Latest news with #ChelseaPitman
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'We were judged for wanting babies but I want mums on my team'
Warning: This article contains discussion about miscarriage "I want to be a mum more than anything, but it's just not on the cards for me."Nottingham Forest netball head coach Chelsea Pitman is telling BBC Sport about her difficult fertility is recalling the conversations and self-questioning that followed "quite a few" miscarriages."The future could be bright, who knows," she glimmer remains, but however Pitman's future plays out, she is determined that pregnancy and motherhood are never taboo topics in former England wing attack wants others to feel liberated to share their unspoken stories - whether those are first thoughts about having children, or the recounting of painful experiences such as her claims netball clubs have backed away in the past from players keen to become mothers and says this must her own seat of power at Forest, Pitman is ready to help future sporting mums, and hopes the rest of netball joins her. Looking back only a few years, Pitman points to negative attitudes towards players with maternal was reluctant to discuss her own wishes, or even the fact she had become pregnant, for fear of jeopardising her playing career."I like to think it's changed," Pitman says. "Back then, absolutely not."You'd be judged by it, or if it came to contracts or recruitment, that's going to be at the forefront of coaches' minds in a high-performance environment: 'What, they want to have a baby?'"Those conversations need to stop now. Hopefully they have stopped, but 100% back then I know I didn't want it to be common knowledge."At Forest, her attitude is welcoming to prospective parents."If you want to be a mum, that's amazing. But I want you as an athlete and you're not pregnant now - so come, I don't care," Pitman says. Red Rose in a new Forest Pitman, 37, is the Diamond who became a in New South Wales, she won the 2011 World Cup with the Australia Diamonds before her father's English background enabled her to switch 2018, she helped the England Red Roses win Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast, getting the better of Australia in the has travelled extensively in her netball career but has settled in Nottingham, where she has "absolutely fallen in love with the city".She guided Forest, in their debut season, to a creditable fifth place in the eight-team Netball Super League, and to a remarkable double over derby rivals and defending champions Loughborough loves the "muck-in mentality" at Forest and works to fuel the are children around the club. Scotland international Iona Christian gave birth to son Lawrie in March 2024 before joining will often care for Lawrie while the squad are working hard in the was experiencing "a flat day" recently before Christian handed her Lawrie."He just brought me back down to earth and took the stress off me," Pitman says. "It's been such breath of a fresh air. He's wonderful and everyone loves him." 'Lean on the ones you love' Pitman thought having a baby would "be so easy".She feels her body, which allowed her to achieve so much in netball, "failed" her when she needed it most."I was like, 'OK, my body allowed me to achieve everything there was to achieve in the sense of netball, but it hasn't allowed me to achieve the one thing that I really wanted'," she miscarriage came on England duty, shortly before Covid-19 triggered was close to the three-month pregnancy stage at which point many people share their news with friends and family."It was really tough," she recalls.A cruel twist of fate meant Pitman, who knew she was miscarrying, was selected by UK Anti-Doping for a post-match urine test."For people that don't know, you need to pee in a cup, and when you're miscarrying, obviously things are happening as well. I just remember looking at the team doctor, going, 'this is the worst week of my life'," she urges anyone going through pregnancy loss to "lean on the ones that you love" rather than delay elected to "just put it somewhere and then deal with it later".Eventually she told her story on social media and also spoke to BBC Sport about the toll of the lost found she was not alone. A wave of support followed."I was like, 'why do we keep this quiet?'" she says."The amount of women that were like, 'oh my gosh, this has made me want to open up to my family and stuff'. It's sad, because it is quite a lonely place if you do what I did and just keep it in." 'Life's too short... do what makes you happy' Pitman remembers speaking with friends about whether she would choose another gold medal ahead of starting a family. The answer came easily."Like 100%, I want to be a mum more than anything, but it's just not on the cards for me," Pitman says."We don't know the future. The future could be bright, who knows, but that was probably the bit that I had to understand a little bit."Pitman gets "goose bumps" when she learns how other sports are helping Tour tennis players wishing to freeze eggs or embryos, so they can start a family at a later date, will have their ranking protected in future. The tour has also introduced paid maternity leave."I truly hope we head down that path," Pitman netball lacks the necessary financial resources though. The Super League relaunched in 2025 but remains semi-professional."Until we are able to full-time pay those girls or those women, we can't have those conversations about what maternity pay looks like and what support we can give in fertility options," Pitman now, Pitman encourages players to back their instincts about whether to try for a baby."Life's too short," she says. "You're old for a long period of time, so do whatever makes you happy." If you have been affected by issues in this story, BBC Action Line has details of available support
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Forest crush Cardiff to go fourth in Super League
Nottingham Forest moved into the Netball Super League top four and boosted their play-off hopes with an emphatic 77-53 victory over bottom side Cardiff racked up the points at House of Sport in the Welsh capital, including 20 in the final quarter to boost their goal takes Chelsea Pitman's side up to fourth in the table, ahead of the weekend's other Super League fixtures on goal shooter Rolene Streutker enjoyed a fruitful night as she extended her lead at the top of the super shot scoreboard. The South African has now recorded 110 in this the result provides a boost as Pitman's team prepare to face London Mavericks - who they moved above in the table - next weekend in a potentially pivotal match for deciding play-off meanwhile, were unable to build on earning their first win of the season last weekend and remain rock bottom with just four points from nine games.
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'We want to create our own legacy' - Forest set for Netball Super League debut
Nottingham Forest Netball head coach Chelsea Pitman says she wants her side to "create our own legacy" when they take to the court for the first backed by the Premier League football club, are one of eight teams competing in the revamped Netball Super League (NSL), with a new one-day competition - the Netball Super Cup - acting as the curtain-raiser on Saturday, 8 marks the start of a new chapter for domestic netball in the UK in the first campaign as the division moves towards along with Birmingham Panthers, are one of two new franchises admitted to the league while new rules have been introduced with the aim of improving its entertainment Super Cup will provide the first opportunity to see the refreshed teams and the super shot - where shooters can score two points from a dedicated area on the edge of the shooting circle - in action at Sheffield's Utilita season begins on Friday, 14 March and the BBC will show one NSL match per week, beginning with London Pulse v Forest on Sunday, 16 March. 'We're paving our own way' When Forest were admitted to the league in May last year along with Birmingham - after Team Bath, Strathclyde Sirens, Surrey Storm and Severn Stars were dropped - they said they had "major plans to develop a multi-sport model for the football club".Having played in both the NSL and Australia's Super Netball League - where she was part of a similar transition towards professionalisation - former England Roses player Pitman, who retired last year, knows first-hand the challenges facing the league and her new team."When I had my first interview with Forest, I was pretty open about where I want the league and netball to go in the UK," she said."I want to be able to bring and adapt things that I learned over in Australia playing for so many years, to be implemented here in NSL."The move towards multi-sport franchises is not an uncommon one - fellow Super League side Leeds Rhinos have links to the rugby league team - but what has not been seen in netball before is a team operating under the same banner as a Premier League that comes an expectation that the team will automatically perform but, with a salary cap and investment in the sport still required, Pitman's side are as unknown as any other. The netball team are, however, able to take advantage of the facilities and already professional structures in place behind the scenes at Forest."I think it's been really great that they welcomed us with open arms and it's really cool going to the City Ground and just the history of the football club," Pitman said."But we're paving our own way and our own legacy and building the foundations for what the netball side of Forest is."Forest defender Tash Pavelin said it feels like the team have slotted into a "really professional environment that's already had all the groundwork in place"."We really feel like they're invested in us," she said."It just feels like a much more professional set-up and much more like a job than it has done in the past, which is really cool to see."It also puts netball in front of an audience where it has not necessarily been seen before, with photographs on social media showing players enjoying a joint Christmas party with the football also made a half-time appearance to talk about the netball team on the pitch at the City Ground during a Premier League match."We're nowhere near where football is with the resources they have, but if I can learn something, be able to change and adapt and bring it into our environment, that's a win," said Pitman."We hope to get some Reds fans at our home games." What does professionalisation really mean? While the revamped NSL means steps are being made to ensure that netball could be a viable career path for aspiring players now, the reality is that salary caps mean many players are still juggling jobs or studies with their netball Thunder head coach Karen Greig said the league is "nowhere near professional yet", adding that eight of her 10 players also have full-time Forest, some are able to commit fully to their netball career - they are often the ones who also play for England - while others also work or Naimh Cooper, who commutes to Bristol where she works part-time as a doctor, said she feels "lucky to have the flexibility" - but would not turn down the opportunity to become a full-time netballer."To be part of a fully professional league is something I wouldn't be able to turn down," she said."We're on that journey to professionalisation and if that offer was to be made it's something I would consider."England player Pavelin, who has put her accounting career on hold to pursue netball full-time, said: "I've got something to fall back on when you have to retire from netball at a youngish age - it's something that I can go back to in the future."Pavelin had a job alongside playing for Team Bath last year, who were not granted a place in the revamped NSL, but one of Pitman's stipulations for Forest's players is that they live in Nottingham - so she opted to move."Being able to tell my parents I could do it full-time, with the time that they've sacrificed driving me back and forth, sometimes two hours to training when I was younger, is nice," said Pavelin."For them to be able to see it actually turn into a career is nice for them to see as well as obviously amazing for me to be a part of."
