Rugby league player Mariah Storch returned to the hard-hitting world of the competetive contact sport less than two months after giving birth to her daughter Henley.
As an elite athlete, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that opened the door to fulfil her dream for motherhood.
The thought of missing matches from injury, the pain of rehabilitation and the endless hours of hard work to return to the elite level are all experiences no athlete wants to endure.
But for the former Brisbane Broncos NRLW player there was an upside to such an experience — motherhood.
Blessing in disguise
After first playing rugby league in 2015, the diesel fitter emerged from the Blackwater coal fields to play a part in the Broncos' first two premiership wins in 2018–19.
When plans to win a third premiership were seemingly ruined due to the COVID outbreak in 2020, Storch and her partner Jay Denman saw an opportunity.
The season went ahead in October last year, but Storch was firmly focused on preparing for the birth of Henley in February this year.
Less than two months later, she pulled on her footy boots and returned to the field with the Central Queensland Capras in the inaugural Queensland Rugby League Women's Premiership season.
Return to rugby league
Midway through a gruelling preseason with the CQ Capras, the Blackwater mum said she wasn't aware of many women who had returned to a contact sport like rugby league postpartum.
Guided by her doctor and her own knowledge of the demands of the sport, Storch returned to playing eight weeks after given birth, albeit in a lower-level match.
"I spent the first four weeks just recovering; I did very minimal exercise for four weeks," Storch said.
"My doctor said if I hadn't played rugby league and experienced the contact before the pregnancy, he would have given me longer.
"But because I already knew how it felt to be in contact it was a bit different."
The NRLW will have two seasons in 2022 and Storch said she was eager to push her claims in the Broncos team for the second season, starting at the back end of the year.
"I'm hoping if I have a good QRLW season and I'll be a lot fitter next year than I was this year so hopefully there's a chance for a NRLW contract at the end of next year," Storch said.
Fighting through the fatigue
With a little one to take care of, Storch said she had to schedule training around 'mum' time, while her daughter was sleeping.
She said she was exhausted, but motivated herself to get back into her training with a clear goal in mind of returning to the sport.
"But I just had to commit to my training if I wanted to come back and play."
Storch made a decision early on to bottle-feed her daughter from the eight-week mark.
"If I was breastfeeding, I'd probably have to feed her before game and then straight after," she said.
"Otherwise, it'd probably hurt me more than anything with the contact."
Her return to rugby league was helped with the support of her grandparents and her partner, Jay, who looked after Henley during matches.
Postpartum sport research
CQUniversity researcher Melanie Hayman is part of a team investigating the impacts of pregnancy and postpartum to develop guidelines so that women can return to high performance sport.
"Female athletes have traditionally seen starting a family as the end of their career," Dr Hayman said.
"What we're noticing is as women's sport evolves, especially in the elite athlete space, is that we're now seeing the age of the average elite female athlete increase from around 20 years to 30 years.
Storch has welcomed the research.
Her inspiration came from St George-Illawarra Dragons player Sammy Bremner, who returned to rugby league postpartum in February 2020.
"If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have known when to come back because it's not something you can Google.
"You don't really know where you stand and how it's going to affect your body; everyone's different but it'd be nice to have some form of guidance."
