Heavily Pregnant Woman Taking Part in The Olympics

A heavily pregnant woman is set to take part in the Olympic Games.

Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi will be representing Malaysia in the ten metre rifle shooting. She will be 34 weeks pregnant when she takes part so just a month from her due date of September 2nd.

The rifle shooting will take place at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich and there should be no difficulty in telling her apart from the other 390 shooting competitors. She’ll be the one with the huge bump.

Apparently she will not be the first pregnant woman to to part in the Olympics but she will be the closest to her due date.

Her husband has been supportive of Nur Suryani taking part in the Games but the National Olympic Committee and her friends were more concerned.

In response she says: “I am the mother. I know what I can do.”

Airlines do not allow pregnant women to fly after 35 weeks so at 34 weeks, Nur Suryani is just in time. While she will also have to adjust her shooting stance to take part. Some rifle shooting disciplines involve competitors lying on their stomach and she cannot do those, limiting her to the ten metre shoot.

She said she is worried about the baby kicking at the wrong moment but she will talk to the baby before the competition to ask it to keep still.

Part of me wants to congratulate Nur Suryani. She is single-handedly showing that being pregnant does not have to stand in the way of doing what you want to do. In this country certainly, there is still the prevailing attitude that women are weak and helpless when they are pregnant. It would be quite something therefore if Nur Suryani was to win a podium place in London and stand there proud, pregnant tummy and all.

However, personally I don’t think I would have the energy or the nerve to take part in the Olympics when pregnant, not that I’m expecting the call to do so any time soon. I would be a little too concerned the pressure would cause harm to the baby.

The rifle shooting competition is certainly not the 100 metre sprint. It’s not going to take a huge physical toll on Nur Suryani. But if I were her I’d much rather be watching the Olympics on the television with my feet up than taking part.