Mike Rowbottom: Running through the baby barrier

Can you imagine the fuss if men had to put up with what women put up with?

I'm talking about babies, although it could be other things. But babies- that is, having them (not making them, any fool can do that).

Talking to British athlete and mother-of-two Jo Pavey in the Letzigrund Stadium on Tuesday night, half-an-hour or so after she had won her first big track gold at the age of 40, I couldn't help wondering how a male athlete would have coped with the physical and mental demands that had been made on her in the months leading to the European Championships currently underway here.

(Not that we will ever be able to know. I get that. For some reason I am recalling something which happened shortly after my wife had given birth to our first child - a nurse popped her head round the door and said: "You look like you need a cup of tea." She was talking to me.)

Pavey is and always has been the most down-to-earth of athletes, without a shred of self importance. As she spoke about her preparations for this season, she enumerated with the odd burst of laughter the difficulties she had encountered on her route to a golden success in the 10,000 metres which followed the accruing of a Commonwealth bronze medal over 5,000m just 10 days earlier.

Jo Pavey, Britain's 40-year-old mother-of-two, celebrates her European 10,000m title in Zurich ©Getty Images

"It's funny. I don't know how I've done it really," she said, with more than a trace of wonder in her Devonian voice.

She added that the most difficult time for her had been having so little time to prepare for the European trials after the birth of her daughter Emily 10 months ago.

"I was still breast-feeding in April, but I had to be ready to run on May 10 and I just didn't know if I could do it. That was really difficult. My times in training were really terrible, and I felt so tired. I was just lying on the floor feeling exhausted! It was like I was running with weights on me, but now they have all been lifted off. I think being in that state probably got me really fit because I found it really hard to run fast but I was still putting the effort in."

Pavey added that she had had an even harder time getting back to fitness after the birth of her son Jacob four year ago, when both she and her newborn were unwell and required stays in hospital.

But as her form and general demeanour has made utterly clear in the space of the past month, Pavey has come through the challenges a happier, stronger and - she believes, crucially - a more relaxed person and athlete.

Paula Radcliffe poses with her young daughter Isla after winning the 2007 New York Marathon title ©AFP/Getty Images

It is a pattern that has become familiar in female distance running.

World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, who gave birth to her first child in 2007, went on to win the New York City Marathon that year - and indeed the following year.

In so doing, she followed a template set by her predecessor as a high-achieving British distance runner. In the summer of 1991, less than a year after giving birth to her first child, Eilish, Liz McColgan won the 10,000m title at the IAAF World Championships in Tokyo.

"I was three-and-a-half months pregnant before I knew that I was pregnant and I was training a100 odd miles a week," McColgan recalled in The Independent in 1995. "I trained right up until I had her. I think it was about the week before I had her I was out for a run and I took a really sore stomach and I said, 'Well, that's nature telling you stop running,' so I stopped running then..."

Not for long, however - within 11 days of giving birth McColgan was back on a three-mile training run.

Liz McColgan earns the world 10,000m title in 1991, less than a year after having her first child ©Getty Images

Two months ago Alysia Montano, who ran the 800m for the United States at the London 2012 Olympics, created some waves by taking part in the United States Track & Field Championships Championships in Sacramento when she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

"I know there is a lot of stigma and really, the word is ignorance, behind pregnant women and exercising," Montano told CBS LA after the race. "And the truth is, it's good for the mom and the baby."

Medical advice has been that expectant mothers at such a stage in their pregnancy should continue to exercise at the level they are used to.

Alysia Montano competes in this year's USTAF championship 800m while eight-and-a-half-months pregnant ©Getty Images

Not every mother feels moved to drive themselves back to competition in the manner of Pavey, Radcliffe or McColgan. Earlier this year Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands decided not to defend her 200m title at the Glasgow 2014 having given birth to her first child 10 months earlier. Her decision followed that of 35-year-old Scottish 400m specialist Lee McConnell, who had a child in November of last year and decided not to try and return to the track in time to compete at this summer's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It's a tough call. But then mothers are tough aren't they?

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £8.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.