The risks of continuing participation in contact sports during pregnancy may be much lower than previously assumed, according to a University of Alberta pregnancy researcher who says the benefits to mental health and postpartum recovery may compel athletes to stay with their sport deeper into pregnancy.
“We had an athlete reach out to us who was wanting to play her retirement game just three days past the accepted 12-week gestation cutoff, unsure of the actual risk,” says Margie Davenport, a leading pregnancy researcher in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation. “When we looked for research to guide her, there was essentially nothing.”
Current recommendations advise pregnant athletes to stop contact sports at the end of the first trimester due to perceived risks. However, Davenport’s team discovered these guidelines were based on conventional wisdom — relying mainly on decades-old car crash injury statistics.
In collaboration with the FIFA Women’s Development Program, Davenport led a survey to gather data from 395 athletes, predominantly soccer players — from recreational to professional levels across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States — who continued to engage in contact sports during pregnancy.
Participants reported a remarkable 11,687.2 hours of contact exposure during their pregnancies. And although 84 of them experienced a “hard hit” — an impact significant enough to recall and cause concern — the overall rate of adverse events was exceptionally low: 1.11 per 1,000 hours of exposure. Out of nearly 12,000 hours, only 13 adverse events were reported, including injuries, some instances of bleeding and, critically, just one miscarriage.
“From my perspective, this was quite shocking,” says Davenport. “Having been in this field for two decades, I, like many, assumed that a hard hit during pregnancy would not go well. Our data show the risk is low. It’s not zero — it’s just far less than generally perceived.”
Beyond physical safety, the study underscored the profound impact of continued sport participation on athletes’ mental well-being. Respondents overwhelmingly expressed that continuing their sport positively supported their mental health and stress levels, emphasizing the integral role sport plays in their identity.
Though the research does not advocate for high-intensity, full-contact play throughout pregnancy, it strongly supports the continuation of low-intensity, controlled contact and sport-specific training. This could include one-on-one drills and individual practice to maintain skills, reduce postpartum injury risk and support mental health.
“We wouldn’t change the recommendation of stopping full-contact games at 12 weeks,” says Davenport. “However, what typically happens is a complete cessation of all play, drills and training. Continued, controlled, sport-specific training empowers athletes to maintain their skills and fitness, benefiting both their pregnancy and their return to sport.”
The research also revealed a critical link between reduced activity during pregnancy and increased postpartum injury risk. A related study by Davenport’s team indicates that pregnant individuals who reduce their training levels by 50 per cent or more are twice as likely to experience an injury postpartum. This “detraining” leads to a loss of sport-specific skills and fitness, making the return to sport more challenging and even hazardous. Furthermore, Davenport says reduced activity during pregnancy can increase the risk of pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension.
She also emphasizes the need to re-evaluate long-standing, broad recommendations without sufficient empirical backing.
“Currently, many athletes are either stopping all activity, potentially increasing risks of pregnancy complications and injury, or continuing at an unknown level of risk. We need to move away from the message that exercise and sport are inherently dangerous in pregnancy until we have the evidence to prove otherwise.”