Playing Paintball When Pregnant: Is It Safe?

There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t play paintball when you’re carrying a baby. If you don’t believe it yet, here possible paintball scenarios that can possibly hurt you or your unborn child. 

Falling or Tripping

One of the most common occurrences in paintball is falling or tripping. You can always trip on a branch or a rock. Even professional paintball players trip, so you’re not an exception! What’s worse is that when you trip you might collide with a tire or a wall which will just double your pain. 

What if you’re just a few weeks in? You might think that even if your baby is just an embryo, it wouldn’t matter so much if you run around in paintball; however, that is so far from the truth. Why do you think people get a lot of miscarriages? 

While miscarriages can be caused by a lot of things, stress and a lot of jumping and running are some of them. When you play paintball, there is still stress even if they’re the good kind. No matter how you claim to be “chill” in your paintball game, everyone knows that that is almost never the case.

Just think about it this way. When you trip or fall, there is a high chance that you can damage your placenta. The placenta is the organ that nourishes your baby. If that breaks, then you will be damaging your baby. Some problems like abnormalities and premature deliveries can happen. 

Collisions

Paintball isn’t a contact sport, so why should you worry about collisions? You’re right, collisions don’t always happen but when they do, they’re not just your minor problems. A lot of collisions involve hitting some obstacles or other people and the impact can be damaging to your body. 

Just like falling on the floor, there’s a lot of damage that can happen to you or your baby. If you collide with a solid object and it hits your belly, then there’s a chance that the force might destroy your placenta. If the placenta gets damaged, then you already know what happens. 

It’s not just your placenta that can break. It can be any organ in your belly. When that happens, there are so many possibilities that can go wrong with your baby and you don’t want to risk that.

Getting Hit by a Paintball

The goal of paintball is to hit people so it comes as no surprise that the chances of you getting hit are high. If you can guarantee that your opponents will only hit you on your limbs, then you can play paintball. But you know that that is next to impossible. Even if you’re friends with the opponent and you can ask them to hit you in certain areas only, they won’t be able to guarantee that. 

Don’t forget that people can be very competitive when paintball starts. The last thing players want to do is to try to be cautious because someone pregnant is joining the game. They might not say it to your face but they will probably think that you’re a buzzkill. 

Just to be safe, it’s best not to even attempt to play paintball when you’re pregnant. It’s going to be hard not to get hit unless you’re very good at paintball. However, that’s still not a guarantee. Besides, if your belly gets hit by a paintball, it will often hurt more than usual. Some even have marks left on their stomach even after a few days. 

Overheating

What does it mean to overheat? If you didn’t know, pregnant women have a higher body temperature than a non-pregnant person. This is mainly because your body is using more energy because it’s now taking care of two people. Yes, even if the baby is just a fetus, your body still uses energy to nurture it. 

When it comes to overheating, you won’t be in this state all the time unless you constantly do strenuous activities. And yes, paintball is included in that list of strenuous activities. When you play paintball, not only will you be running around in a field, but you will also be wearing several layers of protection. If you’re pregnant, then you’ll be wearing more. Needless to say, playing paintball in the summer is not a wise choice. 

What happens when you overheat? You’ll know you’re overheating when you feel warm all over. You’ll also feel nauseous or weak during the length of the game. If you don’t have that much strength in you, then that’s probably you overheating already. 

Is there a way to prevent overheating when you’re playing paintball? If you’re not pregnant, you can always wear light clothes especially when you’re playing in the summer. However, if you’re pregnant, you can’t do that. In fact, the more you need to wear more layers to add a layer of cushion to your belly.

Aside from tripping and falling, one of the worst things that can happen is your body overheats. When that happens, your baby will be at risk for abnormalities and body temperature problems while in your womb. You might even end up having a miscarriage. 

Injuries

Paintball is a relatively safe sport – it’s not even a contact sport! However, you can never say for sure that it is risk-free. Anything can happen when you’re out in the paintball field and you can’t risk that for your baby. One of the most common injuries people experience is a broken or sprained ankle. 

What does that have to do with pregnancy? You’re probably thinking of the same question. The simple answer is there’s no connection between your pregnancy and your sprained ankle except for stress. Stress is a dangerous feeling especially for pregnant women because that can lead to miscarriage. Even if you’re used to having ankle sprains, that’s still no excuse to subject yourself to additional stress. 

There will rarely be any major injuries, but why risk it? There are cases where people can trip and fall right on their stomachs and that causes damage to their baby. Again, the worst that can happen is a miscarriage. It might sound impossible but it does happen especially when you overheat or get stressed at the same time.