Not only can they stand and walk, they can even run!

If I believed in God, I'd feel like the apple of her eye right now. It's because of the timing.

Just as I'm succumbing to a little old-fashioned thinking and deciding maybe now, at 34 weeks pregnant, I'll stop running and stick to the bike, a friend (an angel?) sends me this article in the USA Today about a woman who's also 34 weeks pregnant:

"Pregnant runner finishes 800 meters at U.S. nationals"

Alysia Montano just doing her thing, which happens to also show the world what pregnancy can be. (source)

She's still running like a cheetah.

And guess what? Cheetahs get pregnant too! Always have!

And you know what? Gazelles get pregnant too! Always have!

So whether you see hominins as the predators or the prey at any given time in human evolution, the pregnant ones, at least in our direct lineage, were obviously doing all right. (Flashback to similar thinking, here.)

There's footage of Montano on the move, and an interview about it all at ESPN. Those questions reflect some old-fashioned thinking that I wish the interviewer had explicitly distanced herself from. That's because we're in the future now. Women aren't asked to stop being active, strong humans just because they're growing a kid. In fact, those of us who are active and who have good healthcare and routine pregnancy check-ups are encouraged by our midwives and doctors to stay active, to stay fit throughout pregnancy.

Society expects non-pregnant women to do the same. Society also expects kids growing outside the womb to do the same. Is any of that any different? Do people actually think that all their female ancestors sat on ass while pregnant?

I guess some people don't think. Or maybe they haven't had a rich enough education in both history and natural history to give them the context for thinking about this. Maybe they take a doctor's (god's?) or a scientist's (god's) Word at any given moment, no matter how many decades ago it was uttered, as scripture, forever and ever amen. Especially when it comes to babies, those little miracles.

There are so many of us who've spent our entire lives being active, and as a result are pretty strong human beings. This goes for women who have no choice and must labor physically during their lives to stay alive and well and to keep their families alive and well. But this also goes for women in places like the U.S. where many women have had the opportunity to be athletes as little girls and throughout their lives.

Many of us products of Title IX are reproducing and we sure as hell aren't going to have healthy pregnancies being inactive, being someone else for nine months.

I hope every woman watches Montano and takes inspiration from her if she'd like to. And that might include getting a new and informed, dare I say futuristic, doctor if her current one's holding her back.

I also hope people see Montano running strongly (and disgustingly fast) so that they'll maybe think twice before admonishing a pregnant stranger for lifting that bag of dog food. Or for tsking at her for hiking on any inclines because she should know better and should stick to the flat paths congested with strollers and flip-floppers instead. 

Me, 32 weeks pregnant. On top of Mt. Sargent, Acadia National Park.

To the women and men of our society who have culturally limited expectations of the female body: Watch this video of Montano and then think, react, and act accordingly--with that much broader picture of "woman"--to the rest of us, pregnant or not.

We're everywhere, us active pregnant ladies, but it's something else to see such a prominent one put herself out there like Alysia Montano did. I hope that her two swift laps around that track will go a long way toward expanding minds about expanding uteruses.