‘She is now the biggest why in my life’: Lark Atkin-Davies on motherhood and rugby return

Lark Atkin-Davies will return to the rugby pitch this Saturday for Bristol after having her daughter Olive and she credits support, the RFU’s maternity policy and Abbie Ward for her becoming a mother alongside her rugby career.

The England international, who last played in the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 final, had initially thought she would give up the sport to have a family when she was first awarded a professional contract in 2019. Since then maternity policy has evolved for the Red Roses and she also saw her Bristol and England teammate Ward have her first daughter, Hallie, and return to the pitch.

Atkin-Davies, who gave birth 16 weeks ago, said: “If you would have asked me four years ago, we talk about these things and people were like ‘do you think you’ll have a baby and come back to playing?’ and I was like ‘I am really not sure and I can’t see how it works’. Maternity policy has changed since then but [at the time] I couldn’t get it in my head how it would work.

“From a family perspective my husband Jamie was a teacher at the time so how would that work from a childcare perspective? I think seeing Abbie go through her pregnancy and the way she has navigated motherhood definitely gave me that ‘I can do this’.

“Also it is a credit to the environment we have built at the Red Roses now that we have such an amazing environment where family is so welcome. The morning of the World Cup final we had people there with their families and children. Just seeing that and seeing how it has worked has made me go ‘yeah this is achievable’.

“From a logistics point of view Jamie has gone self-employed as a financial adviser so his work is a lot more flexible. So why wouldn’t I give it a shot of trying to get back to rugby? It’s something I absolutely love doing and I want it to continue to be my career.

“Mothers before [us] as well like Deborah Wills, Davinia Catlin, there have been people that have done it. But I think it is being able to see that support is there and however you choose to navigate having a baby and returning to play you are going to be supported.”

That support was prevalent for Atkin-Davies throughout her pregnancy and in postpartum. Coaches, physios, doctors, pelvic health physios all helped with training and she also had people like Bristol Bears’ chef Jonathan Francis saying if she needed anything nutrition-wise to let him know.

The 31-year-old trained up to the week before she gave birth and was back to it two weeks after she welcomed Olive.

As well as training, she also had to navigate gestational diabetes. The condition causes high blood pressure and sometimes occurs during pregnancy with the placenta releasing a hormone which interferes with the body’s use of insulin.

“I actually think training was really beneficial to it [the condition],” she added. “I think had I not been training I don’t know what my blood sugar levels would have been like. They recommend walking after every meal which I still did most of the time but if I was at training at Bears that would be training or the gym after eating.

“There were certain things around it, I ended up having to take insulin. That is a prohibited substance [in rugby] so I had to have a therapeutic use exemption form. I think being a sportsperson helped me navigate that diagnosis a lot better.

“I was having consultants in the hospital saying ‘you need to do this with your nutrition’ and I was like ‘I have that, I am a professional sportswoman, I can do nutrition’. While it was tough having to inject and do my blood sugars four times a day, I think sport teaches you so many good lessons and it just became part of the routine.

“I was able to go ‘okay this is just part of it now’ and I felt really well supported in that as well.”

Part of the way through the interview Olive woke up from her nap and joined Atkin-Davies. The 16-week-old watched the laptop screen curiously as the conversation continued around how motherhood has been so far.

 

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“It’s been absolutely amazing,” she said. “Pregnancy and becoming a mum, I think completely redefines love. It feels like my heart just bursts at how much I love her and each day you don’t think you can love anything more and then you’re like I definitely love her more and more and more.”

Atkin-Davies will have a tiny cheerleader in the stands this Saturday when she returns to the pitch in the PWR NextGen Cup when Bristol take on Harlequins.

“I am really excited,” she said. “Just to be able to run around with my teammates again [will be amazing]. You see these amazing returns to rugby whether that is injury [or pregnancy].

“The last game I played in was the World Cup final and after your first trimester you don’t team train, you do skills but you don’t do anything from a team perspective. So it is a really long time potentially on your own or in a small group of people.

“The team have been great in terms of keeping me a part of everything, I went into Six Nations camp, but there is nothing quite the same as running around on the pitch with your teammates. Although she won’t remember it, those moments of Olive coming to training with me or seeing me run out on a pitch we’ll be able to look back on and be like ‘this is what your mum did’.”

Atkin-Davies was one of four Red Roses players to announce a pregnancy in the months after winning the World Cup. She has said she and Ward, who had her second daughter, Lila, in July, joke about their children becoming the next generation of Red Roses.

She said: “We have joked about how cool it would be in however many years time if we were sat watching Olive and Lila play rugby, it could happen! The thought of having them all running around is amazing, she has a little girl gang and all the other staff members’ children as well. I think we could definitely make up close to a 15 now.”

Atkin-Davies has many achievements on the pitch with more potentially to come in the future but she added Olive trumps all of them.

“I am someone who is pretty hard on themselves,” she said. “But this is the chapter I am most proud of. Don’t get me wrong, winning a World Cup was absolutely amazing but to be able to grow a human, birth her, it’s amazing.

“I think [this weekend] will be emotional for sure. I think it’s one of those where you want to focus on the game but she is now the biggest why in my life and having that is so incredibly important.”