“Sport Belongs to Everyone… But Not During Pregnancy” : Views of Finnish Sport Stakeholders on Pregnancy in Sport

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ “Sport Belongs to Everyone… But Not During Pregnancy” : Views of Finnish Sport Stakeholders on Pregnancy in Sport © The Author(s) 2024 Published version Raudasoja, Mirjam; Ryba, Tatiana V. Raudasoja, M., & Ryba, T. V. (2024). “Sport Belongs to Everyone… But Not During Pregnancy” : Views of Finnish Sport Stakeholders on Pregnancy in Sport. Sex Roles, Early online. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-024-01515-9 2024 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sex Roles https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-024-01515-9 discourses, they are mostly unfounded (Gavaghan, 2009). Even today, new generations of pregnant women are likely to feel pressure to display appropriate pregnancy behavior, such as following extensive and detailed recommendations on diet, lifestyle, appearance, and medical surveillance and intervention (Heffernan et al., 2011). One particularly contentious social issue for pregnant people is their participation in elite and competitive sport. Given its inherent logic of seeking peak performance, sometimes at the expense of other areas in life (Douglas & Carless, 2009), and widely prevalent sexist culture (Fink, 2016; Goldman & Gervis, 2021; Hindman & Walker, 2020), sport has traditionally been perceived as unsuitable for pregnant women. This rationale has been and continues to be justified by reference to medical concerns over the health of the mother and the developing fetus (Weaving, 2020), despite lack of evidence (L’Heveder et al., 2022; Sundgot-Borgen et al., 2019; Wowdzia et al., 2021). Athletes themselves have To understand women’s position in society, it is essential to investigate how the female reproductive body is socially constructed and what consequences this has in women’s lives. The discourse of the female reproductive body as fragile and in need of protection is often used as a justification for the exclusion of women from some parts of the public sphere, particularly during pregnancy (Murphy et al., 2011; Ussher, 2006). The limits of acceptable behavior for pregnant women are socially constructed and constantly under negotiation. Moreover, pregnancy taboos are sometimes corroborated with medical evidence, e.g., preventing harm to the fetus, but as is often the case with oppressive Mirjam Raudasoja [email protected] 1 Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Abstract The social construction of pregnancy emphasizes the mother’s responsibility for the developing fetus. Hence, certain activities, such as participation in competitive sport, are often constructed as inappropriate during pregnancy. While expert opinion tends to stress caution, the diversity of athlete mothers’ experiences challenge these dominant discourses. Less is known about how peers and other stakeholders in sport view the participation of pregnant athletes. Knowledge of such attitudes is essential to understanding the position of women in a specific society and the barriers to their autonomy. Hence, we examined survey responses from different sport stakeholders (N = 540) in Finland. Drawing on relational dialectics theory (Baxter, L. A. (2011). Voicing relationships. Sage.), we used contrapuntal analysis to identify different discourses on the compatibility of pregnancy and sport, and their interplay. Three discourses were identified: an equality discourse, which emphasizes that sport belongs to everyone, and that pregnant people should be accepted and supported in sporting environments; a responsibility discourse, which constructs pregnancy as fragility and sport as potentially dangerous for the athlete and the fetus; and an incompatibility discourse, which constructs pregnancy as a disease and unacceptable in sporting environments. Our analysis shows that medicalized, authoritative knowledge is the master strategy used to keep women out of male social spaces during pregnancy. The findings of our study highlight the ongoing struggle for reproductive justice in a patriarchal world order. To advance women’s position in society and support the autonomy of all individuals, viable professional guidelines and organizational policies must be formulated and applied. Keywords Pregnancy · Competitive sport · Elite athlete · Discourse analysis · Relational dialectics theory · Reproductive justice · Social justice in sport · Pregnant athletes · Gender bias Accepted: 22 August 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 “Sport Belongs to Everyone… But Not During Pregnancy”: Views of Finnish Sport Stakeholders on Pregnancy in Sport MirjamRaudasoja1· Tatiana V.Ryba1 1 3 Sex Roles questioned this overly cautious approach and some athletes have trained, competed, and even achieved superior performance during pregnancy without adverse effects on themselves or their babies. Moreover, as athletic careers have become longer, women athletes now more often than before return to competitive sport after having children (Davenport et al., 2023; Massey & Whitehead, 2022). This may induce heightened pressure to train effectively during pregnancy and to rapidly resume training after childbirth in order to minimize the length of the training gap. By studying discourses on pregnancy in sport, it is possible to gain insights into the social negotiations on women’s roles in society, and especially on the meaning of pregnancy. Pregnancy and sport provide a unique gendered context where feminine gender roles, especially around motherhood, and the masculine culture of sport are likely to clash. Studying attitudes toward pregnant people’s participation in sport is fundamental in understanding how sexist stereotypes around reproductive roles create barriers to autonomy and stigmatize people who do not fit those stereotypes. From the point of view of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), it is essential to examine attitudes to sport in pregnancy. The study contributes to the continuing academic theorizing on gender roles, sexism, discrimination and social control. The study also adds to the feminist literature on pregnancy and professional life, as sporting systems are the working environments of athletes. Reproduction and Social Control Oppressive societal practices are often built on gender essentialism, an ideology which seeks to justify unequal gender relations as having biological underpinnings and perceived inherent gender differences, omitting or minimizing the role that environment and culture play in creating those differences (Fine, 2010; Prentice & Miller, 2006). Womanhood is conflated with expectations of motherhood, as women are encouraged to see motherhood as the most precious role in their lives (Wall, 2013). Social and structural control of women intensifies in pregnancy (Chambers, 2001), steering them towards certain actions and social environments (such as accepting medical surveillance and following advice on a healthy lifestyle) and away from other actions and environments (those perceived as risky or unhealthy, such as certain jobs or hobbies). Research suggests that while several strategies are used to control women during pregnancy, modern societies mostly rely on internalized control exercised by women themselves (as opposed to external control practiced by institutions and legal bodies) (e.g., Neiterman, 2012). External control mostly emerges in situations where women are seen as transgressing the boundaries of acceptable behavior and hence as putting their babies at risk (Hebl et al., 2007; Longhurst, 1999). This type of control reduces pregnant people to reproductive objects and instrumentalizes them as mere producers of children instead of seeing them as whole human beings (Dyer et al., 2023; Nussbaum, 1995). One particularly effective tool used to control women’s behavior and choices during pregnancy is the discourse of fetal personhood, in which the developing fetus is already constructed as a person with its own rights and interests that may be in opposition to the rights and interests of its mother (Cosgrove & Vaswani, 2020; Henricks, 2015). The power of this discourse has also been reinforced by the coexistence of another powerful discourse, that of intensive motherhood (Hays, 1996). This discourse is built on an ideology which valorizes childhood as sacred and prescribes biological mothers as the best caregivers, who are expected to provide emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, time-consuming, costly, and expert-guided care (Hays, 1996). In short, mothers are expected to always put their children first, even at the expense of their own well-being. Indeed, societal values prescribe women to be worried for the “optimal” development of their offspring, for whom no sacrifice is considered too big. It is argued that receiving and acting on medical advice in pregnancy represents gendered carework (Morgan, 1996) that comprises both emotional and embodied labor (Gatrell, 2011). Lupton (2012) argues that ethical and moral requirements are imposed on pregnant women, making it their responsibility to care for their bodies and the fetus, while at the same time portraying them as a potential risk for the developing fetus. Laurendeau (2008, p. 385) claims that “there is no such thing as a no-risk pregnancy,” a notion which exemplifies the increasing medicalization of women’s reproductive functions (Katz Rothman, 2021; Melamed, 2023). Ultimately, attributing responsibility to individuals is a form of social control that affects all pregnant women, as they are required to display certain attitudes, behaviors and outward appearance to avoid being labelled as bad mothers (Longhurst, 2005; Ussher, 2006; see also McGannon et al., 2024). It also has the side effect of overlooking structural inequalities such as violence, poverty, or racism (Cosgrove & Vaswani, 2020; Morello-Frosch & Shenassa, 2006). Pregnancy in postmodern societies has also gained more visibility and acceptability in the public sphere, thereby becoming an increasingly public experience (Longhurst, 2005; Gatrell, 2011). This has been accompanied by an intensification of the “public scrutiny” of pregnant women (Fox et al., 2009; Longhurst, 1999), who are expected to adhere to the social construction of a healthy pregnancy (Heffernan et al., 2011). Using Glick and Fiske’s ambivalent sexism theory (1996), Murphy and colleagues (2011) found 1 3 Sex Roles that pregnancy advice is riddled with sexism. The ambivalent sexism theory differentiates between hostile sexism, which refers to negative attitudes towards women, often manifesting in beliefs that women are manipulative, devious, etc., and benevolent sexism, which refers to warm but patronizing attitudes towards women, portraying them as in need of male protection. In their study, Murphy et al. found that both hostile and benevolent sexism were associated with greater endorsement of proscriptive rules, such as the belief that pregnant women should not engage in strenuous exercise (Murphy et al., 2011). Similar findings have been reported in other studies (see Salmen & Dhont, 2021; Sutton et al., 2011). Findley and colleagues (2020) found that being advised to avoid any physical activity during pregnancy made pregnant women feel that others were attempting to assume ownership of their bodies. The present study is situated in Finland, in a cultural context characterized by an advanced stage of gender equality (World Economic Forum, 2023). Despite this, societal and cultural negotiations over the roles and division of labor between parents of different genders persist (PeräläLittunen, 2007). This situation means that pregnant women must navigate a conflicting ideological landscape in which contradictory cultural discourses are likely to appear (Raudasoja et al., 2022). Elite and competitive sport provides a particularly rich arena for exploring these contradictions, hence in this study we focus on the views of different sport stakeholders on continuing sport participation during pregnancy. Pregnancy in Elite and Competitive Sport Sport as a societal practice has traditionally been regarded as unsuitable for women, who in consequence have historically been excluded from organized sport (Blazer, 2023; Guttmann, 1991). After women were allowed access to sport facilities, pregnancy was, until recently, considered a contraindication for sport, or at least for vigorous sport (Jette, 2011). These outdated discourses of sport as harmful and dangerous in pregnancy persist (Jette, 2011), even in the absence of scientific evidence to support them (L’Heveder et al., 2022; Sundgot-Borgen et al., 2019; Wowdzia et al., 2021). Furthermore, sport policies reflect a negative bias towards reproductive issues, equating vaginal childbirth with an acute injury (Bø et al., 2017). Recommendations tend to be overly cautious and stress potential risks even in the absence of research evidence: For example, while acknowledging that no adverse effects on fetal or maternal health have not been reported, the International Olympic Committee guidelines for participation in sport during pregnancy suggest several precautions (Bø et al., 2016), such as pregnant women should not train above 90% of maximal aerobic capacity (p. 575), should not train at altitudes greater than 1500–2000 m (p. 576), and should avoid sports that may include a risk of trauma from a collision or other similar event (p. 576), targeted at elite and competitive athletes and other sport stakeholders. The justification for these limitations is “theoretical concern” over potential harm to the fetus (p. 576) or comes from studies on pregnant women in motor vehicle accidents and not in sporting environments. In fact, the official guidelines do not cite statistics on the number of actual sport injuries in different types of sport, nor do they provide any examples of pregnant women having suffered adverse effects from intensive training. A recent example of pregnant athletes competing at a high level was at the Paris Olympics, where the Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez (7 months pregnant) and the Azerbaijani archer Yaylagul Ramazanova (6.5 months pregnant) successfully competed (Penney, 2024). In response to scientific evidence on the safety and benefits for both mother and fetus, many obstetrical professional organizations now recommend moderate physical activity in pregnancy (e.g., ACOG Committee on Obstetric Practice, 2020; Brown et al., 2022). These recommendations are often targeted at the general population and hence tend to recommend a lower intensity and amount of training than that required of professional athletes. Studies show that because evidence-based guidelines specifically addressing elite athletes are lacking, pregnant athletes often feel anxiety and uncertainty (Davenport et al., 2022; Martínez-Pascual et al., 2017). Physicians often rely on exercise guidelines targeting the pregnant population in general and tend to be excessively cautious in their advice, causing pregnant athletes to distrust them (Davenport et al., 2022). Ohlendorf et al. (2019) found that pregnant runners trust their embodied instinct to know what adjustments, if any, are needed in their training. When given conflicting or non-evidence-based advice, they lost trust in their healthcare providers who did not notice that they were very attuned to their bodies. Furthermore, based on their study on Instagram posts by two elite figure skaters during pregnancy and postpartum, McGannon et al. (2022) reported that these athletes aligned and resisted the dominant pregnancy and motherhood narratives: They displayed warm and nurturing motherhood in many ways, but also resisted the cultural understanding that vigorous exercise was not suitable in pregnancy or that mothers should set their career aspirations aside and focus on motherhood. It thus seems that restrictive beliefs are being challenged, as the sporting world faces increasing numbers of female athletes who become pregnant and have children during their sporting careers. 1 3 Sex Roles decisions, and through abortion stigma, that is, negative evaluations of those who have nevertheless had an abortion. The sporting community is a fruitful cultural landscape in which to investigate at what point the inherent masculinity of sport is likely to clash with more progressive gender views. As the ideal athlete is a biological male (Martin & Martin, 1995), an athlete’s pregnancy is likely to evoke negative responses simply because pregnancy underlines the athlete’s femaleness (regardless of their gender identification) and maternal qualities. The female gender role conflicts with the athlete role: the ideal woman and the ideal athlete share very few qualities. When a female athlete becomes pregnant, this conflict is exacerbated, possibly evoking negative responses in others if that athlete continues engaging in sport. Current Study While there is a growing literature on motherhood and sport (see e.g., Massey & Whitehead, 2022; McGannon et al., 2024), including a few studies on pregnant athletes’ experiences (see Davenport et al., 2022; McGregor et al., 2024), little is known about the attitudes of various sport stakeholders on pregnancy and sport. This study aimed to address these research gaps by studying the views of athletes, coaches, sport experts (physiotherapists, psychologists, physicians) and sport leaders on pregnant athletes. More specifically, the present study addressed the following research questions: (1) How is the compatibility of pregnancy and sport discursively constructed? and (2) How do the different discourses interact with one another and what means are used to legitimize them? We employed a critical feminist lens in seeking to identify potential infringements on reproductive justice in sporting environments. By illuminating the interplay between egalitarian and restrictive ideological beliefs, our study contributes to the broader literature on gender and inequality in professional social contexts and highlights why, despite attempts to improve EDI, this objective might not always be achieved. Relational dialectics theory (Baxter, 2011; Baxter et al., 2021), which aims at identifying different discourses and studying how they are positioned relative to one another informs the theoretical approach taken in this study. According to RDT, discourses are systems of meaning or worldviews conveyed in the use of language, and the purpose of analysis is to study language in use with a theoretical underpinning (Baxter, 2011, p. 13). A speaker’s utterance is always part of an intertextual utterance chain and a larger dialogue representing the culture’s values. The theory posits that different discourses function on an unequal playing field, some being dominant, and others being marginalized. Studies on the views of coaches, sport leaders, and physicians on pregnant athletes’ participation in elite and competitive sports are scarce. Davenport et al. (2023) reported an interview study with coaches and healthcare providers on their practices of advising pregnant athletes and noted that these professionals were aware of the need for reliable information on the safety of training during pregnancy. They expressed frustration with the general guidelines, which they perceived as far too conservative for professional athletes. Moreover, the participants stressed that instead of using a general timeline for all athletes on sport during pregnancy and returning to sport postpartum, a better approach would be individualization, with specific benchmarks and athletes’ subjective levels of discomfort as indicators. However, most of the sport stakeholders in their study identified as women and had direct experience of working with pregnant and postpartum athletes, and hence their findings are unlikely to represent the views of the entire sporting community. Pregnant athletes are often portrayed as irresponsible in the traditional and social media. Weaving (2020) argues that the driving force behind stigmatizing pregnant athletes is sexism, specifically sexual objectification and unjust discrimination. She names the phenomenon as “prenatal paranoia” and notes that it is deeply rooted in narratives of women’s biology as unsuitable for sport and fear of damaging their reproductive capacities. According to Weaving, the sexist framing of pregnant women as irresponsible and hostile toward the fetus is used to criticize them for participating in pregnancy. However, she lists numerous athletes who have successfully participated in the Olympics in various types of sport, some of which are often claimed to be dangerous for pregnant women, while being from a few weeks to eight months pregnant. Furthermore, she notes that pregnant athletes are portrayed in the media in a sexualized fashion, overlooking their capacities as athletes and reducing them to an object of male sexual desire. Another media study (Kulkarni et al., 2024, p. 1266) argued that media representations of athlete pregnancy reveal that healthcare professionals are presented as “entitled to impose,” thus effectively dismissing athletes’ self-knowledge as not true or important. Interestingly, other studies have reported that when engaging in traditionally masculine activities, pregnant women generally face hostility, whereas in traditionally feminine activities, they are treated with benevolence (such as being physically touched and treated with excessive friendliness) (Hebl et al., 2007). The concept of reproductive objectification, which Dyer et al. (2023) have found to be used as a tool of oppression in anti-abortion rhetoric, may also theoretically explain these findings. Such objectification functions through seemingly positive evaluations of people seeking abortions, portraying them as precious objects who need to be protected from making bad 1 3 Sex Roles outside the research group were invited to test the survey and provide feedback on its structure and content. All were familiar with the Finnish sporting system and had diverse intersectional standpoints (gender, sexuality, cultural background). The feedback received was used in finalizing the survey. Data Collection The survey was launched in September 2023 and was available for 10 weeks. It was advertised through several channels. Members of the research group reached out to various official sports channels, including the Olympic and Paralympic Committees in Finland, requesting them to advertise the survey through their e-mail lists and social media channels. All the Finnish sports associations included in a Wikipedia list were approached and almost all of them agreed to advertise the survey through their e-mail lists and social media channels or to include an advertisement for the study in their monthly newsletter. Regional sports associations were approached with a similar request, as also were sport high schools. An Excel list was kept of all these requests and all organizations which did not respond were approached a second time. Towards the end of the data collection, all the participating organizations were asked to advertise the survey once again, if possible. Research group members also printed and spread flyers about the survey (e.g., in university buildings, sports events). Furthermore, we already had a list of previous research participants, whom we text-messaged about their willingness to participate in the current study. A reminder was sent a couple of weeks after the initial message. Research group members also utilized their personal contacts to advertise the survey. Sample and Data Of the 1286 participants who responded to the survey invitation, 519 answered all the questions. The total sample comprised 654 (79.1%) active sports participants and 173 (20.9%) who had participated in the Finnish sports system in the past, of whom 46.9% had withdrawn from sport during the Covid-19 pandemic. The most common sport was athletics (17%), followed by floorball (14%), ice hockey and volleyball (7% each), and orienteering and dance (5% each). To find out how many respondents regarded pregnancy and sport as incompatible, they were asked the following multiple-choice question: “Please choose one or more options to complete the following sentence, “I believe that high performance sport participation and parenthood are in reality…” For this study, only responses to the option concerning pregnancy (“incompatible for pregnant athletes”) Most of human communication is fine-tuned in a way that discourses can be both adopted and resisted (Suter & Norwood, 2017). The advantage of the method is its ability to identify the power relations between different cultural discourses and the means to support or challenge them. Method The present study is part of a broader research project “Who is Excluded from Gender Equality in Elite Sport? A Transdisciplinary Study of Generational Culture Shifts in Sporting Ambition, Parenting, and Identity (SportEX)” (Ryba et al., 2023a; University of Jyväskylä, 2024). The specific objective of the research project is to examine the state of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in Finnish sport, with the overarching aim of facilitating discussions on gender justice across different stakeholders, leading to meaningful outcomes for access, participation, well-being, and performance of all genders in sport (Ryba et al., 2023b). As part of the project, a survey was conducted in the fall of 2023 to explore the views of different sport stakeholders. The survey was addressed to all sport stakeholders (athletes, coaches, experts, and sport leaders) currently or previously working at different levels in the Finnish sport system. The collection of the original data was reviewed for compliance with the standards for the ethical treatment of human participants and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Jyväskylä, decision number 656/13.00.04.00/2023. Instrument To ensure the effectiveness of the survey in capturing relevant data on EDI in sport organizations, its collaborative development by the research group, Winning in the Long Run, was based on a systematic and meticulous process which included the application of an intersectional lens. The PI (second author) began the process of designing the survey, based on the project’s research questions and objectives, around the key themes of gender, parenting and sporting aspirations, incorporating open-ended questions and relevant psychological scales from previous longitudinal studies with student-athletes and their parents/guardians. Following this initial phase, the survey underwent several rounds of refinement through group discussions within the research team. These discussions led to modifications and enhancements to ensure the clarity of the survey and its alignment with the research focus. The survey was drafted in English and then, translated into Finnish, encompassing iterations and refinements in the translation process, and the final version posted online on Webropol. To increase its robustness and relevance, individuals of different ages 1 3 Sex Roles are reported. Based on this question, 97 (18%) of the respondents indicated that pregnancy and sport are incompatible for pregnant athletes. This research is based on the subsample of 540 participants who answered the question “How would you feel about having pregnant athletes on your team?” The subsample comprised individuals of different genders: 328 (60.7%) identified as women; 201 (37.2%) as men; two (0.4%) as genderqueer; eight (1.5%) nonbinary; six (1.1%) transgender; one (0.2%) intersex; two (0.4%) agender; five (0.9%) another gender identity; and three (0.6%) preferred not to answer. Most of the respondents (n = 224, 40.7%) were currently involved in women’s sports, less than one fourth (n = 124, 22.5%) in men’s sports, 14.5% (n = 80) in mixed sports, and 122 (22.5%) did not answer this question. Of this subsample, 127 (23.6%) were parents or guardians. Table 1 shows details of the sample on which the analysis was based. The length of the open-ended responses ranged from 1 to 101 words, with typical answers consisting of a few sentences. Twelve participants left the question unanswered, and one answer, which consisted of abuse directed at the researchers was unclassifiable. Taxonomy of Associated Risk in Different Sports Participants’ attitudes about the compatibility of competitive sports and pregnancy are likely to be shaped by their respective sports. To facilitate the analysis, we developed a taxonomy to categorize the sport types performed by the participants based on known similar features and qualities of the sports. Although endurance sports (e.g., long-distance running and cross-country skiing) and sports with vigorous physical contact (e.g., ice hockey and combat sports) are perceived as “masculine,” they are considered to differ in the possible risks of injury they present for the developing fetus. In addition, while many aesthetic or expressive sports are traditionally considered “feminine” (e.g., gymnastics, figure skating, and cheerleading), they rely on the execution of highly skilled maneuvers that require a complex combination of physical strength, explosive power, coordination, flexibility, and endurance. Participants in these sports are also at increased risk for falls and musculoskeletal injuries. However, it is fair to say that all high-performance sports require endurance, physical conditioning, coordination, and mental toughness. For the purposes of this study, in addition to the traditional individual vs. team classification of sports, we classified the participants’ sports based on the perceived risk of injury they present for a pregnant athlete and the attendant danger they present for the developing fetus (see Prevett et al., 2023; Zeigler, 2024). Sports considered to be low-risk included distance running, floorball, tennis, competitive n% Role in SportaAthlete 301 54.7 Coach 170 30.9 Administration 77 14 Leadership/management 74 13.5 Expert services 18 3.3 Another role 49 8.9 Total 689 Main Competition LevelbInternational 97 17.6 National 282 51.3 Regional 182 33.1 Local 138 25.1 Total 699 Team Women’s 224 40.7 Men’s 124 22.5 Mixed 80 14.5 Missing answer 122 22.2 Citizen of Finland Yes 531 98.3 No 8 1.5 Prefer not to answer 1 0.2 Sex assigned at birth Female 339 62.8 Male 201 37.2 Current gender identification Woman 328 60.7 Man 201 37.2 Genderqueer 2 0.4 Nonbinary 8 1.5 Transgender 6 1.1 Intersex 1 0.2 Agender 2 0.4 Another gender identity 5 0.9 Prefer not to answer 3 0.6 Sexual orientation Heterosexual 474 87.8 Gay or lesbian 11 2 Queer 11 2 Bisexual 27 5 Pansexual 6 1.1 Asexual 10 1.9 Questioning or unsure 20 3.7 Another sexual identification 5 0.7 Prefer not to answer 6 1.1 Number of children/minors 0411 76.4 1 50 9.3 2 44 8.2 3 19 3.5 4 2 0.4 Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of participants (N = 540) 1 3 Sex Roles According to RDT, utterances (in this case, textual segments received as answers to the open-ended question in the survey) can be classified into three different types: monologue (displaying only one discourse), diachronic separation (displaying different discourses at different time points), and synchronic interplay (two or more discourses interpenetrating one another) (Baxter, 2011). Segments of data that represented each discourse were color-coded, and their semantic relationships were studied in detail. Special attention was paid to how the study participants aligned with some discourse(s) and disaligned from other(s). Discursive practices were also identified as contractive or expansive. Contractive practices are used to silence alternative discourses. They may include, for example, disqualification (the persons or groups aligning with a certain discourses are claimed to lack expertise or the right of expression), naturalization (one discourse is presented as a given), neutralization (value-laden discursive positions are treated as value-free or objective), topical avoidance (something is constructed as off limits or a taboo), subjectification (arguing that a given position is an individual opinion or experience), pacification (positioning differences as trivial or their resolution futile), and playing the rogue (parody) or the fool (enacting ignorance for purposes of unmasking implicit assumptions) or the clown (maliciously distorting a discursive position for purposes of laughing at its absurdity) (Baxter, 2011, pp. 170–172). Expansive discursive practices are expressions that allow two or more discourses to emerge side by side. Baxter (2011) points out that previously described contractive practices can also function in discursively expansive ways if they are targeted at challenging dominant discourses. Similarly, although expansive practices are linguistically more diverse, they can also be mobilized to support dominant discourses. These practices include negating (a given discourse is invoked only for the purpose of refuting it), countering (some discursive position replaces or supplants an alternative discursive position that would normally have been expected in its place; often realized through lexical markers such as although, however, but, yet, nonetheless, even, only, etc.), and entertaining (to indicate that a given discursive position is presented as one possibility among alternative discursive positions). In its idealized form, discursive interplay sometimes forms discursive hybrids or aesthetic moments. According to Baxter (2011), hybrids are moments when two or more competing discourses are mixed in a way resembling a salad dressing, where oil and vinegar are mixed, i.e., the original components can still be identified, but the hybrid constructs a new meaning, a discursive salad dressing. An aesthetic moment is a mixture where the original components are no dance, and orienteering; medium-risk sports included volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, and judo; and high-risk sports included gymnastics, cheerleading, powerlifting, and kickboxing. The level of competition and intensity typically increase the risk. Data Analysis The answers to the open-ended question were analyzed with contrapuntal analysis (Baxter, 2011), a method compatible with the Relational Dialectics Theory, using Atlas. ti software (version 24) and Microsoft Word. The analysis consisted of identifying discourses, and assessing their interplay. In the first phase, the data were read in their entirety to gain a sense of their content. A thematic analysis was then conducted to determine what was being said about pregnancy and sport. The textual segments used in coding were determined by identifying the point where a new idea began and then formulating a new code for each idea. In this stage, the coding was semantic rather than interpretive. The initial themes were grouped into hierarchical categories, with the lower-order themes derived directly from the data and the higher-order themes generated to represent different approaches taken toward the topic as interpreted by the researchers (Braun & Clarke, 2022). In this phase, all the data were divided into two parts, the first part being used to generate codes. The existing themes were then tested against the latter half of the data, reviewed, and potential new themes identified. This process resulted in four new themes, all of which were lower-order themes compatible with the hierarchical thematic system. When the thematical structure had been established, an overarching theme was identified. Comparison of the themes and determining differences in respondents’ perceptions of the compatibility of pregnancy and sport yielded three discourses. The contents of the discourses were defined by interpreting them through the higher order themes. Finally, data extracts were located to exemplify the essence of each discourse as interpreted by the first analyst. Having identified different discourses in the data, their interplay was explored. In practice, this meant examining if one or multiple discourses were present in each answer and by what means they were positioned as competing. n% more than 4 1 0.2 I am a parent or guardian to a child or children that do not live with me 11 2 Note. a = respondents were instructed to indicate all roles that applied to them; therefore, some participants indicated more than one role. b = several respondents indicated multiple competition levels Table 1 (continued) 1 3 Sex Roles of the first author (MR) has focused on reproduction and motherhood and especially feminist research on these topics, and in the present analysis, she subscribes to the belief that every individual has the right to self-determination. She has not engaged in competitive sport and is thus an outsider studying the sporting world. The research interests of the second author (TR) lie at the intersection of sport, critical psychology, and cultural praxis. Her work focuses on the complexities of gendered career paths in sport, with the aim of promoting more equitable and inclusive practices. As a former competitive athlete, she brings an insider’s understanding of physical culture to this collaborative effort. Both authors benefited from their different areas of specialization in reproductive issues and sport culture and juxtaposed these in fruitful discussions on the findings. Importantly, while pregnancy and sport both represent areas in society which are often portrayed as purely biological, they are to a great extent socially constructed. Results Based on the multiple-choice question (n = 550) on the compatibility of parenthood and high-performance sport, 97 (18%) of the respondents indicated that these are incompatible for pregnant athletes. The findings of the contrapuntal analysis gave a nuanced picture on what kind of discursive strategies are used to justify differing views on (in)compatibility. The findings are presented here in an interpretive way, connecting them to the literature. This is followed by a general reflective discussion, along with conclusions based on all the findings. The Three Discourses and Their Thematic Composition To answer the first research question on the compatibility of pregnancy and sport, three discourses were identified: an equality discourse, a responsibility discourse, and an incompatibility discourse. The discourses were differentiated from one another by the meanings given to the themes identified in the early phases of the analysis (see Table 2): affective evaluation (emotional reactions toward pregnant athletes or their participation in sports), moral evaluation (expressions indicating moral or ethical considerations related to pregnant athletes’ participation, i.e. “wrong,” “I would accept it”, etc.), access to sport (whether sport was argued to belong to everyone or whether pregnant athletes could be left out by default or under certain circumstances, such as in certain types of sport or towards the end of pregnancy), naturalness and familiarity with pregnancy (expressions depicting pregnancy either as a natural state or a disease and either as longer identifiable, as in a chemical reaction where the original ingredients mix and create a new substance. Data Trustworthiness The researchers paid specific attention to ensuring credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability of the study (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Credibility of the findings was ensured by analyzing a large number of answers and engaging in several confirmatory techniques in the research process. The researchers combined extensive knowledge from different areas of expertise relevant to the study, thus ensuring prolonged engagement. Several rounds of analysis were performed aimed at differentiating the most relevant content of data (persistent observation). The data was also analyzed in two parts, first creating themes from the first half and then checking the applicability of the themes against the second half of the data. We have tried to ensure transferability by creating sufficiently broad descriptions of the research process and the findings, including descriptions of the thematic structure. These descriptions will be helpful in ensuring the relevance of findings in other studies, as they help other researchers understand what was done in the present study and compare their findings. Finally, to ensure confirmability, an audit trail was kept throughout the research process, and the researchers engaged in several reflexive discussions about analysis and findings throughout the process. Collaborative reflexivity was essential to ensure a critical epistemological stance in data analysis. The first analyst also kept a diary with notes on analytical decisions, reflexive thoughts, and her own reactions during the analysis and writing phases. Aligned with our feminist positioning, we recognize the impact of our embodied situatedness on our discussions and the development of the findings. Positionality of the Researchers Contrapuntal analysis is a method with a theoretical underpinning and is critical in nature: it is purposefully used to bring forth silenced discourses and give voice to oppressed groups of people (Baxter, 2011). Through reflexivity, the researcher distinguishes the method from more procedural approaches (see Braun & Clarke, 2022). It is therefore important to reflect on the researcher’s positionality and theoretical approach. As researchers in the present study, we shared common ground in feminist values, the belief that the current patriarchal world order is restrictive and damaging to all people, and the general belief that equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) should be promoted in all areas of society. Both of us are White cis-women with experience of pregnancy and motherhood, but with somewhat different academic backgrounds and interests. The academic work 1 3 Sex Roles explore the role of sexist beliefs as obstacles to pregnant athletes’ participation. We recruited a large and diverse sample of respondents for the survey, which is a strength of the study. Nevertheless, as discussed earlier, the possibility of self-selection bias needs to be considered when interpreting the results. A further strength of this study was its ability to map the power relations between the different discourses, thereby enhancing understanding of the possible barriers to the participation of pregnant athletes. While brief answers in surveys are fruitful as a way of mapping respondents’ initial gut feelings about a topic, various other methods, such as longer texts, interviews, or focus group interviews are required to capture a more nuanced understanding on cultural ambivalence and differences between sporting environments. Thus, future studies on attitudes toward pregnant athlete’s participation in competitive sports should use a diversity of methods. It would also be essential to learn what factors contribute to possible differences in attitudes in different sporting environments. Furthermore, organizational practices contributing to pregnant athletes’ participation or exclusion need to be better understood to promote equity, diversity, and the inclusion of all individuals. Research in different cultural contexts is needed to ascertain the present findings are relevant outside of Finland. Finally, transgender athletes’ pregnancy experiences would be an important topic for future research. Practice Implications To ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) of pregnant people in all aspects of society, it is essential to understand and challenge restrictive attitudes to pregnancy. Our findings indicate that sexist beliefs on the fragility of female bodies, along with gendered parenting role beliefs, need to be challenged. We recommend critically reviewing sport and physical activity recommendations to avoid replicating harmful and sexist stereotypes and ensuring that they are based on up-to-date knowledge. All recommendations should avoid a patronizing tone and respect the athlete’s right to choose. We also recommend that all physicians and coaches educate themselves specifically on sport in pregnancy, and regularly update their knowledge, as outdated perceptions are likely to lead to overly cautious advice. Moreover, all relevant information should be clearly communicated to athletes themselves. We also suggest including education on gender in the mandatory content of school and higher education, as this is an effective way to reach whole age cohorts and influence broader societal change. discourses. These findings are in line with previous studies on pregnant athlete’s experiences: for example, Davenport and colleagues (2022) found that pregnant athletes often postponed revealing their pregnancy out of fear of negative reactions from their coaches and sport leaders (see also Pullen et al., 2023). Our findings clearly reflect the contradictions between the attitudes found in sporting environments and the lived reality of pregnant athletes and the experts working with them. Davenport et al. (2023) found that experts working with pregnant athletes were often frustrated at restrictive attitudes and argued that pregnant athletes can safely train at a higher intensity than most expert advice implies. However, it is unlikely that pregnant athletes themselves or people working with them have enough authority to influence societal constructions on the suitability of sport in pregnancy. It is therefore evident that if medical experts and those in positions of authority in the sporting community are not supportive, it is likely that pregnant athletes will continue to be marginalized. Limitations and Future Research Directions Most of the participants in this survey self-identified as women. It is likely that women attribute more importance than men to the topic of the study (equity, diversity, and inclusion) due to their unequal position in sport. The gender distribution probably explains the diversity of views found in this study, as women were more supportive of pregnant athletes’ participation than men. Subcultures in different sports may also explain some conflicting findings: for example, several participants stated that equestrian sports are suitable activities in pregnancy, which is a little surprising given that these sports are often considered high-risk. In a female-dominated sporting environment, the participants seemed to be ready to accept this level of risk, unlike in male-dominated sports such as football and team contact sports in general, which were mostly reported as unsuitable. The overrepresentation of women participants in our study suggests that sporting environments may be even less supportive of pregnant athletes than the present participants. This is a cause for concern. Further research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the views of male stakeholders, especially as men often occupy the most influential positions and are likely to be key figures in defining the general attitudes and support (or lack thereof) toward pregnant athletes. Future studies should explore what kinds of attitudes sport leaders hold toward pregnant athletes’ participation, whether there are gender differences in their attitudes and how attitudes can be steered in a more encouraging direction. To map possibilities for advancing reproductive justice (Morison, 2023) in sporting environments, studies should 1 3 Sex Roles References ACOG Committee on Obstetric Practice. (2020). Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period: ACOG Committee opinion, number 804. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 135(4), e178–e188. https://doi.org/10.1097/ AOG.0000000000003772 Baxter, L. A. (2011). Voicing relationships. Sage. Baxter, L. A., Scharp, K. M., & Thomas, L. J. (2021). Relational dialectics theory. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 13(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12405 Blazer, A. (2023). Gender policing in girls’ and women’s sports. Religions, 14(8), 1054. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081054 Bø, K., Artal, R., Barakat, R., Brown, W., Davies, G. A. L., Dooley, M., & Khan, K. M. (2016). Exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes: 2016 evidence summary from the IOC expert group meeting, Lausanne. 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The results of the present study suggest that it is because they disrupt the masculinity of sport that pregnant bodies evoke the contradictory reactions found in this study. Our results thus suggest that pregnancy discourses reflect tensions in society regarding women’s roles and responsibilities, and that these tensions are likely to be exacerbated in masculine environments such as sport. This study has important implications for the debate on reproductive justice, as patriarchal constructions of female bodies are likely to constrain women’s autonomy and social space. Acknowledgements This study is part of the ongoing research project “Who is excluded from gender equality in elite sport?” (2023–2026) and is funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, grant no. OKM/72/626/2023 to Tatiana Ryba. The authors would like to thank Milla Saarinen and Michael McDougall for their substantial role in obtaining the funding. We are grateful to Kaisa Aunola and Elina Joronen for their contribution to the preparation of the proposal. We also thank Aku Nikander for data management and all the members of the Winning in the Long Run research group for their essential contribution to the data collection on which this article is based and for their collegial support. CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement Mirjam Raudasoja: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Interpretation of results, Writing - Original draft preparation, Writing - Review & Editing. Tatiana Ryba: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Interpretation of results, Writing - Original draft preparation, Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration. Funding This work was supported by a fund from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture to Tatiana Ryba, grant number OKM/72/626/2023. Open Access funding provided by University of Jyväskylä (JYU). Declarations Competing Interests We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/. 1 3 Sex Roles Jesudason, S., & Weitz, T. (2015). 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