisements website in which she said she was looking for pregnant women who are still running. Her brother-in-law came up with the name and the group adopted it.
"Pregnant women are not couch-bound, putting our feet up and eating chocolate. For some, maybe they are, and that's great, but we still like to run," Harder said. "One of the girls said she wondered if there were any other pregnant women out there who were still running and we got our answer. There's at least five of us."
St. Laurent, 27, is the farthest along. She will be 32 weeks pregnant with her first child on race day, but she's also the hard-core runner in the group. St. Laurent has run six full marathons since 2004 and ran the annual Winnipeg Police Service half marathon last month at 25 weeks.
"I've had fun with it with the group. I said I used to have a PB (personal best) and now I have my PPB for pregnancy personal best," said St. Laurent, who ran the storied Boston Marathon in 2007. She ran her most recent marathon last October, one month before she became pregnant. "I'm still at it, but I'm definitely slowing down now."
She said the team hopes to send a message about women continuing their previous activities during pregnancy.
"Before the first woman ran the Boston Marathon 40 years ago (Kathrine Switzer in 1967), people thought your uterus would fall out if you ran a distance that far," St. Laurent said. "It's important to be active throughout your pregnancy and (know that) nothing bad is going to happen. It's healthy for the baby and it's not obscene to see some pregnant woman running down the street."
Harder said the motion of running seems to be soothing to her little person.
"As soon as I start exercising or running, that's when my baby is the most calm. It's almost like my baby gets lulled to sleep," she said. "After I run, I feel so much better and so much better about myself."
None of the five women knew each other before answering Harder's ad, but now they have a new group of friends and a support network.
"It'll be fun to be able to tell our babies about how they were in the marathon before they were born," Harder said. "Maybe someday when they're older, they will run the marathon relay all together, the next generation."
I loved this article and could identify with a lot of it, especially the idea of not wanting to sit out of my favourite activity simply because I was pregnant. I also agreed with the Mom who talked about her baby being lulled to sleep during the run. This always happened with me as well and it was nice to read about another Mom with the same experience.
..and then I read the comments:
I was taken aback by how borderline abusive some of these comments were, calling these women "selfish" and accusing them of not caring about the welfare of their unborn babies. If I had been one of these Moms and had read this, I would have been angry and hurt, but I also would have known that my doctor had given me the go-ahead and had even encouraged me to continue running while pregnant. So in the end, I likely would have read these comments and then taken great pleasure in thumbing my nose at the computer screen.
Finally I want to draw special attention to the final comment at the top of the list that urges these naysayers to supply hard evidence (and not just uneducated, gut-reaction opinion) that running while pregnant is in any way dangerous, provided you do so with the support of your doctor. Interesting that no one piped up to support their arguments..!
So, what are your thoughts on the subject? What's your reaction to the comments to this article? I'd love to hear what you think.
When was the last time any of you naysayers sat down with one of these professionals in order to find out exactly what risks are involved? *Deafening silence* Interesting.
So what your silence tells us is that you're simply talking from your posteriors without bringing any real game to this table. Since late 1940's, pregnancy has been considered a disability; your intense criticism perpetuates this incredibly silly notion. What did your great grandmothers do while pregnant with your grandfathers and grandmothers? They were working the fields in summer heat. Period.
These five women finished their race legs looking far less phased than some of their non-pregnant peers who were heaving air in and out of their lungs looking dazed and confused. I know, I was right there watching. What this article does not mention is that all five were under GP and / or Obstetric group supervision. Can you quote fact and prove that this group of General Practitioners and OBGYNs were wrong in their approval of this activity? I'm waiting.