Seeing an elite athlete feeding her baby while competing continues to surprise, although recent moms, like Irina, still find it odd to get people's attention.
Irina plays in the Associació Lleidatana d'Handbol, handball club of the Silver Honor Division (second division). He scored seven goals in the last game held on Sunday, but what is talked about is the image shared on social networks where She is seen breastfeeding her little son, barely two and a half months old, on the same court.
It is clear that it is necessary to normalize motherhood and make it possible to reconcile sports life and family, without the penalties that right now women athletes suffer.
If only a few days ago we talked about the British Sophie Power, who breastfed her baby while running a marathon, today the protagonist is Irina.
This 29-year-old mother, a player in the Second Handball Division, during last Sunday's game, was surprised to breastfeed her baby of just two and a half months, at rest.
A difficult task: reconcile profession and family
The Dona Bàlafia Association, for the equality of women, published a tweet where the 29-year-old was seen breastfeeding her little one, with the message of:
"It's nice to see mothers and children in the pavilion sharing sport at the highest level and motherhood. There is little talk, and not only in the sports environment, but in the professional in general, and it must be normalized."
Felicitats pel triomf!
- DONA BALAFIA ASSOC. (@donabalafia) September 16, 2018
Super performance of the reincorporated players.Fa goig veure al pavelló mares i infants compartint esport al + alt nivell i maternitat. # Esportfemenilleida
Se'n parla poc, and not just in l'entorn esportiu, but in the professional in general. normalitzar-ho. pic.twitter.com/7DjCG7q2kZ
Irina was born in Romania, although she has been playing handball in Spain for 14 years. And as he did after the birth of his first daughter (now four years old), he has returned to play five weeks after delivery.
It hurts how difficult it is to reconcile in our country:
"One year I went to Gijón, with the illusion of playing in Primera, and I found a clause that said that if I got pregnant automatically the contract was terminated. This does not happen in Romania, where you automatically renew the contract if you stay pregnant".
However, she feels privileged. As he explains to El Periódico:
"You return as normal, with a few extra kilos like almost all mothers and after ten months out, but you recover and soon you are well."
"The team trains at 9 o'clock at night, so about eight o'clock we ride the four in the car and go to the pavilion. So it's very easy to reconcile, because I'm lucky that my partner accompanies me. Normally I give him the chest in the middle of training and matches, and my coach and my teammates understand perfectly that if I hear my son cry I will have to leave for a few minutes. "
The situation of female professional sport
Not only is it poorly paid, which forces many women to make it compatible with another profession (such as Irina, who is also a technical architect), but they must also fight against discriminatory laws.
An example is the anti-pregnancy clauses that many soccer players must sign if they want to play in professional teams. Something that does not happen in other countries, such as the United States and England, where mothers take their children to parties, and in sports concentrations and training they can count on babysitters who take care of them while they work.
Blanca Manchón told how her sponsors gave her back when she announced that she was pregnant. And that had been five times Windsurf world champion and had no intention of quitting. His motherhood was going to be just a small break in his career. She herself affirmed that if you live in Spain, you are a woman and an athlete and you get pregnant, "you are finished"
And neither do elite athletes have it easy to reconcile outside our borders. Not long ago we talked about the criticism suffered by Serena Willians for wearing postpartum sportswear and her criticism of the International Tennis Federation that equates pregnancy with an injury, so the sports career is suspended until the return to the courts, losing The place in the international ranking.
Photos | Facebook
