As the first British gymnast to return to elite trampolining after having a baby, Laura Gallagher knew she’d have her work cut out. But incredibly, just nine months after giving birth to daughter Edie in January 2023, Laura was back competing at the World Trampoline Championships.
A sporty kid with parents willing to drive her and her brother wherever they needed to be for practice, Laura first tried trampoline aged five and enjoyed “literally every sport,” before focussing on trampoline from 15. “I wanted to see how far I could go,” she says. The dedication paid off, with Laura, 35, reaching the top of her game, representing Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Consulting with her team during her pregnancy, Laura realised prioritising pelvic health would be vital if she was to return to the sport she loved. Stress incontinence is often an issue for athletes in high-impact sports, with trampolining a particular risk as gymnasts put 16 times their body weight through the trampoline when they land. A 2021 study in the International Urogynecology Journal on 319 gymnasts and cheerleaders found that two third of them suffered from incontinence. But when she was starting out, says Laura, it was something that was laughed off.
“As a teenager I trained with girls who were older than me and grew up with them joking about it. It wasn’t ever taken seriously,” says the athlete from Somerset. “I knew it was a problem because I’d gone to competitions and seen it happen to some girls. It tended to be younger girls coming into their teens, maybe hitting puberty. I didn’t realise there were ways to manage it.”
Instead of training their pelvic floors, girls would avoid drinking during competitions, take multiple trips to the bathroom and wear incontinence pads. But in recent years, says Laura, there’s been a big shift in attitude, with British Gymnastics holding workshops about pelvic health.
When Laura became pregnant and decided she wanted to try her best to return to elite level competition, she began planning with British Gymnastics and UKSI (UK Sports Institute). Her team told her that core and pelvic health work would be key due to the changes the pelvic floor undergoes during pregnancy and birth.
“On the strength and conditioning side, they suggested pilates, which is linked to the core and pelvic health. The better your pelvic health, the better your core will be – it was emphasised to me how important that was as I wanted to come back to training and compete at a high level after I had the baby. The female health leader at British Gymnastics also suggested I have a pelvic health checkup. It’s perhaps not the nicest thing to have done, but it wasn’t awkward. The physio was great.
“The teams talked to staff who supported women through pregnancies in sports like cycling because in our sport, at an elite level, I was the first to have a baby and want to come back.”
After an unplanned C-section, Laura took her recovery slowly. “For the first two weeks my movement was really limited. It was so strange learning how to move again after a massive surgery. I’d been really sick during my pregnancy too, which limited what I could do – I felt really out of shape.”
After her six-week GP check-up, Laura returned to pilates, focusing on working deeper core muscles, avoiding exercises like crunches to allow separated abdominal muscles to close and give herself a solid base to build on.
After lots of walks with Edie, husband Matt Cox and Monty the beagle, Laura began using the Couch to 5k running programme as a reintroduction to impact training, starting from week four with the support of her trainer. She then moved on to plyometrics (jump training) before returning to the trampoline.
Learning to perform her routines again meant getting to grips with her new physique. “I’d never really had boobs before,” she laughs. “Everything felt a bit different and I had to get proper support.”
Edie, now 17 months, was at her side throughout. With Laura running a mum and baby gymnastics club at Quayside Trampoline Gymnastics in Bridgewater, Somerset, Edie was able to enjoy the play equipment, rocking happily in a swing while Laura worked out.
Incredibly, after just nine months, Laura was competing at the World Championships in Birmingham. While she didn’t get the placing she was hoping for, still put in an impressive performance. “Maybe I was asking a bit much of myself,” she admits. “Edie was waking five times a night, I was still breastfeeding, I’d damaged my calf and had an issue with my foot which the doctor suggested was a postnatal thing.
“My feet were the strangest thing, I’d gone up a shoe size and had really painful ankles. Experts told me it was possible that it was to do with breastfeeding and hormones.
“With hindsight, maybe I would have returned at a different time. I was worried about how long it would take for the skills to return but they actually came back really quickly.”
Prioritising her pelvic health and core, says Laura, is still important – and it’s something she urges all women to work on. “Even now, if I haven’t worked my core for a day, it switches off. It doesn’t feel back to normal, there’s a heavy feeling like I’m being pushed to the floor. It doesn’t stop me at all, but I know I need to work through it, do a better warm up or whatever helps.
“It’s about consistency, 10 minutes a day, you can do it sitting at your desk. Even as an athlete it’s something I have to work really hard on. I was lucky to have coaches to work with but there’s some great advice online, or ask trainers at the gym.”
Laura is now taking time to recover, running her baby gym group and working with young people as an athlete mentor for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. “It’s been a whirlwind. I feel really lucky, I’ve wanted to be a mum for a long time so to have Edie and to be able to come back to what I love is wonderful. My body has been through so much, there’s been a lot of change but it’s been a great adventure.”