Seven months pregnant British athlete makes history winning Paralympics medal
British archer Jodie Grinham, who is seven months pregnant, needed to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her unborn baby as she aimed her bow at bronze in the women’s individual compound open on Saturday.
“The baby’s kicking which is great – we got to the third end and I was like, ‘Not right now, mommy loves you but we’ll do kickies in a minute,” she said afterwards, per paralympic.org.
“The baby hasn’t stopped, it’s like the baby is going, ‘What’s going on, it’s really loud, mommy, what are you doing?’ But it’s been like a little honor knowing that the baby’s there and just a reminder of the little support bubble that I’ve got in my tummy,” she added.
‘JUST GO AND DO IT’ The 31-year-old beat her compatriot Phoebe Paterson Pine 142-141 to become the first ever openly pregnant athlete to win a Paralympic medal. “I didn’t want people to see it as, ‘Oh, there’s a pregnant lady going to a Games,’” she said. “I want them to say, ‘Wow, a pregnant lady can compete at the highest level and medal,’ showing you anything is possible. Just go and do it. You want to do it? Then do it,” Grinham, who won silver in the mixed doubles in Rio told reporters.
PREGNANCY PREPS Being heavily pregnant meant Grinham, born with no fingers and half a thumb on her left hand, had to get used to remaining concentrated during competition in the face of baby movements in her womb. “It was really starting to worry me – that the baby’s going to move and I’m going to be at full draw and it’s going to affect my shot,” Grinham said. “And my coach and I spent a long time doing little pregnancy preps of her moving me and moving the bumb, so I can get used to that feeling.”
FERTILITY ISSUES Grinham has been open about the issues she and her partner faced trying to conceive, including three miscarriages, before the birth of her first child, Christian, who is now two years old. She told paralympic.org that even her pregnancy with Christian was “terrifying”. She ended up going into early labour – at 28 weeks – and her son, who had severe jaundice and needed a blood transfusion, was in an incubator for the first 10 days and another five weeks with a nebuliser.
“Thankfully, this pregnancy has been nothing like what we went through with him. We don’t know if we are having a boy or a girl. As long as the baby is happy and healthy, that’s all we care about.”
