Lived experiences of returning to competitive sports after child birth among professional female basketball players in Kampala

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Though there is evidence from studies that women do return to competitive sport after childbirth, there is little research that explores this experience in Ugandan female basketball players. OBJECTIVE: To understand the lived experiences of female basketball players in Uganda returning to play competitively post child birth. METHODS: we conducted in-depth interviews with female basketball players from different teams in the NBL and Div 1, between July 2023 and august 2023. We used interview guides to collect data from 10 mother-ballers, selected purposively about their lived experiences of returning to professional sport after child birth. The interviews took an average of 15-20 minutes each and were audio recorded. Transcripts were then listened to and manually transcribed by the principal investigator and codes analyzed manually into a coding tree. Codes were grouped into categories which were further grouped into themes. RESULTS: The results are presented under two themes; positive experiences and negative experiences. The following categories were obtained from these themes; physical readiness, enabling support system, beneficial regimen, re-organizing priorities, challenging body changes, difficulty in disclosure of pregnancy, physical limitations of return, rejection, self- esteem issues, unexpected responsibilities, psychosocial experiences. A total of 10 participants were interviewed. The mother-ballers had varying ages, parity and total years in professional sport. However, all the participants were married. CONCLUSION: The study showed that female basketball players returning to competitive sport after child birth underwent positive and negative experiences. Positive experiences included physical readiness, enabling support system, beneficial regimen and re-organizing priorities. the negative experiences included challenging physical experiences, difficulty in disclosure of pregnancy, physical limitations to return, rejection, unexpected responsibilities and psychosocial experiences.