Baby on board: Katrina Gorry’s return to football four months after intense IVF experience

It did for Matildas‘ legend Heather Garriock, who was forced to take self-funded maternity leave, returning to the Australian national team in 2012 with a 10-month-old baby, but with little to no support.

It nearly did for another former Matilda, Melissa Barbieri, who lost all her funding and her Matildas contract the moment she announced her pregnancy in 2013.

Returning to football after pregnancy, giving birth, then juggling a family? It was once unheard of for a professional female footballer, too much for an organisation to take on.

Though there is still a way to go, a new Matildas pay deal does include a pregnancy policy that provides support for athletes during pregnancy and assists in their return to the national team after childbirth.

Matildas midfielder Katrina Gorry knows she is back in the game, just four months after giving birth to baby Harper, thanks to the struggles Garriock and Barbieri endured.

“I definitely thought a couple of years ago that I would have to retire before I had a family, which for me was pretty hard because I always knew I wanted to be a young mum and start my family early,” Gorry, 29, says.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was messaging Bubs (Barbieri) and letting her know how grateful I was that we had her and Heather go before us.

“It makes us feel supported now because they didn't have that support back then. Without them we definitely wouldn’t have the support we have now, so I’m definitely thankful to them for going before us and changing the way it all works.”

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Gorry began contemplating her return to football just a few weeks after Harper’s traumatic labour.

She had never put pressure on herself to bounce back too quickly, but her body was feeling good, Harper was a happy baby who was feeding and sleeping well, and both the Matildas and Brisbane Roar were supporting and monitoring her recovery.

Being pregnant meant she had missed out on representing the Matildas at the Tokyo Olympics but, a little more than four weeks after giving birth, Gorry made an emotional and triumphant return for the Roar as Harper and her proud family watched on.

To cap off a swift and successful comeback Gorry was selected for the Matildas‘ recent Asian Cup squad, though she had to knock back coach Tony Gustavsson’s call up because she felt travelling to India with an infant during the Covid pandemic would be too difficult.

Gorry‘s path to pregnancy is perhaps a less common one, because at the age of 28 she chose to go it alone.

Motivated by seeing other female athletes take a break to have children and returning as even stronger competitors, Gorry began her IVF process.

“I knew I always wanted to have kids and I never wanted to put pressure on a partner if they weren't ready if I was in a relationship at the time,” she says.

“For me it came down to wanting to be able to continue to play football. I found myself not in a relationship and really wanting to be a mum, but also wanting to get back to football as soon as I could.”

When Gorry revealed her plans to her family, she was met with excitement, support and not a whole lot of surprise.

“I had spoken about being a mum pretty much for the last 10 years, so I think quite a few of them knew it was coming and I always felt 2021 would be the year I wanted to start trying,” she says.

“So my family were all really excited and really proud of me for just going ahead and doing it and my friends were equally excited for me.”

But Gorry couldn‘t have imagined how the process would play out.

She was playing her club football in Norway, for Avaldsnes, when she walked into an IVF clinic simply hoping to get more information. Three weeks later she was pregnant and, in a true reflection of the times, she found out while stuck in hotel quarantine back home in Brisbane.

“When I walked into the clinic they said we could start that day and try before I headed home,” Gorry says.

“(After a few weeks of hormone injections) they transferred the egg half an hour before my flight home from Norway. I knew the percentages were low, so that‘s why I decided to try it while I was in Norway because in Australia it’s a long process.

“I headed into a 14-day quarantine in Brisbane not knowing if I was pregnant or not. It was a very long 14 days and I feel sorry for my sister-in-law because she brought me about 25 pregnancy tests – I was taking them far too early.

“When I first saw the very faint line, it was one of the best days of my life.”

There would be another unforgettable moment a few weeks into her pregnancy, when the diminutive midfielder scored a goal she would instantly cherish.

Gorry picked up the ball on the edge of the box and let fly a trademark rocket into the top corner against Canberra United.

‘Mini’, as she is affectionately known, was mobbed by her Brisbane Roar teammates in celebration; they all knew something fans, at the time, didn’t.

“I was about 10 weeks pregnant when I scored that goal,” Gorry says.

“It was a moment I'll cherish with my team because I really felt the support when I scored that goal. It was about the whole club being behind me and supporting me.”

Though still early in her pregnancy, Gorry had revealed the exciting news to her teammates after a scare in a recent match.

She had done her research into playing football while pregnant and her obstetrician assured her the baby would be well protected. In early pregnancy the baby sits low enough in the pelvis that she was told it would take a fair bit to cause it any harm.

So the Matildas and Brisbane star continued playing her game, knowing that if she thought about it too much, it would probably put unnecessary stress on her.

Still, there was a moment during a game in Melbourne that shook Gorry and prompted her to let her teammates in on her news.

“I had told them after one of the games because I had got hit pretty badly and I was a little bit worried. They found out after that,” she says.

“I was away in Melbourne and I got hit pretty badly in the side of my body. I was lucky enough that I had told the doctor before I had gone onto the field and he came over and just reassured me that the baby was fine – they're pretty well protected in the pelvis and it would take quite a lot for anything to happen. I was grateful he was on the field.

“A doctor that I didn't know at all from Melbourne, who I’m really thankful was on my team at that time, also reassured me that bub was safe and it was just a pretty hard knock.”

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Gorry would only play for a couple more weeks into her pregnancy, mainly because the pelvis pain she struggled through even before she fell pregnant intensified to the point that simply getting out of bed was a battle.

And looking back, she's not entirely sure how she managed to train and play during those early, energy-sapping weeks of pregnancy.

“As soon as I’d get to training I’d be pretty unwell. It’s an all-day sickness really – it’s not just morning sickness,” Gorry says.

“It was pretty tough, but I would come home and nap for about three or four hours after training. I‘ve never felt that fatigued and tired in my life. That was so hard.

“Also, I didn't really want to eat very nutritious food. My diet was just biscuits, hot chips and vegemite sandwiches – definitely not my usual pre-game or pre-training snack! It was pretty amazing that eventually I had my team fully supporting me when they found out.”

Once the morning sickness subsided Gorry enjoyed a smooth pregnancy and was encouraged by her mum, who has five children, to keep her body active right to the end.

Gorry had a birth plan, she did a hypnobirthing course and listened to countless podcasts, but if labour taught her anything it‘s that having a baby very rarely goes according to plan.

“My labour took all the turns possible,” she says.

“I always wanted my waters to break and they did on Friday the 13th (of August), which was also my birthday. But it was just a slow leak and nothing happened for about 70 hours, so I ended up being induced on the Sunday afternoon.

“I never wanted to be induced, I wanted to let it happen naturally and spontaneously, but there was a risk of infection after my waters broke. The bub ended up turning and the pain and pressure in my back was something I‘d never experienced before and I ended up having an epidural after 12 hours.

“We eventually got her to turn around again and she ended up coming out on Monday lunchtime, but I ended up losing a litre of blood and I started vomiting blood as well. It was all a bit traumatic for my support people, but I‘m glad I had my mum and sister there because I definitely wouldn’t have gotten through it without them.

“I also had an amazing obstetrician. Most would have sent me for a caesarean straight away because both our temperatures were rising high, but I was able to push her out and deliver her myself.”

Fortunately baby Harper was perfect, while medication soon settled her mum’s weary body down.

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Gorry will see out the season with the Roar, but she and Harper will soon travel to Sweden to join Damallsvenskan side Vittsjo GIK.

Erika Nilsson, chair of the women‘s section of Vittsjo, plans on making the Gorrys feel right at home as soon as they touch down.

“Hiring a single parent who takes their daughter to a new country is, of course, a challenge and places demands on us as a club in many ways,” Nilsson says.

“But we have a very good network of contacts around the club and we have many nannies who look forward to meeting Katrina and her little Harper.

“We have got another Australian national team player and another Vittsjo baby and we really like that.”

For Gorry, she can hardly believe this is the blessed new life she gets to share with her little Harper.

“I do have to stop myself every now and then just to remind myself I've just had a baby,” she says.

“I have a little one to try and make proud and my teammates have been amazing with that support as well.

“It‘s emotional – it just changes your whole perspective. Football is almost like a blessing, those hours of me time or free time. I don’t put any pressure on myself in training sessions anymore, I just play to enjoy it and when you do that, you play to your best.

“It doesn't matter if I’ve had a bad game or a bad training session, I go home to her and we continue living our life together.”