New guidelines for mums returning to football

Fresh guidelines for new mothers in football have been introduced by FifPro including details of how they can return to full training and elite performance.

Created in consultation with medical and legal professionals, they cover three main topics offering advice for players, their support teams and regulatory processes.

They offer clubs an improved insight into how to manage returning mothers and the step-by-step processes they should take in training, recovery and their return to play.

Areas addressed include breastfeeding, sleep hygiene, nutrition, mental health, methods of delivery, pelvic health and exercise programmes.

Female footballers and mothers were consulted to create the guidelines. Among them were ex-Jamaica international Cheyna Matthews, USA World Cup winner Crystal Dunn, Germany goalkeeper Almuth Schult and Iceland midfielder Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir, who won a claim against former side Lyon, external for failing to pay her full salary during pregnancy.

A survey by FifPro found 75% of players felt pregnancy-specific expert help was not provided by their clubs previously.

Alexandra Gomez-Bruinewoud, FifPro’s senior legal counsel, believes the priority is to continue advocating for automatic contract extensions for pregnant women at all clubs, as introduced by AC Milan earlier this month.

The average length of contract for a female professional footballer globally is currently just one year.

On the introduction of the new guidelines, mother-of-three Matthews said: "For there to be guidelines that show it’s possible [to be a mum and a footballer] is important to see. It will help people understand they don’t have to be separate.

"I kept my son away from training at first because I didn’t want to be looked at as ‘the mum’. I still wanted to be looked at as a professional."

The new guidance, she said, "eases the stress and uncertainty", adding there will "still be things to work through" but to have this baseline is "paramount for players across the world".

She added: "The biggest question was regarding training during pregnancy. How long did it take to start training again? You want to have an idea. Having those things is so important. That was the number one question."