What is it like to swim outdoors when pregnant?

11th April, 2018

OSS Expert Advisor and Doctor, Mark Harper is working with medical student Beth Coombe-Jones on a dissertation about the medical concerns of outdoor swimmers.

Beth has reviewed emails sent to Mark from swimmers and compiled a list of the most common concerns and undertaken a review of medical literature to determine if there is any evidence to  answer your questions.

“One of the concerns I identified was regarding whether it was safe to swim in cold water during pregnancy,” says Beth. “Due to the ethical barriers of recruiting pregnant participants to studies, there is no evidence in the literature on this topic. I was therefore hoping I could call on members of the OSS.” Beth is looking for any swimmers who have any personal experience of cold water swimming while pregnant.

If  you swam while pregnant, or have done, can you help with the following:

1. Up until how many weeks pregnant did you swim outdoors?
2. At what time of year/what was the approximate water temperature?
3. Did you adapt your swimming habits at all?
4. Did you experience any positive effects of swimming whilst pregnant?
5. Did you experience any negative effects of swimming whilst pregnant?

Any other observations, including experiences of swimming after the birth of a child, would also be really interesting and helpful to Mark and Beth. The hope is to publish the findings in a journal and on the OSS website so that it can benefit other swimmers.

If you can answer the questions above and share your experience, email:  mark.coldwaterswimming@gmail.com