Woman runs marathon, has baby a few hours later
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Talk about a marathon pregnancy.
Amber Miller, 27, completed all 26 miles of the Chicago marathon Sunday, and then gave birth to a healthy baby girl about seven hours later. She was 38 weeks and five days pregnant.
And if you’re thinking Miller delivered a small baby, think again. Baby June Audra weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces.
“The race was definitely easier than labor,” Miller said at a news conference at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill., on Monday morning, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sunday’s marathon was Miller’s eighth, and the second one she has run while pregnant. She completed a marathon when she was 17-weeks pregnant with her first child.
Miller told reporters she had signed up for the race in February before she knew she was pregnant. As the date of the marathon approached, she felt she could handle it and her doctor gave her the go-ahead to run half and walk half.
She was also prepared not to finish.
Her usual running time is three hours and 25 minutes. On Sunday, she completed the race in six hours and 25 minutes.
‘I was having a conversation with my parents the night before, Saturday night, and I was telling them I have no plans of actually finishing,’ Miller told a local ABC news station. ‘I was kind of planning on running about half and then maybe skipping to the end and walking across the finish line.’
Instead, she made it all the way through.
‘Is this normal? Obviously not,’ said James Pivarnik, a professor of kinesiology and epidemiology at the University at Michigan State University who wrote the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent guidelines for physical activity during pregnancy.
But he said he applauds her doctor for allowing her do it. ‘Generally what we say is let the woman’s symptoms and history dictate what she can do,’ he said. ‘She is obviously just one of those freaks who was able to do it. Most people wouldn’t want to.’
For video of Miller and her new baby June, check out the Chicago Tribune.
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--Deborah Netburn
