The NWSL has a record number of active mothers (28) rostered this season. The figure represents a shift in support and understanding around pregnancy, postpartum and parenting.
The Athletic explores these topics and more in a series devoted to motherhood and soccer.
When the Chicago Stars traveled to Spain for preseason, forward Ryan Gareis brought with her a special guest: her one-year-old son, Crew. "It feels like it's such a cheat code," Gareis says over video call, with a big smile. The way she sees it, she's "living this dream life."
Gareis is one of at least 28 moms currently in the National Women's Soccer League, with that number steadily growing. This season is among the most moms and moms-to-be the league has ever seen in its 14-year history — and the trend likely won't be changing any time soon.
The increase is no coincidence either. It follows historic collective bargaining agreements for the U.S. women's national team and in the league, when players secured the resources necessary to start families in their primes. It also follows an early generation of mothers who brought visibility. Players such as Angel City's Sydney Leroux , or retired stars like Alex Morgan , Crystal Dunn and Lauren Holiday.
"Being a mom was always something I wanted to be, and then being a professional athlete was always something I wanted to be," Gareis, 27, tells The Athletic . "I realized how possible it was because of those people who came before me and did it with such grace, and the way the league and clubs have supported it, it started to make it a more real possibility.
"Honestly, since the second I found out I was pregnant, and then returning to play, I have felt nothing but supported."
Resources for players in the NWSL were cemented in the league's first collective bargaining agreement in 2022, which guaranteed players parental leave. The protections and resources strengthened as years went on — and formally, again, when the league renegotiated its current contract with the player in 2024, which runs through 2030.
NWSL players are offered pregnancy protection and parental leave. One key stipulation specifies that, if a player's contract expires during their leave, clubs must provide a minimum 30-day training camp opportunity to help players return to competition. Players are also offered childcare stipends and travel support and resources to grow their families through fertility support.
This latest CBA also notably eliminated all drafts, offering players more autonomy and agency over their careers. Previously, players could be traded without consent, sometimes leading to cross-country moves away from places where they were putting down roots.
It was through free agency that Gareis found herself leaving Houston Dash to sign a three-year contract with the Stars. This was a homecoming for the Naperville, Illinois, native, who would now be closer to her support system as she and her partner, Pat Connaughton, a guard for the Charlotte Hornets, raise their son.
"Growing up coming to the (Chicago) Red Stars games, I always thought, as a little girl, if I could be on that field as a professional athlete, I would feel like I made it," Gareis said. "That was heightened when I had baby Crew. I realized how much that 'village' is needed, and not being around family, and them not really getting to be as involved in his life as I want them to be (while I was in Houston), was a big part of my decision."
There are blanket protections available to players around the world through a maternity regulation contained in FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfers of Player (RSTP), which covers all players with a professional contract, a FIFPro spokesperson told The Athletic . This was introduced in 2021 and updated about a year ago.
However, those protections are still limited. Despite the update, the RSTP doesn't include automatic contract extensions to mothers to compensate for the time during their current deals in which they were on leave, something that FIFPRO have been attempting to push for. This is a crucial factor for athletes whose contracts are constructed on term agreements.
But the RSTP is only a minimum standard, and individual leagues and clubs can expand their own protections. For example, Italian side Milan have filled the gap left by RSTP and developed an automatic one-year contract extension policy that offers an extension on the same economic terms of players' current deals for those whose contracts are due to expire during the season they were pregnant.
FIFA, with the help of Margie Davenport, director of the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health at the University of Alberta, outlined additional guidelines for teams to follow to support players returning postpartum. The outline, "Stepping into Play" , covers things like identifying who needs to go speak to the healthcare provider about potential medical complications, which would prevent them from continuing to play.
However, protections vary widely for leagues around the world, with Argentina and Spain having strong maternity regulations, per FIFPro. Though the NWSL offers one of the most robust examples in women's soccer.
"From a society level, we have to make sure that these women are getting the support that they need," says Emily Kraus, a sports medicine physician at Stanford University working with Wu Tsai Performance Alliance. "Something as simple as allowing a baby to come to a football match and be allowed to be there. Even a few years ago, babies were banned because of potential liability issues."
In American soccer, moms are everywhere — from former players sitting in front offices to head coaches with decades of experience. With the growing number of players who have become moms in recent years, their children have also become more present at matches or pitchside. Look no further than U.S. women's national team head coach Emma Hayes holding Sophia Wilson 's daughter, Gigi, while the forward trained.
The U.S. national team set the stage for mothers in soccer decades ago, with 18 mothers featuring for the U.S. over a 25-year period. In 1994, Joy Fawcett became the first U.S. player to give birth and return to the national team. Upon her return, she played every minute of the 1995 World Cup and continued to play for nine more years. In that time, she won the 1999 World Cup as well as two Olympics. She also had two more children. Wilson, alongside teammate Mallory Swanson , was the latest U.S. player to follow in Fawcett's footsteps.
The national team's CBA has several provisions offering resources to parents. U.S. Soccer pays for a nanny for each national team trip, for example, covering their accommodations, flight, meals and also offering a daily stipend. The nanny is responsible for the child during training, weight sessions and meetings. It is also required by the CBA that new moms get called back into the national team when they are fit and ready.
"It does take a village," Wilson said, on the cusp of her return with the national team last month. "I feel so supported in every environment that I've been in so far, and I know the national team is going to be the same, because they've had experience with it." Wilson said a nanny has been traveling with her on all her trips, helping alleviate some of the load of caring for a newborn who she is actively nursing while returning to play.
"It's been so great, so helpful," she continued, "but I do feel like I am a mom that likes to do everything, unless I literally physically can't. So I've been finding what that balance looks like, and being able to be fully present and give my whole self to Gigi, and then at the same time give my whole self to whatever team it is I'm playing with."
Hayes credited Wilson and the team of experts around her for helping the 25-year-old get back to playing at such an elite level so quickly. She has since successfully worked her way back to playing a full 90 minutes in top form.
"Watching her play 70 minutes the other night (with Portland), it was almost like I couldn't believe she's had a baby and come back to perform at the level she's done," Hayes said in April. That is a "credit to her and the team around her."
Hayes kept in regular contact with Wilson, and said that the U.S.'s April camp felt "like the right time" for her to re-enter their environment — especially with World Cup qualifiers in the fall.
Swanson became the 19th mom to join the U.S. ranks, earning a call-up from Hayes for the national team's upcoming friendlies in Brazil.
"Everyone's body is so different, and everyone's journey, and pregnancy, and postpartum is so different," the 28-year-old said, after her return to her club the Chicago Stars earlier this month. "The one thing that I can collectively say is: Everyone needs support from everyone around them. And I've had that during this return, and I'm just very thankful for that."
The crucial part of both CBAs is the standard that helps more than just players who can afford care. It's that kind of support that has made being both a mom and a professional soccer player such a seamless transition for Gareis. She described feeling supported by both her club and teammates when traveling to Spain for preseason this year. She calls her teammates his "aunties," because they all treat him as if he were their own.
"He is so interested in sports, and I love that he's in this environment, because he's seeing his dad play sports, and meeting those guys (in the NBA) and seeing what it takes, and he's also seeing his mom do that," Gareis says. "He's (also) seeing all these women just push limits, and again, like the constant work that they're putting in, the teamwork that he's witnessing. It's so much more than him just getting to watch a soccer game.
"I hope it's shaping who he's becoming, because they motivate me a lot, so I love that my son also gets to see that."
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
Chicago Red Stars, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Soccer
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