Moms Grin And Bear It Despite Pregnancy, Women Continue Competitive Sports

It’s hard enough to bear a child. Expectant mothers aren’t expected to do much else.

But the fact of the matter is, they do and they are. Just check out a few entries on the docket. A month ago marathoner Sue Olsen, nine months pregnant, completed a 24-hour race around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis and 30 hours later bore a 7-pound, 3-ounce baby boy.

At the beginning of July, Norwegian javelin thrower Trine Hattestad earned a silver medal at the Grand Prix II World Games while more than five months pregnant.

And just last week, Dawn Coe-Jones, who is expecting her first child in October, fired rounds of 68-70-74-70-282 and tied for seventh at the U.S. Women’s Open in Colorado Springs, Colo. The low amateur was Sarah Lebrun Ingram, seven months pregnant.

Coe-Jones’ golf prowess while with child is notable, especially so after Ben Wright’s alleged comments last May that women can’t play golf as well as men because “their boobs get in the way.” Forget that … what about trying to swing around a stomach the size of an NBA-regulation basketball?

“I played my best golf while I was pregnant because I had to swing around (my stomach),” said Ally Lozares, vice president of the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Women’s Golf Association, warming up her swing before the SCGWFA Championship Monday. “To get around it, you need a fluid swing. I think that’s why heavy-set guys have such a good follow-through - they have to get around it, too.”

Lozares said she played up until two weeks before she gave birth. “I would go out on the golf course, and the girls I was with all had walkie-talkies in case something happened to me and they could come and get me,” Lozares said.

Lozares is not alone. Anne Hoyt, whose husband, Scott, is one of the golf professionals at Almaden Golf and Country Club, also played within two weeks of delivery. She even competed in the Women’s Golf Association of California State Championships in 1990 while seven months pregnant, a time when most women’s girths are just too unwieldy to manage, let alone manage a decent swing.

“I found I hit the ball further,” Hoyt said. “The only drawback I had was I found my stomach got in the way when I was putting.”

Valerie Carlos, who played through two of her three pregnancies - she skipped the middle one only because she had too many diapers to deal with at the time - also found a few perks in being pregnant. “The nice thing about it is your back muscles are strengthened. They get real thick to carry the baby. I felt really strong out on the course when I was pregnant,” Carlos said.

Golf pro Karl Gross, who teaches at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, finds these experiences typical among most of the child-bearing women he has instructed. He said the added weight from being pregnant lends women more power in their swing, and that the logistics of maneuvering around a larger stomach actually tend to improve both technique and overall game.

“Most people try to swing too fast, and tempo is very important to golf,” Gross said. If players swing fast, said Gross, it is less likely they will hit the ball solidly, in the center of the club face. But if the swing is slowed down, in this case in order to get around a prominent girth, the odds are increased that the connection will be a good one.

“The more solid you hit it, the farther it goes, as simple as that,” Gross said. “What I’ve experienced with some of the pregnant ladies I’ve taught is that some have actually gotten better and have increased their ability. It’s only around the seventh or eighth month that they get tired and lose their balance with their golf swing since they’re larger.”

But is it safe? Doctors advocate abstaining from caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, binding clothing, hair permanents and dyes, and chocolate. It’s hard to imagine a 4-hour jaunt over 18 holes would be prescribed.

Nonetheless, doctors say it’s safe to play golf to almost any point - barring the presence of contractions - during a pregnancy.

“Generally speaking, women can participate in any activity until it gets particularly uncomfortable,” said Dr. Martin Wong, an obstetrician in San Jose. “You certainly wouldn’t want to do contact sports, but golf is not a contact sport in the traditional sense.”

The only thing Wong advises is that women not try to be heroes. “Some women who are pregnant feel an increase in fatigue and an increased strain on muscles that they’re not used to using. It’s a case where you should ignore the ‘no pain, no gain’ theory. When you feel pain when you’re pregnant, you should back off.”

Lozares said even though playing golf while pregnant can sometimes be awkward - swollen ankles, morning sickness and shortness of breath are just a few items from a long list - it’s all worth it in the end.

“Hopefully, you can get golfing kids out of it,” Lozares said with a shrug.