High-level sportswomen and motherhood: a guide to accompany and put an end to received ideas
The French Amel Majri (here in the national team) is one of the rare professional footballers in France to be pregnant during her career.
UEFA via Getty Images - Jurij Kodrun - UEFA
Text by: David Kalfa Follow
3 mins
The guide "High-level sportswomen and maternity, it's possible" was presented on February 18, 2022 in Paris, in the presence of several champions and the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu.
This multidisciplinary document aims to help athletes during this period, which remains a subject that is little discussed, even taboo, in their environment.
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“
Being accompanied and telling yourself that there is a guide for pregnant women, that reassures me enormously
”, slips
Amel Majri
, this February 18, 2022 in Paris, during the presentation of the guide “High-level sportswomen and maternity, it's possible ".
The 29-year-old midfielder is a reference in French football with six Champions Leagues won, but also a somewhat special case.
The resident of Olympique Lyonnais is indeed one of the rare professional footballers in France to be pregnant during her playing career.
“
I was able to share the guide directly with my athletic trainer
,” she explains.
It's reassuring because I was really scared.
This is my first pregnancy right now.
To realize that it is possible to combine the two, that I am able to do it, honestly I am really very, very reassured
”.
Like several other high-level athletes, Amel Majri is delighted with the publication of this document which is full of information and advice on gynecology, nutrition or re-athletics, but also labor law.
A document supposed to put an end to a received idea: the incompatibility of pregnancy and motherhood with high performance.
Not having to "choose between a desire for fulfillment and a desire for performance"
Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu, former swimming world champion and silver medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, was the sponsor of this guide for the various actors and actresses of sport.
A project born two and a half years ago, she explains, in the introduction: “
How to bring out this right to personal fulfillment by giving life without choosing between a desire for fulfillment and a desire for performance.
We started with this idea of a book, a guide, which accompanies these athletes, but also their entourage, their coaches, the leaders of their associations, their families, their spouses.
»
Review the Presentation of the guide "High level sport and motherhood, it's possible"
The 118-page document in French was produced by a multidisciplinary team, including researchers, doctors and psychologists as well as sociologists and lawyers.
It is made up of five chapters: "Maternity in top-level sportswomen", "The specificity of pregnancy in top-level sportswomen", "Pregnancy and nutrition", "The postpartum period and the return to training for competition” and the “Rights and measures designed for high-level sportswomen in a situation of maternity or parenthood”.
"We can even find a higher level of performance"
From this multidisciplinary work, Carole Maître, gynecologist who has accompanied many nuggets at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), draws this observation: "
Returning to the top level is possible with a level of identical or even better performance.
Because the latest studies have shown that you can even find a level (of performance) higher than your previous level.
»
An assertion supported by this data put forward by Margot Lenouvel, doctoral student in sociology: “
The majority (of the sportswomen questioned), 48%, (had a child) during their career.
»
A proportion which should increase while an athlete concludes (anonymously) in the guide: “
It should no longer be taboo to express a desire for pregnancy.
Indeed, according to a survey put forward by the Ministry of Sports, “
45.6% of sportswomen report that pregnancy is a subject that is talked about very little in sport
”.
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