Pregnancy, Physical Exercises and High Performance Sports: the Volleyball Experience

Abstract

High performance sports presupposes an intense and continuous physical preparation of athletes. In the case of high-performance female athletes, pregnancy is a fact to be taken into account in their careers. The objective of this article is to analyze the practice of sports and physical activities by pregnant athletes, highlighting that this theme arose in the 1980s, with volleyball athletes, in addition to some players of the modality who more recently became pregnant and continued practicing the sport. The methodology used includes a systematic literature review and an interview with two athletes from the 1980s. The interview script was guided by a semi-structured questionnaire applied to the players and their reports were compared to scientific articles that highlight the indications and contraindications of practice of sports and physical activities by pregnant women. It was found that the practice of exercises during pregnancy is healthy, as long as with professional guidance. In the case of the practice of sports, in addition to medical monitoring, the good sense of the pregnant woman should be taken into account. In conclusion, this topic is still surrounded by many taboos and it is not an easy consensus issue, although it has been a topic debated for more than thirty years in the sport.