The abortion industry would have women believe that having children and achieving personal or professional success are incompatible. But a growing army of women believes that babies and dreams can, and do, go together. A perfect example is 31-year-old pro golfer Amy Olson, who competed at the US Women’s Open in Pebble Beach, California earlier this month while seven months pregnant.
According to Golfweek, she was thrilled to bring her preborn baby along for the ride, saying “The fact that there will be two of us walking down the fairway together, that’s pretty awesome.” Poignantly, at the May 2023 qualifier in Minnesota, Olson’s mom Twyla was her caddy. “It really was sweet to think about,” she told Golf Digest. “Three generations walking down the fairway.”
To prepare for the Open, Olson drew on the wisdom of other female pro golfers who competed while pregnant. After learning she and husband Grant were expecting their first child, due in September, she texted fellow athletes, and asked how far along they were when they stopped playing. She found that the cutoff point for most was between 28 and 30 weeks. Olson herself wound up competing in the Open at the beginning of her 31st week.
View this post on Instagram
In her interview with Golf Digest, Olson reflected on the ways that pregnancy fatigue, weight gain, and more have impacted her putting, swing, distance and overall playing. “I know what it takes to play at the elite level and play in a major championship,” she said. “Realistically, my ball-striking is not there right now. Do I think I can post a good score? Yes. But to say I can be competitive, that’s probably a stretch. With the weight gain, I don’t think this is going to be anybody’s formula for success.”
Olson didn’t make it past the second round at the Open, after which she began her maternity leave. Fortunately, she was already mentally prepared for that outcome. “This is just so much bigger than golf,” she said. “Golf has been a dream of mine for so long, and so is being a mom. I get to do both of these things, and I don’t want to put them at odds with each other. Both are really special, and I’m excited.”
She spoke to CNN about what she hopes other women gain from her example. “Women do this all the time,” she said. “I want other women who have gone through this that don’t get the cameras on them as they go about their job, as they go about what they do every single day while pregnant, I just want pregnancy and life to be celebrated. I love that people are acknowledging that it’s hard but it’s possible. I hope that when other women see me they feel like, ‘you know what, I can do it too.’”
Olson also specifically addressed the idea that moms can, or should, “do it all,” saying, “There is a narrative in our culture that women can do everything, and I think that puts a lot of pressure on women to be good at everything all at the same time. There are different seasons in life, and you have to embrace each season, be grateful and joyful in each of those seasons.”
Olson isn’t sure whether she’ll return to professional golfing after her child’s birth. On the one hand, she clearly doesn’t believe that motherhood and professional success must be mutually exclusive. At the same time, she’s open to doing whatever makes the most sense for herself and her family. Like other female athletes before her, she’s willing to be molded by motherhood.
“As a professional athlete you are very selfish – everything’s about you, everything depends on your schedule and your fitness,” she said. “When you become a mom, all of sudden there’s another human that’s far more important than you and doesn’t care that you have a tee time or have something else going on – they need to eat, they need to sleep. But I think that’s created that way because we all need that selfishness driven out of us and kids are the perfect way to do it.”
