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Eight months after the birth of her first child, Florence, dual Olympian Alyce Wood returned to competition.
But don't you dare say she "bounced back".
"What people don't see is all of the work that goes on in the background," the sprint kayaker told ABC Sport.
"The idea of bouncing back tells me that without all the sessions I've done, or all these things that I've given up, it's just happened, I've clicked my fingers, and boom, I'm back.
"The other side of it, which I'm really comfortable with, is that my body will never be the same. And I personally will never be the same.
"The perspective I've gained as a mum is huge.
"So I'm not bouncing back to the same headspace at all. My body's changed forever and I'm really proud of that."
Playing catch-up
With an eye to competing at next year's Paris Olympics, Wood remained extremely active during her pregnancy.
The 31-year-old tapped into resources from the Australian Institute of Sport's (AIS) Female Performance & Health Initiative and worked with Melanie Hayman from Central Queensland University, who led the development of the 2020 Australian Exercise During Pregnancy Guidelines.
"If we think back not so long ago, pregnancy was actually considered a time of vulnerability where women were advised to take it easy and refrain from participating in physical activity and exercise," Dr Hayman said.
"There's fear that it might negatively impact the health and wellbeing of the mother or her unborn child. But we know this is not the case.
"We now know that inactivity — such as sedentary behaviour — is actually more harmful to the health and wellbeing of the mother and her unborn child during pregnancy."
The current guidelines recommend 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, pelvic floor exercises every day, and muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
"When it comes to recreational and elite athletes, we actually know a lot less. And this is because for so long now, athletes retired to start families," Dr Hayman said.
With more mothers choosing to stay in their sport, Dr Hayman says researchers are now "playing catch up to try and conduct the research needed to guide this specific sub population".
Wood and her coach relied on the limited research available to guide her throughout her pregnancy.
During the first trimester, she was not allowed to go over 90 per cent of her maximum heart rate.
She also monitored her body temperature to make sure she didn't get too hot, and didn't do any exercises targeting her abdominal muscles.
"I just wanted to make sure training was as safe as possible for Florence," Wood said.
"And that was the cornerstone of everything through my pregnancy. We weren't doing anything that would even potentially have a risk for her."
Wood also offered herself up as a case study, and was observed by Dr Hayman throughout pregnancy, to help provide further insights into what the body goes through while training at an elite level.
It's one of the very few studies worldwide that has followed an elite female athlete during pregnancy.
The study found Wood "substantially exceeded" the recommended guidelines for exercise during her pregnancy, but she had no major injuries or illness, and emerged stronger and fitter than before.
“Whilst not surprising, it is hard to fathom just how much exercise Alyce continued to engage in throughout the entirety of her pregnancy," Dr Hayman said.
"Not only that, through modified and experienced planning in conjunction with her coach Nicola, Alyce maintained her cardiovascular fitness, whilst also significantly increasing her strength.
"Alyce is the perfect example of training smart."
While Wood was methodical in her approach to exercise, Sydney Roosters NRLW player Corban Baxter had a different journey while pregnant with her second son, Beauden, now nine months old.
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"It was more just based off how I felt and when my body felt like I wanted to move, which was pretty much most days," she said.
"It was about listening to my body and doing what made me feel good."
Baxter had her first child, Carter, before she was an elite athlete.
For this pregnancy, she relied on advice from her teammate and fellow mother Sam Bremner, as well as her physiotherapist.
But she says not all players have access to that support network.
"If you didn't have the right people around you, and you were in that position and you wanted to come back or find out that you're pregnant, you wouldn't really know where to go," she said.
"It's not the first thing that people from clubs or the NRL reached out to me with advice or support for, so I definitely think that the game as a whole could probably improve a little bit in that area."
Returning to sport postpartum isn't injury management
Exercise and training during pregnancy are only one part of the equation.
"There's not much research to do with pregnant athletes, and there's even less to do with postpartum athletes," Wood said.
"We've basically treated it like a return from injury, which I hate the idea of, because I birthed a human, I didn't really have a typical sporting injury.
"As I got the clearance from doctors, I was able to slowly taper things back up, as you would if you had shoulder or knee surgery.
"If you do have an injury, you have a follow-up with a surgeon, and then you'll keep following up multiple times.
"Whereas when you have a baby, you have a six-week check-up and that's it. And then you add in the complexity of being an athlete as well."
Dr Hayman agrees the support for women after they give birth isn't good enough.
"The traditional six-week check-up falls short of the guidance that women need to be receiving," she said.
"And I strongly believe that our healthcare system should be introducing women's health physios into our routine care approach for postpartum women."
Dr Hayman says key areas to monitor when returning to sport and exercise post-delivery include pelvic floor health, elasticity in joints, abdominal separation, and protecting the breasts from heavy contact to prevent milk supply being affected.
"My other advice is take it easy and genuinely listen to your gut," she said.
"Do you not compare yourself or your postpartum journey to anyone else.
"Pregnancy has such a significant impact on one's body. So we need to remember that we need to allow necessary time to heal and to recover."
Mums on the podium
Mums returning to elite sport are still an anomaly and Wood is hoping to see that change.
"I think there's absolutely an expectation that you'll retire after you have kids," she said.
"There's progress being made in the area and it's definitely more welcoming, but it's difficult to come back.
"In Tokyo, every female podium in my sport had at least one mum on it, if not multiple.
"It's such a done thing in my sport in Europe. And I'd love to see Australia get to a position where it's really normal, no-one blinks an eyelid. And I think that's happening in some sports, but not all sports."
Wood's had a successful year so far since returning, recently securing Australia a quota spot at next year's Olympics in the women's K1 500m, by finishing fifth at the World Championships.
"The sporting system as a whole needs to rally and make sure that being pregnant is just part of life," Wood said.
"And it shouldn't be the end of a career, or it shouldn't change the trajectory of an athletic performance."