At first, I was a little disappointed with a new review of guidelines for resuming training after giving birth, published last month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The authors had screened 5,851 relevant studies, reviewed the full text of 602 of them, and extracted guidelines from 33 of them. Pooling all this information had produced the following definitive conclusion: “Few guidelines in the scientific literature on RTA (return to activity) and RTS (return to sport) postpartum exist, and most are vague and inconsistent.”
I’d been hoping for some simple numbers: a timeframe, or at least a roadmap with some key benchmarks. That’s the kind of guidance that could be really useful for women who have recently given birth or are planning to, I figured. But upon further reflection—and after exchanging emails with the review’s lead author, Jenna Schulz of Western University in Canada—I’ve reconsidered. Returning to sport after becoming a mother can be a complex and highly individual process, with potential traps that can snare even the most knowledgeable and well-supported athletes. We don’t need…
