Four months ago, Rebecca Redfern was holding her newborn daughter for the first time. This week, she will be holding her breath underwater, racing down a 50-meter pool at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Redfern, a 26-year-old Paralympic gold medallist from Worcestershire, England, gave birth to her baby girl in March. Now she is preparing to compete in the 50-meter freestyle swimming event just four months later.
The journey back to elite sport has not been easy, but it has been worth it.
"I've surprised myself actually," Redfern told BBC Hereford and Worcester. "I thought I might just be bumbling along, but I've actually been able to pick up a lot of speed."
Redfern has a condition that limits her peripheral vision — her side vision — and her eyesight may get worse over time. She already has a six-year-old son and says she wanted to have children while she could still see them grow up.
"My vision is going to deteriorate and I could go blind one day, and I didn't want the worry that I'm not going to see my kids grow up," she said. "That was my biggest fear."
So she made a choice: she would not wait until her swimming career was over to start a family. She would do both at the same time.
"To balance being able to have my kids and still be an elite athlete is an incredible opportunity, and I didn't want to compromise on either of them," Redfern said.
Many sportswomen face a difficult decision. They either put their athletic careers on hold to have children, or they delay having a family to focus on their sport. Redfern is showing it does not have to be one or the other.
This is not her first time returning to the pool after childbirth. In 2021, she won a silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics just nine months after becoming a mother for the first time. But this time, the timeline is even tighter — only four months.
Her training has been different. She has been working closely with physiotherapists to make sure her body is ready, and she is still breastfeeding her daughter. The team has been supportive, booking her a hotel room so she can keep her baby close during the Games.
"Australia would have been absolutely incredible, but having it a little bit closer to home has worked out really nicely for me," she said, noting that the Games were moved to Glasgow after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew.
Redfern won gold at the Paris Paralympics in 2024, and she received an MBE — a special honor in Britain for people who have made important contributions to their community — that same year.
For Glasgow, she is keeping her expectations realistic. She is swimming the shorter 50-meter race instead of her preferred 100 meters because she has not had enough time to build up her endurance.
"I'm not putting any expectations on," she said. "As long as I can get from the start to the finish and have a decent go at it, we'll just have a little bit of fun and we'll see what happens."
Most of all, Redfern wants her children to see what their mother can do.
"I'm quite fortunate that the Commonwealths isn't my main event, so there's almost no pressure on me to perform to my best," she said. "It's just about going and enjoying, and showing my kids that they've got a supermum."