Chelsea Women in England has become the first club in the Women’s Super League (WSL) to introduce separate fertility and maternity support policies for footballers. The programmes provide assistance with family planning, pregnancy and returning to professional sport after childbirth, Sky Sports News reports.
Reproductive health support
The club has partnered with the London clinic Fertility Plus and created a fund available to all players. It covers egg freezing, in vitro fertilisation, cervical screening, contraception, consultations and information sessions intended to help athletes make informed decisions.
Participation in the programme is voluntary: players will decide independently whether they need such support and which elements of it they wish to use. Women’s team commercial manager and former goalkeeper Carly Telford said that cooperation with the clinic also provides information about hormones, endometriosis, menstrual cycle tracking and examinations.
According to Telford, the footballers’ medical information will be confidentially shared only between Fertility Plus doctors and the club’s medical specialists.
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Support during pregnancy and after childbirth
The maternity support policy provides individual assistance during pregnancy and recovery after childbirth. Chelsea will also provide financial assistance for a partner or nanny to travel to away matches during the year after a player returns to playing.
The package also includes enhanced adoption and parental leave arrangements, salary support and subsidised childcare. Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor, who has four children, said that during her playing career she lacked information and opportunities to combine football with motherhood.
The club has previously had players who became mothers: Melanie Leupolz gave birth to a child in 2022 and returned to play for Chelsea, while Zecira Musovic travelled to Sweden in June 2025 before giving birth later that year.
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