Shaunagh Brown column: Deciding to have a baby would end my rugby career

The Quins men won their first title in nine years. There were a lot of kids celebrating with their fathers after the match.

If my team won the premier 15s final a couple of weeks later, nobody's children would play on the field.

What's the reason? Nobody had anything.

Marlie Packer is the mother of a member of the England Rugby World Cup team.

Rugby player Marlie didn't give birth to her son until she was done playing rugby.

I've known for a while that I want children, but now that I've gotten engaged, I'm going to have to make a decision.

When I decide the time is right to have kids, I will also be deciding whether or not I want to continue playing rugby.

I'm now 32 years old. If you're pregnant, you have to stop playing rugby as soon as you can.

It wouldn't feel realistic to try to get back to the highest level of rugby at that point in my life.

People forget that elite athletes are also human with the same life decisions. I want to discuss this now.

'Sportswomen have to plan babies meticulously'

My family is very important to me. My family comes and goes with my mother's children all the time.

When I was a child, I felt like I did not need a partner or children.

About eight years ago, that became different. I used to be a hammer thrower and used to stay with a family in California in order to train for the Commonwealth Games.

At some point in my life, I would love to have a family with my parents and two kids.

I would like to have children with my partner. When that happens, we have to make a decision.

It feels like everything has to be planned if you want to give birth.

People have done it. Les Elder and Deborah Fleming are examples.

I am almost turning my baby into a spreadsheet if I did it because I would have to plan it out so carefully.

A Six Nations or a World Cup would be a good place to start. The baby would have to be conceived within a certain time frame.

What would happen if it didn't happen? Do you want another World Cup? It isn't easy. As a sportswoman, you have to plan meticulously, but you don't want that to be the way you start your family.

Things weren't helped by the unpredictability of Covid. There are only three years until the next World Cup, and that has a huge impact on decisions like this.

'We are not just small men - we have different needs'

I hope that these choices will be made easier for players in the future because at the moment they are not the norm.

There is a growing conversation about maternity in sport and the Rugby Football Union is introducing a new policy that will give us more support as England players.

There is a lot to think about, so players have been consulted. Breast-feeding is another example.

Do you have to stop breast-feeding if you can't train with your baby? The goal is to bring more humanity into elite sport.

Women. We are not the same as one another. We are much more than that. There are different needs for us.

If you have good maternity policies, you will feel like a woman in rugby.

It doesn't have to be a choice between having a baby and continuing your career.

The policy will hopefully kick-start changes in the game.

'We have to make these choices like everyone else'

I would like to see more research on how to return to sport after having a baby.

I don't know much about it, so I think there should be more ways to get that knowledge.

What if women's sports teams were offered information sessions where they could learn more about the effects of a pregnant player on their body and how long it would take to get back to normal?

I have heard from other players that they went with how their body felt at the time, which is important, but what if that journey was supported by scientific evidence as well? I would feel safe with that support.

I am not an expert on any of this, but I wanted to share my experiences with you.

The focus of every England player is on our quarter-final against Australia on Sunday.

We have to make the same decisions as everyone else.

Brown was talking to a person.

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