From student-athlete to student-athlete mother

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    By Amy Young

    It was February of her junior year and just after the Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships when BYU swimmer Nichole Tolley learned the unexpected news ? she was pregnant.

    Tolley, a member of the 2004 championship team, would have only one season of swimming left, an activity that engulfed her life since she was 8 years old. Now it looked like the arrival of a new baby would cut that season short.

    ?I didn?t want to tell Coach Crump,? Tolley said. ?I was afraid because I didn?t know how he would react. This was not something my husband and I planned.?

    Pregnancy among student-athletes can bring worry and sacrifice. New expenses, academic responsibilities and changes to their bodies can create unhealthy anxiety and stress. In early stages of pregnancy, with so many physical, emotional and financial issues present, women can feel confused about their decisions, according to a study by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

    Money also plays a large factor in many of the decisions. Many student-athletes can afford school only because of the scholarships they received to play a sport.

    The NCAA has only one guideline for pregnancy. The Division I rule book states: ?A member institution may approve a one-year extension of the five-year eligibility for a female student athlete for reasons of pregnancy.?

    The rule does not address the protection of a student from the loss or reduction of a scholarship. If an athlete has to take a year off for pregnancy, there is no guarantee their reward money will be available. Also, nothing is set up to help the women make informed decisions about their future as an athlete and a parent.

    This is a problem Elizabeth Sorensen, a faculty athletics representative from Wright State University in Ohio, set out to solve. Sorensen, under the direction of the university?s athletic director, put together a set of guidelines for the school?s use. Wright State implemented the program, and Sorensen said she wanted to recommend it to the NCAA board.

    ?The way we were doing things just didn?t quite feel right to me,? said Sorensen in a letter to the NCAA?s Committee on Women?s Athletics. ?It?s fairly rare for a student-athlete to get pregnant, but it is going to happen and we need to set up a plan to help us respond when the situation comes up.?

    In the letter, Sorensen outlined a proposal to enhance the rules to offer more protection for women in such situations. Sorensen?s recommendations included counseling for pregnant student-athletes and requiring an institution to protect scholarships from cancellation for one award-year, from July1 to July 1.

    The Women?s Committee, after reviewing Sorensen?s ideas, forwarded the recommendations to the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects for Sports. The Committee, which meets only twice a year, will discuss implementing the policies in its June 2005 meeting.

    ?I think it?s a great idea,? said Katie Groke, a student-athlete from the University of Wyoming and chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. ?Many women are forced to give up a lot.?

    One of the sacrifices a student-athlete makes during pregnancy is the loss of valuable training time. Doctors agree some exercising during pregnancy can help one to feel better and minimize fat gain, but the rigorous schedules most athletes are used to become difficult and dangerous.

    ?With recreational exercise participants, there really isn?t much change to their program,? said David Ludlow, an obstetrician at the Spanish Fork Women?s and Pediatric Clinic. ?Competitive athletes have a harder time.?

    Ludlow said during pregnancy, a woman secretes a hormone called relaxin. Relaxin causes the connective tissues to relax, making the body more susceptible to back and joint injuries.

    With sports such as softball, basketball and soccer, women should stop training after her pregnancy reaches the three-month mark. Jogging, swimming and running are okay to do throughout the nine months, but at a much lower lever than athletes are used to, Ludlow said.

    ?There are really just three main concerns that we express,? Ludlow said. ?You should limit maximum exertion to 10 to15 minutes at a time, avoid any activity that might result in abdominal trauma and protect your back and joints.?

    For Tolley, who had the support of her team, coach and husband and the opportunity to return to the pool, the physical changes proved to be the greatest sacrifice.

    ?It is hard to get back into the right condition for swimming after taking time off,? BYU women?s swimming head coach Stan Crump said. ?If Nichole would have had just a few more races under her belt this season, she could have made the conference team. She just didn?t have enough time to get back into shape.?

    Crump said it would have helped the team, who lost the MWC championships for the first time in five years, to have Tolley the whole season, but everyone was very supportive.

    ?The first thing I did was tell her congratulations,? Crump said. ?We talked about her coming back. Nichole made a commitment to the team, and she wanted to keep it.?

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