- In 2022 Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir became the first player to win a claim through the FIFA Maternity Regulations
- She is now helping expectant mothers and those returning after childbirth as part of a FIFPRO taskforce of footballers
- The Icelandic midfielder helped develop FIFPRO’s Postpartum Return to Play Guide alongside players such as Crystal Dunn, Cheyna Matthews and Almuth Schult
Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir made history in 2022 by becoming the first player to win a claim against a club through the FIFA Maternity Regulations.
The regulations, introduced in January 2021 after pressure from FIFPRO, entitled Bjork Gunnarsdottir – now at Saudi club Al Qadsiah – to full payment throughout her pregnancy and until the start of her maternity leave when at former club Olympique Lyonnais.
"I am proud of what I have achieved, not just for me, but for all women who are to follow; all the players who are about to become mothers, and who won’t have to worry about their careers because they can use the example that I have set to ensure fair treatment," Bjork Gunnarsdottir told FIFPRO in 2022.
"As well as winning the case, I am proud of being part of the conversation around motherhood in football."
Two years on, Bjork Gunnarsdottir is still very much part of that conversation: the 145-time Iceland international helped develop FIFPRO’s Postpartum Return to Play Guide alongside other players with international experience such as Crystal Dunn, Cheyna Matthews and Almuth Schult.
Postpartum Return to Play Guide
FIFPRO has launched a 48-page guide to help professional footballers, as well as their families, team staff and other football stakeholders, better understand and manage pregnancy and the phase after childbirth.
The guide aims to help footballers, their entourage and competition regulators better understand and manage the ‘return to play’ phase after pregnancy and the postpartum period. It was a resource Bjork Gunnarsdottir was not afforded when she had her son in 2021.
"I was anxious before coming back. I would have appreciated guidelines or support," Bjork Gunnarsdottir recalls to FIFPRO. "These guidelines are so important to try to ease the pressure on players."
After listening to players’ pre- and postpartum experiences and analysing existing scientific literature, FIFPRO discovered a lack of readily available advice and knowledge within the footballing landscape. One of the aims of the Postpartum Return to Play guide is to fill that void.
Developed by a taskforce of professional women’s footballers with lived experience of the return to play journey and a group of medical and academic experts, the guide offers invaluable recommendations for players and aims to change perceptions for future pregnant footballers.
It addresses multiple angles – from wellbeing to legal rights – and is shaped by the players who have experienced the journey themselves.
"It's important it comes from a different angle, that it comes from different experiences," said Bjork Gunnarsdottir. "If I put myself in a player’s position right now after this guide coming out, I would feel more at ease, more confident if I would get pregnant or if I wanted to get pregnant."
