I thought I'd posted this yesterday but I don't see it. My apologies if it did end up floating around here somewhere.
Hi. :) I'm new here although I've been popping in and out for a couple of months to read various discussions. I am a 28 year-old female who has been swimming competitively for most of her life. I'm doing low-mileage masters now to complement my running and lifting activities and quite enjoy it.
Last week my husband and I found out that we are expecting our first child. Now that it's sunk in, I realize that my routines will have to change a bit. I think my swim practices should be easy to modify. However, I had just signed up for a local summer competition league when we found out. There are six SCY meets total with short events (longest being IM & 100 fr), and the first is this Thursday.
Based on reading I've done online and a call to my health insurance Nurse Help line, it appears that I probably should not do dive starts from the deck even as early as I am now at 5 weeks. Has anyone else heard of this or heard differently? I'm going to call my ob/gyn doctor tomorrow to verify but there really seems to be a limited understanding in the medical community of competitive swimming.
I'm especially curious about this because we're trying to keep the pregnancy a secret for a couple of months to make sure it sticks and avoid news spreading too soon to my company. In-water starts will certainly raise eyebrows so I might need to pull out of the competition league and just stick with practices if I can't dive.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!
Hi swimhappy!
First, congratulations on your pregnancy!!!
Second, you will find many people on the forums who have competed while pregnant, including several who have dove in from the blocks. You will also find several who stopped diving when they found they were pregnant. Unfortunately, there is very little honest-to-god researched medical information available on swimming competition while pregnant. If you ask doctors if you can swim, they typically say, "Sure! Swimming's great!" because they have no idea how hard you may push yourself in the pool. In the end, the decision of how hard to train and whether or not to go off the blocks will come down to what you're comfortable with (assuming, of course, that you are having a healthy pregnancy with no complications).
For what it's worth, I didn't swim when pregnant with my first child at age 30 because I hadn't swam in about a year and figured it wasn't a good time to get back into it. Child #2 came along at age 33, about 3 months sooner than planned (like the pregnancy started 3 months sooner than planned) and I had already signed up for scy nationals, made hotel and flight reservations, etc etc. Since I had been training consistently prior to getting pregnant, I kept on training. First trimester, I competed in meets at 6, 9, and 11 weeks. I dove in from the blocks for all my races. My meet at 6 weeks was great - best ever non-tapered 100 free. My 9 and 11 week meets, I was SO nauseous. Wow, was I sick. The meet at 11 weeks was nationals, and that was the last time I dove. I'd gained about 10 lbs and was quite bloated, but there was no pooch yet so I figured the baby was still safely tucked behind stomach muscle. The last meet I did was at 36 1/2 weeks. I swam a 50 free from a push, executed a successful flipturn, and went pretty slow. But it was fun. :)
I don't think you'll have any problem training while pregnant, just follow the old rule of "listen to your body". Also, make sure you don't overheat (keep your core temp down) and skip the hypoxic stuff.
Hi swimhappy!
First, congratulations on your pregnancy!!!
Second, you will find many people on the forums who have competed while pregnant, including several who have dove in from the blocks. You will also find several who stopped diving when they found they were pregnant. Unfortunately, there is very little honest-to-god researched medical information available on swimming competition while pregnant. If you ask doctors if you can swim, they typically say, "Sure! Swimming's great!" because they have no idea how hard you may push yourself in the pool. In the end, the decision of how hard to train and whether or not to go off the blocks will come down to what you're comfortable with (assuming, of course, that you are having a healthy pregnancy with no complications).
For what it's worth, I didn't swim when pregnant with my first child at age 30 because I hadn't swam in about a year and figured it wasn't a good time to get back into it. Child #2 came along at age 33, about 3 months sooner than planned (like the pregnancy started 3 months sooner than planned) and I had already signed up for scy nationals, made hotel and flight reservations, etc etc. Since I had been training consistently prior to getting pregnant, I kept on training. First trimester, I competed in meets at 6, 9, and 11 weeks. I dove in from the blocks for all my races. My meet at 6 weeks was great - best ever non-tapered 100 free. My 9 and 11 week meets, I was SO nauseous. Wow, was I sick. The meet at 11 weeks was nationals, and that was the last time I dove. I'd gained about 10 lbs and was quite bloated, but there was no pooch yet so I figured the baby was still safely tucked behind stomach muscle. The last meet I did was at 36 1/2 weeks. I swam a 50 free from a push, executed a successful flipturn, and went pretty slow. But it was fun. :)
I don't think you'll have any problem training while pregnant, just follow the old rule of "listen to your body". Also, make sure you don't overheat (keep your core temp down) and skip the hypoxic stuff.
