For today’s working woman, pregnancy brings both joy and challenge. The chance to create life is a gift—but one that often demands professional sacrifice. Few feel this more than athletes, whose livelihoods rely on their physical performance, which can shift dramatically after childbirth.
So when WNBA star Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, 32, became pregnant with her second child while navigating free agency, the former Atlanta Dream forward faced a tough reality. As she sought a contract with the Las Vegas Aces—home to MVP A’ja Wilson—she felt anxious about revealing her pregnancy, unsure how it might affect her future. She’d already experienced the challenges of returning to play after her first child, Naomi, born in 2021 via C-section.
“I’m thankful that they’ve been supportive, but I was terrified to tell them,” Parker-Tyus says. “It was a really scary free agency because the last time I got pregnant, I had already signed, I had to sit for some months. So this time, I knew that it was something I had to be upfront about, and it was a very scary process, figuring out how I was going to break it to them because it’s not in my character to just try and play it off and hide it. I just wouldn’t feel right with myself doing that. But I had a lot of fear. It’s a tight league. [The Aces] got a new team and they’re expanding, but it’s still tight. It’s not a big league, and it’s a very competitive one. So it was a tough situation.”
The Aces not only signed her to a one-year deal, but helped her line up everything she needed to prepare for her son’s birth this summer—from a pediatrician to a pelvic floor specialist. Such support is rare. Pregnancy in women’s sports is still too often viewed as a sidelining injury.
“I want to be able to have a family and still pursue my career and be a top basketball player in the world. I still can have that goal. Everyone is entitled to their choices as to when they choose to do it or if they get a surrogate or whatever may be the case. But I think it should be up to that player,” she says. “There’s just a lot of unfortunately unspoken conversations and there should be more outspoken conversations about that because we are women and we do want to have be able to have kids. And the prime of our playing career is also the prime of our reproductive career.”
Parker-Tyus is due at the end of June, with hopes to return in time for the playoffs in September. She’s planning for a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) and is already training for her post-delivery comeback.
“I’m very optimistic. My husband thinks I’m delusional, but that’s fine,” she jokes. “As long as I feel like I’m ready, I’ll be ready by the playoffs. That’s the compromise I made with him. I said, if I can be ready by the playoffs, I’ll be happy. As an athlete, the opportunity to play with some of the best in the world, I just don’t want to miss that. I know there’s next season too, but to be able to help these ladies get a championship ring, even if that means showing up in the playoffs, so be it. But that’s just the mentality I have.”
She’s done it before. After Naomi’s birth, Parker-Tyus returned with some of her strongest stats—even after a tough pregnancy that left her weak and sick. Six weeks after giving birth, she was back to training. Another six weeks later, she was running up and down the court, trying out some pickup games.
“I had her December 27 and training camp was April 17 and no one expected me to be ready. I was like, are y’all kidding me? My coaches were trying to ease me back in in Atlanta and I’m like, I’m ready to go! I was a hundred percent ready,” she recalls.
Now, with a smoother pregnancy, she’s focused on maintaining movement—stretching, walking, napping—and preparing to become a mom of two. She and husband Keevin have leaned on faith, family, and each other to stay grounded. She’s also mentally preparing for boy-mom life.
“He’s big!” the 6’4″ athlete says. “Naomi’s already big. So two big kids. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a ride.”
It’s a ride made possible by her strong support system.
“I’m thankful for my village. I emphasize ‘my village’ because if not for the village, it would be a wrap,” she notes. “The type of mother that I strive to be, I can’t just have my child with anybody. So I’m so thankful that I have my husband, I have my mom. Just being there for me from my recovery, being able to eat those important protein meals and recovery meals to heal, to getting back in shape and just allowing me comfort in knowing, okay, if I do leave, she’s ok. I struggled with it the first year and a half or maybe two when my daughter was young when I didn’t have her in my sight. She had to be with me. She was a gym rat since she came out. She was in the gym literally sitting by my mom while I was doing my thing and getting back. And I’m thankful that my husband is like my trainer. So he has been there with me too. It’s been a family affair and it’s been a lot of commitment, devotion, and sacrifice that my family has done for me.”
She’s also leaned on the encouragement of other WNBA moms.
“There’s this newfound strength that comes with being a mother. I had to go hard for Naomi. So I think that’s going to be the same this time around, but more powerful,” she says. “I had to talk to another player. She had her son a few years ago, and when I told her I was pregnant with my son, she said, ‘You get better after the second one.’ For me, that was not only encouraging, but it just affirmed what I already knew.”
As the league grows, Parker-Tyus hopes its support for mothers grows too. She’s already seen changes—and wants to push for more.
“In the beginning of the league, thankfully, I waited until later to enter and have kids, because back then you only got half your salary. So they’ve changed. They’ve changed a lot already. And so everything has been going in a good direction for the league,” Parker-Tyus says. “And with the growth, I think it will also go in a direction to where things are better than it is now. Not to say it’s terrible, but it definitely could use some work. When we have the opportunity to speak up about things we want to see and changes we want to see, I’m always going to be an advocate for the moms.”