Anyway, people are talking about this woman, Amber Miller, who ran/walked the Chicago marathon this past weekend at nine months pregnant, started contracting during the race, and gave birth later that day to a healthy child.
Amber Miller, post race and post baby birthHer doctor said she could run/walk it, to do half and half, and knew her exercise regimine, so I don't know what the big deal is?
What do you think? Was she putting she and her baby's health at risk? Would you ever run a marathon late in pregnancy if you could?
3 comments:
I think I'd be too scared to run at 9 months for fear that I would do something to hurt the baby. I could hardly walk so maybe that's why I wouldn't. :)
I have a few thoughts on this...
1. personally I'm with you Alexa. I struggle to do a marathon when I'm not pregnant physically so I don't know if it would even be possible for me to do it if I was.
I can't say from experience of being pregnant and running how that feels or what it does to my body. My exercise when pregnant was lifting the spork from the family size mashed potatoes and gravy bowl from the KFC drive through. I didn't start running until my son was 6.
2. Here's the news flash in all this - WOMEN DO THIS ALL THE TIME!!! They just don't go to the media to talk about it. I have 2 friends that ran marathons when they were 8 and 9 months respectively. The one that was 8 months was slower than her usual 3:30:00 as was the 9 month one, but that didn't make her go into labor. The one that was 9 months - she had her baby the next day as well. The only thing that made this newsworthy was the fact that someone contacted the media.
3. No judgement. If she talked with her doctor about it and he cleared her - then who are "you" (not you personally Alexa) to judge? Both she and the baby are fine, right? Eveyone has to do what's right for them. It's not like she wasn't a runner and didn't train for this and just decided on a whim to do a marathon that day. She had been training, with guidance from her doctor (for those who haven't had kids, when you're in the last month you're at the doctors office for check ups every week), who I'm sure was closely monitoring her and the babys well being. So why should this matter to anyone? I would assume - and I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying this, that if there were ANY POINT in her training or during the race itself that she was having issues or feeling something was wrong - she would have stopped. Let's not forget that people who are marathoners are also pretty focused on what they're feeling in their bodies.
3. Bottom line... I think it's really not that big of a deal except the fact that she still beat my time this year. And I wasn't pregnant. :)
So to answer your question - yes, if I were in good physical condition and had been training through my pregnancy and my doc said I was ok to do it, I probably would.
Interesting post. I suppose I'm not educated enough on what you should/should not do when pregnant, so in that sense I can't fairly state my opinion, but I did always think that after a certain time frame while pregnant, strenuous activity should be stopped.
I personally don't know why this woman chose to do this or what she was trying to prove, but I would never choose to do this when I'm 9 months pregnant for my own physical health and for my future baby's. Why take a risk? Why not just run it after you have the baby, as motivation to get back into shape/lose any baby weight? I just don't understand the need to run it 9 mos preggo unless you were trying to prove it to someone else, which, in my opinion, isn't worth risking your/your baby's health for.
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