Pregnant woman finishes marathon, gives birth

Many women compare running a marathon to giving birth, but doing both on the same day? That’s what one woman did in Chicago on Sunday.

Amber Miller, 27, ran in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, then gave birth to a baby girl just hours later. Miller told ABC news she had signed up to run the race before she found out she was pregnant, and decided to go ahead with the run. With just one week to go until her due date, however, she figured she wasn’t going to finish the race.

“I was having a conversation with my parents and said, ‘You know what? I have no plans of actually finishing,'” she told reporters yesterday. “I was planning on running half, skipping to the end, then walking across the finish line.”

Instead, she started running the race in her husband. The pair ran the first half, but slowed to a walk during the second half as her contractions started. She finished the race in 6.5 hours, grabbed some food and headed straight to the hospital. Baby June was born at 10:29 p.m.

Is it safe to run a marathon while pregnant? While it’s certainly not normal (and most medical experts don’t recommend starting a new training regime or taking up running if you weren’t previously a runner), many mothers have been known to run well into their pregnancies. Paula Radcliffe, women’s world record holder for the marathon, trained during both of her pregnancies.

Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, told
ABC news that pregnant women can do moderate exercise as long as she can still hold a conversation. He said Miller, whom he has not treated, seemed to be in good cardiovascular health, was young and fit and ran throughout her pregnancy.
Miller told reporters herself that she is usually a 3:30 marathoner who has completed eight marathons. She has run three of those while pregnant, including one when she was 17 weeks pregnant with June and another when she was pregnant with June’s older brother Caleb.