A mother-to-be who ran seven marathons while pregnant has said she hopes her achievements help break the stigma of exercising while expecting.
Deirdre Keane, 38, completed the New York Marathon in a little over four hours while seven months pregnant.
“I hope the stigma changes,” she told The Telegraph, responding to criticism she had received online after her feat.
An image of Mrs Keane covered in glitter at the finishing line last week was widely circulated on social media.
While most people praised her, some claimed she had unnecessarily put her baby at risk.
She said she hoped her running helped put to bed some dated attitudes to exercising while heavily pregnant.
“I’m happy now that it happened because I think it’s getting conversations started that weren’t necessarily there before,” she said.
Mrs Keane has run seven marathons while pregnant
Mrs Keane, who works as a nurse in New York, suggested there was a lack of education about what women could do safely during pregnancy.
She said there was a body of research suggesting there were no adverse effects of physical exercise on babies in the womb.
Videos of her run went viral with her telling an interviewer “this is my seventh marathon pregnant” while on the finishing line with her baby bump protruding.
Among the negative comments she received online were claims that her unborn baby could be harmed by multiple gruelling runs.
One critic commented: “This is so beyond foolish.” Another wrote: “Irresponsible.”
Several asked: “Is this safe?”, while others questioned the “strain” the running had put on the baby.
Mrs Keane said her decision to run 26.2 miles while 34 weeks pregnant was “a very personal” one.
Mrs Keane running the Sydney Marathon
“I wasn’t trying to make a statement about how pregnant women can do extreme sports, or trying to share my opinion about what pregnant women can, should, and shouldn’t do,” she said.
Mrs Keane became hooked on running at university, following in the footsteps of her late father, who ran the New York Marathon between 15 and 20 times. “I absolutely got the bug,” she said.
She had not expected to become pregnant this year, so she signed up for eight marathons in 2026, along with a 100-mile ultra-marathon and her first Ironman, a long-distance triathlon.
“I thought it would be my last year to get it all out of my system,” she said.
After the Boston and London marathons in April, she took a pregnancy test and found out she was six weeks pregnant. After discussing it with her obstetrician, she decided to try to finish her running plan.
“We knew as my pregnancy was going, despite me being older, it was a very healthy pregnancy, and we agreed on taking it a marathon at a time,” she said.
When it came to New York, her doctor was surprised she intended to go ahead.
“From a medical standpoint, she’s like: ‘There’s no reason why you can’t, as long as you stay hydrated, beware of signs of dehydration, and don’t push yourself as hard as you typically do’,” said Mrs Keane.
Mrs Keane said she hoped to break the stigma of exercising while pregnant
While doctors may advise women to do less exercise in some cases, research shows that regular exercise is safe, recommended and provides health benefits for pregnant women and their babies.
Recent studies have shown that physical exercise can reduce the risk of gestational diabetes by 50 per cent, and the risk of pre-eclampsia by 40 per cent. It also decreases the risk of depression during pregnancy.
“I understand why people sometimes feel uncomfortable with the idea of women who are pregnant doing extreme sports because it’s not mainstream,” said Mrs Keane, adding that this was slowly changing.
She said she was happy to be part of the change, explaining: “I hope the message someday changes, and we’re more understanding, and the research is more available.
“Not only is there enough evidence about exercising while pregnant being good for you and the baby physically, but also from the mental health standpoint, it does so much for our wellbeing. I don’t think I’d ever be able to lose that part of me unless I absolutely had to.”