The handball national team's Linn Blohm, Johanna Bundsen and Jamina Roberts have all returned after giving birth and are currently playing handball of their lives.

And there may be an explanation.

What happens to the body can be an advantage for elite athletes, says Angelica Lindén Hirschberg who is a professor at the Department of Women's and Children's Health at Karolinska Institutet.

- A pregnancy is a huge hormonal change that aims for the body to be able to carry a growing fetus, says Lindén Hirschberg to SVT Sport.

Adjustments can be of lasting benefit

Lindén Hirschberg, who also works as a gynecologist for the Swedish Olympic Committee, says that few studies have been done on the subject.

On the other hand, the knowledge of what purely physiologically happens during a pregnancy is great.

- On the one hand, a pregnancy involves a large hormone supplement with, among other things, growth hormone, so-called anabolic building hormones.

But there is also an adaptation in terms of cardiovascular function and lung capacity to the growing fetus and it becomes like a training session for the pregnant woman to cope with it.

- Both adaptations in cardiovascular function but also the hormone supplementation of growth hormone, it is conceivable that you have lasting benefit even after pregnancy.

So after a pregnancy, can the body find it easier to absorb the exercise?

- Exactly.

There are a few studies that show that oxygen uptake can even be better after a full-term pregnancy than it was before.

If you have been exposed to a lot of growth hormone during a pregnancy, which you normally are, such effects can remain in the body and affect muscle ability and strength.

Psychological effects can also play a role

The national team's midfielder Linn Blohm, who had children in 2018, believes that she has been positively affected by the balance between handball and family life.

- It has made me focus more on handball once I am on handball, says Blohm.

Lindén Hirschberg:

- Purely theoretically, one could imagine psychological effects could also play a role.

That you may get a bigger perspective on your sport and you see other values ​​in life.

Then maybe you can have a slightly more relaxed attitude to your sport and it can in some cases also have positive effects.