My two pregnancies and my wonderful daughters are a source of inspiration for my thoughts in this blog though.
So too, is the super helpful, trailblazing, NetballHer website, devised by the forward thinking experts at England Netball & Well HQ. If you haven’t visited yet I strongly suggest you do so! Now!
Www.netballher.co.uk
And we’re back in the room!
Sadly, a few months ago I was threatened with legal action by a pregnant lady who wanted to continue playing our great game throughout her pregnancy, including at one of my Netball in the Community festivals.
I was not the only netball organiser stuck between a rock and a hard place in this situation.
Rightly or wrongly she did play in one of my festivals before hitting the second trimester mark, my thoughts were along the lines of ‘she’s been honest, she didn’t need to tell me and could have played with no one knowing at all’.
She did find herself on the floor at one point though and my reaction was one of horror.
She and her baby were fine.
A few weeks later I found myself umpiring at another festival. The same player was there, playing. This time her pregnancy more obvious.
There were some who were unhappy with this and approached the organiser whose stance was similar to mine, also pre warned and prepared, but most importantly going with the rules.
This was a National Governing Body organised competition.
There are no rules for our nation or, indeed, world netball, that says pregnant players cannot play netball.
I’m just repeating that for those at the back (!) There is no rule to say players cannot play netball whilst pregnant.
Now, traditionally, it is the ‘norm’ that players don’t play beyond 12 weeks and umpires do not umpire beyond 16 weeks. Or that certainly is the case where I have lived & played netball most of my life!
It wasn’t until recently, that I learned these are league bi laws, rather than globally recognised netball rules.
Jamaica shooting legend Romelda Aitken was open about planning to play in the Suncorp Superleague (SSN) during her pregnancy and it was only Covid-19 and severe morning sickness that prevented her from doing so.
The conversation took a turn when her SSN team dumped her after 15 seasons of service!
It would have been very interesting to see what the conversation around her playing whilst openly pregnant would have been.
It will happen one day either at SSN, ANZ or Superleague. I’m not sure we’re prepared for that!
Other high profile Netballers that have been open about playing whilst pregnant include Scotland midcourter Iona Christian. She announced her pregnancy following the 2023 South Africa World Cup and discussed it on Sky Netball’s Off the Court.
Returning to the legal action, I tried to take as much advice as possible.
This was problematic in itself - have a google of ‘playing netball whilst pregnant’ and you’ll see what I mean!
Our National Governing Body, despite all the wonderful research, forward thinking and communication regarding the NetballHer website, do like to ‘sit on the fence’, which was and is, frustrating to say the least.
I assume (but happy to be corrected!) that National and World Governing Bodies need to take into consideration and tackle Human Rights and Equality Laws. No easy task I am sure.
I assume their hands may be tied in terms of offering useful advice!
I think, going forward, being honest and communicating such complications - why they have to take the stance they take (ie sitting on the fence!) would be received with more understanding. At least by me!
In the meantime I was being asked for advice by teams, leagues and festival organisers about exactly the same situation!
The player in question’s own team weren’t comfortable with her stance and she was trying to find a team who would be happy for her to play!
Cue lots of emails threatening legal action!
It’s seems fairly humorous writing about it now.
However, as a small business owner whose ethos and priority is ‘providing fun & friendly netball opportunities for all’, reading that email was far from funny.
Imagine being a volunteer Captain or Coach, going about your everyday business, and a similar email hitting your inbox.
One of my biggest problems with this whole situation is that it is volunteers who were asking for help from an organisation who were sat on the fence.
These are the same volunteers who make netball happen. They deserve better.
In the end I had to write a ‘pregnancy policy’ which I shared on my website and social media channels. Many were a bit bemused by this but then they didn’t know what was happening behind the scenes!
