17 y.o. pregnant woman fights to stay on HS Volleyball team
 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HealthyLiv...ory?id=9252596

I'm not one to believe pregnant teens should be shunned, made to go to special schools or anything, but this is ridiculous.

17 years old, pregnant, and wanting to continue to play on her high school's volleyball team?

Excercise can be great for pregnancy, but not contact sports or ones that involve diving on the floor or the possibility of getting a spiked ball to the stomach.

I feel for the school and coach. If she'd been allowed to play and hurt the baby or miscarried, they would've sued. But by keeping her from playing they're likely going to get sued anyway.

Of course, this would be in North Texas *sigh*

This is really ridiculous. If volleyball is that important to her, she (and her partner -- not going to completely blame her) should have taken more precautions. She made her bed, and now she has to lie in it (no pun intended).

You're absolutely right. It's not as if this was cross-country, where with doctor's supervision and a modified training schedule, she could run right through her pregnancy.

But it's volleyball! What is she thinking?! She could hurt herself or the baby very easily.

The article makes it seem like she is 6 months upon graduation in December, so depending on when graduation is, she may have been 3 months at the start of the season and ~5 months at the end. I'm not sure about the development of fetuses inside the womb but one would think that the halfway mark is pretty important, no? Doc's orders seem kinda sketchy allowing her to play.

She is only a teenager though, not even a legal adult, and she wasn't considering the safety of her child because that's something she's never had to do. She may have been thinking about going to college to play ball and was probably upset when her playing time got cut down.

Probably, but she probably also, because she is 17, assumed that she was being penalized for being pregnant. Teenagers are self centered (I sure was) so she probably didn't even consider that even if that were included in the adults' line of thinking, the safety of her baby should've been the most important issue to both sides and probably was the first consideration the school made, since a miscarriage or injured fetus would likely result in a lawsuit.

Yet another example of why your average teenager should not be having a baby. Hopefully her support at home is good and her parents can help her grow up quickly so she can be a good mom.

When my oldest was cheering about 10 years ago, her squad was in a competition one night. The next day, one of the girls delivered a full term baby! I had taken a picture of several of the girls cheering at a game the week before and this girl was facing to the side and no way could you tell that she was pregnant!

All the coach could think about for days was how many stunts that the girl had based and other times they'd done things that could have endangered her pregnancy. And then her parents would have been the first ones to blame the coach and sue her.

hijack: how is this possible? I'm also curious because there is a woman at work who announced right before thanksgiving that she is 7.5 months pregnant and would soon be needing a lot of time off for maternity leave. While her late notice is inconvenient work-wise, I am also totally floored because I had no idea she was pregnant. She looks no different that she did 7.5 months ago. I've never seen anything like it and I totally don't get it. /hijack.

One of the girls I was in HS with was wearing skin tight jeans (and still on the majorette squad, although they never did do anything very athletic) when she was like 7-8 months pregnant - she didn't show at all. Oh and the baby was full term, healthy and not underweight. Some people are just freaks of nature I suppose.

I don't know where she was hiding that baby--in my photo, her arms were up and you could even see that her skirt was buttoned! Since I couldn't button anything after the 6th week of any of my pregnancies, I was in shock when my daughter told me that M had had a baby. We also knew a teacher, rumored to be bulimic, who only gained 8 lbs. but had a 9 lb. baby and the baby is now a 6 foot 7 inch college student. I think that his mother was carrying him in her purse.

Georgia actually has state athletic association rules about this:

"1.48 Advisory Notice - Pregnant Students: In response to the increasing number of pregnant students attending member schools, and the continued participation of these students in GHSA activities, the following advisory notice is being offered:

(a) During the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, students, with written consent from a physician, may be allowed to participate in athletic activities except those activities in which a fall or other rapid deceleration is likely to occur.

(b) Pregnant students should not be allowed to participate in any athletic activities after the 18th week of pregnancy. "

It seems like a pretty decent plan although which activities are "likely" to result in "a fall or other rapid deceleration" is probably debatable. Cheerleading stunting, sure. Diving for volleyball, sure. Basketball? Soccer? How frequently does something occur for it to be considered likely? But at least the coach would have the rule for guidance in case you had a kid like the one in the OP.

You'd be suprised. They are also showing on Discovery Health "I didnt' know I was pregnant". There are real women and families out there that didn't know. I'm sure in that cheerleaders case, she knew, but I mention the show because all the women and family members interviewed are like "we totally couldnt' tell she was pregnant", "she didnt' gain any weight". Now, I've tended to notice that most of the women on the show tend to be "heavier" if not considered "overweight", so hence baby weight might not have been easily noticeable in the first place.