LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pro soccer participant Jess McDonald was traded throughout six groups in her first 5 years as a single mother or father, making it tough to seek out, not to mention afford, baby care in new cities. She and her then-8-month-old son have been typically compelled to share a resort room with a teammate — and generally she had no alternative however to carry him together with her to observe.

“If I’d have a bad game, you know, my kid would be blamed for it at times, and it was just like, ‘Oh, was your kid up late at night?’” the U.S. Women’s National Team participant mentioned in a current interview.

Arizona State basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne had three youngsters with out taking maternity depart. And New York Liberty head coach and former WNBA participant Sandy Brondello — acknowledging the difficulties that she would face if she bought pregnant — waited to have youngsters till she retired as a participant at age 38.

Juggling the calls for of parenthood with these of knowledgeable sports activities profession is only one of myriad challenges feminine athletes face in an trade that additionally has been rife with pay disparities, harassment and bullying within the 27 years for the reason that WNBA, the primary girls’s skilled sports activities league, was fashioned.

The concern as soon as once more drew nationwide consideration proper earlier than the season started, when WNBA participant Dearica Hamby mentioned she had been harassed by her coach for getting pregnant throughout the season.

Las Vegas Aces Coach Becky Hammon, one of many league’s marquee figures and a six-time WNBA All-Star, denied bullying Hamby; she mentioned the participant wasn’t traded to the Los Angeles Sparks as a result of she was pregnant. The commerce, she mentioned, had “everything to do with freeing up money to sign free agents.”

Still, Hammon said she may have made a “misstep” by asking Hamby at one point about her pregnancy, and she indicated that the rules in the WNBA “regarding pregnant players and how that looks within an organization” have to be better defined, shining a light on the balancing act of having a family and maintaining a professional sports career.

Women have never been formally banned from the WNBA for getting pregnant; in fact, the first player to sign with the league in 1997, Sheryl Swoopes, was expecting when she did so. But pregnant athletes have encountered attitudes ranging from ambivalent to outright hostile from leagues, coaches, fellow players and sponsors throughout the years.

As recently as 2019, Olympic runners Allyson Felix and Kara Goucher spoke out against Nike for slashing their pay and then dropping them for becoming pregnant. And it’s taken years for professional women’s leagues to provide their athletes with the support systems they need to balance their family and career obligations.

“I’ve been walking on eggshells as a mom in this league since Day 1,” said McDonald, who last week announced her second pregnancy.

McDonald said that back in 2012, she trained up until two weeks before giving birth; it wasn’t until last year that players in the league were guaranteed paid maternity leave. Arizona State’s Thorne told the AP she once returned to work just two days after giving birth.

“We’re light years ahead of where we were, you know, 20-some years ago in terms of people understanding that they have to support women’s rights,” Thorne said. Still, “there is pressure on you as the athlete, as the coach, as that person, that woman either starting their family or having kids, to get back to their job” quickly after giving delivery.

Under the WNBA’s most up-to-date collective bargaining settlement, which was ratified in 2020, league members obtain their full wage whereas on maternity depart, although every participant has to individually negotiate the size of her depart. During the season, gamers with youngsters below 13 can obtain as much as $5,000 a yr for baby care, and a paid-for two-bedroom condominium.

A small variety of elite, veteran athletes who’ve performed eight or extra seasons could be reimbursed as much as $20,000 per yr for prices straight associated to adoption, surrogacy, egg freezing or different fertility therapies. Per participant, the quantity is capped at a complete of $60,000. Compared to different industries, this can be a progressive providing that’s inclusive of LGBTQ+ athletes.

“We’ve made strides and every part,” Thorne said, but she added that the leagues still have a long way to go to support athletes who become mothers.

“There’s always this little asterisk, that it has to be after your eighth year of service to get” fertility advantages, mentioned four-time WNBA All-Star Breanna Stewart, who performs for the New York Liberty and has a 2-year-old daughter together with her spouse. Stewart’s spouse is pregnant with their second baby now.

Stewart mentioned baby care stipends aren’t allotted freely with out requiring one thing in return: She mentioned she and different gamers need to submit itemized receipts for such requirements as diapers and babysitters. “If you don’t go to them, they don’t give it to you,” Stewart mentioned. “You have to go and send invoices and it’s a little bit more complicated than it seems.”

Facing these challenges, many ladies in sports activities, like Brondello, determine to have youngsters after they retire — or to forgo parenthood altogether.

“Female athletes shouldn’t have to give up motherhood because they want to be an athlete,” mentioned Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, a sports activities drugs doctor based mostly in Boston and the co-chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s girls’s well being process drive.

Ackerman mentioned there’s a concern that when feminine athletes turn into dad and mom, they might not worth being an athlete as a lot. She mentioned that could be a fallacy.

The document books are replete with examples of feminine athletes who grew to become dad and mom and continued to carry out on the highest degree.

Former tennis star Serena Williams famously received a grand slam when she was about eight weeks pregnant. Professional swimmers, runners and basketball gamers have all competed whereas pregnant: Beach volleyball participant Kerri Walsh Jennings even received Olympic medals.

Mothers “often are better athletes because they learn how to manage their time better, they understand their bodies better,” Ackerman said. “And they may be peaking even later in life.”

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AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed to this report.