My 9 Month Injury

by DerbyLife March 14, 2012 - 10:33am

by: Cherokee ChokeHer

My name is Cherokee ChokeHer, aka Jessica Winkler, I skate for Church of Sk8in with the Emerald City Roller Girls, Eugene OR. This is my 9 month injury, or not so injured, story. I found out I was pregnant when I was 8 weeks pregnant and had already skated in our Championship bout and a few scrimmages without being aware of the changes going on in my body. I have always been athletic and knew immediately I was going to continue to skate as long as I could, because the idea of not being able to skate scared me more than delivery itself.

Roller derby has changed my life and fills that void I was always looking for in other sports, but never found. I was determined to do whatever I could to stay involved and connected with my teammates and the league. I’ve seen ladies in our league get pregnant and immediately take the skates off and retire…I knew this wasn’t going to be me.

There is a lot of controversy that surrounds pregnant women on skates. Trust me I know…I’ve seen the looks and heard the concerns of many. I want it to be known that my OB was fully aware of my skating plan and gave me the okay to stay on skates until I felt my balance was impaired, just no full contact and no local skating rinks.

When discussing my skating plan with my OB, she thought it would be around 7 or 8 months pregnant that I would have to take my skates off, due to balance issues…well, I skated until 40 weeks pregnant and never noticed a balance change or experienced a loss of balance. I’m a Physical Therapist Assistant and am a firm believer that staying on skates as long as I did actually assisted in maintaining my balance and keeping my body strong. My husband was definitely concerned, but he gave me the freedom and trust to know I would stop when I needed to. His support in all of this was what meant the most to me.

My skating routine entailed outdoor skating until the winter hit (5-6 months pregnant) and then continued skating at team practices for all speed and endurance drills and most skills. I removed myself from all hitting drills and scrimmages immediately. Around 7 or 8 months, I stopped the pace line weaving drills, but continued skating in the back to maintain my endurance. I was very safe and very aware of my surroundings every time I was on the track, so not to jeopardize our baby or myself.

I remained involved as Co-Captain of our team, not only by attending practices, but by bench coaching scrimmages and bouts and by training the fresh meat on the league. This has been an amazing experience and staying involved with my sisterhood of derby women has made it all the better, mentally and physically. My daughter was born 7lbs 10 ounces and 20.5 in long and absolutely perfect. One thing I continued to find myself saying to pessimists, regarding my physical activity while I was pregnant was, “I’m pregnant, not injured.”


Mya, 3 days old.

Section(s): 
Derby Life
The 9 Month Injury

Comments

Submitted by Hockey Honey on March 14, 2012 - 11:54am

Seriously. When I decide to have kids, I will definitely skate the entire time (or as much as I can :-p). Thanks for posting!

Submitted by MsDfiant on March 15, 2012 - 11:42am

First pregnancy, I skated until my 7- 8th month. The only thing that made me stop was becoming so slow that my competitive side was outraged, this is when I'll do something stupid to prove myself. But skating while pregnant is perfectly fine for a veteran skater. My doctor encouraged me as well. Post baby, my midwives couldn't believe that I didn't swell, my feet didn't expand and I was skating three weeks after a C-section. I strongly believe it was because it never occurred to me to stop skating or exercising.

With baby number two, I'll admit it's a little different. Running around after a toddler is about all the physical activity I want. Which is okay, because I use my time in different ways for the league than putting on skates. But everyone is different, every pregnancy is different and most mothers-to-be know their limitations and can be trusted to skate safely.

Submitted by lexicuter on March 21, 2012 - 10:55am

Thank you so much for writing this and congrats on your beautiful baby! I love hearing about when people are able to stay active throughout their pregnancy and make it a priority. So much in our culture portrays pregnancy as basically a disease state that requires lots of rest and being delicately handled. Being pregnant is normal physiologic state for a woman and we are meant to move!

Submitted by Mme. Switchblade on March 25, 2012 - 10:28pm

Thank you for sharing your story! I put Derby on hold for a while to try and finish school, get remarried and merge two households together. Along the way, I got pregnant and moved to Florida! I joined the new team that formed here and helped coach, train and get the newbies up to speed. I had my son on Jan. 3rd by C-section and was skating ten days later, and skated in a bout also. Just this past week, I found out I'm pregnant AGAIN! I'm going to not skate for right now until I have my ultrasound in May and I know that everything looks good with the baby, and I plan to strap my skates back on as well so I can at least keep some sense of sanity even if I can't jam or scrimmage for now. Thanks again for posting this! I feel reassured now that I can do this too, even though my nine month 'injury' is turning out to be an eighteen month one!