to ride or not to ride when pregnant

In the spotlight

I was a fence-sitter on this topic until I fell pregnant myself. Before broaching this subject I want to attach the following disclaimer: it’s different for each and every woman so please don’t take my word as gospel as I’m far from a medical practitioner. BUT drawing on my experience I rode and played polo for twelve weeks into my pregnancy and then made a conscious decision to stop riding. The reason being my obstetrician advised me that after three months the foetus is no longer protected by my pelvis. If I was the type of rider who enjoyed walking I may of continued to ride, but the type of riding I love doesn’t lend itself to plodding along.

In hind-insight, I know I made the right decision. Our precious daughter Finn is 13 months now and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise her safe arrival into the world. I always joke that the reason Finn has one sticky-out ear is because I ate sashimi when pregnant!

The question is – ‘Would you EVER forgive yourself if you did have a fall and it affected your baby?’

After making the decision to stop riding at 12 weeks I struggled being around my horses. At first I couldn’t even withstand smelling or patting them without yearning to ride. Isn’t that awful that I couldn’t get enjoyment from my horses without riding them. The withdrawals at times were so fierce that my dreams became filled with wild riding escapades that I couldn’t enjoy in real life.

Once I started feeling the constant thumps and kicks from our baby girl the urge to ride subdued and I channeled all of my energy into painting our house (we didn’t use toxic paints). The nesting hormone was ferocious in my case and I would spend every waking moment with a paint brush or roller in hand determined to finish before we welcomed our first born.

Globetrotters, what are your thoughts on this? Did you ride when you were pregnant? No judgements are passed in this blog space, promise.