Returning after pregnancy, Irish athletes showing what's possible 

He knew all about McCormack’s talent, her toughness, but when he heard how swift a return she was making to the top level after pregnancy, his eyes widened. “Six months?” he said. “You know, the Kenyans aren’t even jogging six months after giving birth.” But McCormack wasn’t just back; she was very nearly better than ever, finishing 18th in the ‘world’s toughest race’. In the years since, she’s given birth twice more – she and husband Alan now have three daughters: Isla, Isabelle and Naomi – and the one thing that’s certain: motherhood hasn’t slowed her down.

Last Sunday in Valencia, the 40-year-old ran the fastest marathon of her career, clocking 2:23:46. A year ago, at 39, she ran a 2:26:19 marathon in Valencia and just seven days later finished a remarkable fourth at the European Cross Country. With McCormack, such extremely difficult feats have long been made to appear routine. She’s always been cut from a different cloth, standing out even in elite endurance circles for her resilience, pain tolerance and apparent immunity to running a bad race.

That day in Denmark, she was actually disappointed with her run, having targeted a top-15 finish. Yes, she’d faced all the challenges of motherhood – the physical alterations, limited sleep, compromised recovery – but they did nothing to blunt her ambition.

She had trained through most of her pregnancy, always following her doctor’s advice, and got back running six weeks after giving birth. “I would run in the rain or very early in the morning,” she told me. “You get less funny looks that way because the people you meet are as mad as you and can empathise with your addiction. After pregnancy, I think it really is a case of listening to your body; it's not really that hard early on because it’s pretty much screaming at you anyway.” 

Those in the media – guilty as charged – love to hype up stories of mothers who return better than ever, though doing so can inadvertently perpetuate the fallacy that pregnancy should have some detrimental impact on performance. But that idea should have been shed in the first half of the 20th century, specifically in 1948 when Dutch sprinter and mother-of-two Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals at the London Olympics.

Which isn’t to downplay the seismic challenges of childbirth. The layoff from training, inevitable weight gain and changes to pelvic musculature can add all up to a recipe for injury when athletes start back and then there are lifestyle changes, with sleep – a crucial part of the performance puzzle – often limited for months or years.

But physiologically, pregnancy also has many beneficial effects. An expanded rib cage and increases in heart and lung function can lead to improved performance in endurance sports. The chamber capacity of the heart also increases, boosting its capacity to supply oxygen to muscles. Then there are hormonal changes, with a surge in progesterone, estrogen and testosterone.

The effects are substantial enough that it was rumoured East Germany practised ‘abortion doping’ in the 1970s and ’80s, with allegations they forced female athletes into pregnancy for three months to benefit from increased oxygen supplies. However, no hard evidence was found that it occurred.

A 1991 study of recreational runners found the efficiency with which the body used and processed oxygen increased by 7% in the eight months after childbirth, while a 2022 study found there was “no statistical decrease in performance” among 42 elite female runners from 1-3 years post-pregnancy, while 56% had improved performances.

So we shouldn’t act surprised when a female sportsperson comes back just as good – or better – than ever. It’s no more unusual than a female teacher or hairdresser returning from maternity leave and being just as effective.

Still, the pace of a comeback is very much personal. During a visit to Kenya in 2021, I got the chance to sit down with Faith Kipyegon – widely regarded as the greatest female middle-distance runner in history – and discuss how she did it.

When Kipyegon got pregnant in 2018, she was 24, the reigning world 1500m champion, but she feared for her future ability. “I was so afraid, (thinking): ‘Maybe I will not come back, I will just disappear.’ Every lady, their mind goes like that. But I was very strong-minded. I said: ‘Let me do this.’” 

Just as her manager reported, Kipyegon wasn’t even back jogging six months post-partum. She didn’t do any formal exercise for the last four months before giving birth and waited seven months after it before starting to cross-train. She began running only when her daughter, Alyn, was nine months old, having taken almost 13 months off. She returned to racing one full year after the birth.

Before, her typical racing weight was 45kg but when starting back training, Kipyegon tipped the scales at 63kg. The key to a healthy return? Taking things slowly. She didn’t follow any restrictive diet but shed weight by gradually increasing her cross training, dropping 10kg over the first couple of months.

“Many athletes think (pregnancy) is something that will end your career, but I see it’s just the start,” she said. “I can say it helped me. I became stronger and stronger.” In the years since, she’s gone on to cement her status as the greatest 1500m runner in history, winning her third straight Olympic title in Paris and breaking the world record last July with 3:49.04. Her cautious comeback is indicative of the culture in Kenya – Kipyegon said it’s typical for doctors there to tell pregnant athletes to take a one-year break – but the speed of such comebacks varies widely.

Tomorrow afternoon, Niamh Allen will toe the line for Ireland at the European Cross Country in Turkiye just three months after giving birth to her daughter, Lily. The Leevale athlete hadn’t planned to be back racing this soon, but after starting back training a little over a month after giving birth, she couldn’t believe how good she soon felt.

And so she decided to toe the line at last month’s nationals, finishing a superb second to earn her first major international cap. Her comeback is at the upper end of what’s possible in such a time frame, but Allen cautioned other expectant mothers to take things at their own pace.

“Giving birth is not an easy process so be kind to yourself, be patient, and if it’s a goal you want to achieve coming back, it might take longer than expected,” she said. “But know that you can do it.” 

Allen, McCormack and Kipyegon took different approaches on the road back but their stories prove what’s possible after pregnancy – the only barrier to bouncing back better being a very outdated belief that it might not be possible.