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

[kddani]

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.

[knight_shadow]

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).

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by kddani

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?

Exercise 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.

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.

[TNK274]

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.

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by TNK274

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.

[carnation]

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.

[ThetaDancer]

Originally Posted by carnation

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.