Originally posted by Kizzie
Behind every self proclaimed good paintball player is a women pointing and laughing.
Maybe Paintball is for men, but we get such pleasure in taking things from you and ultimately leaving you with the cheap little paintBALLS you rode in with.
Respect Kizzie!!
You go girl!
Seriously though, I was sorry to read your earlier post and to hear of your miscarriage. Let me just say that I am not pregnant Kizzie, nor am i saying that playing paintball while pregnant is right or wrong. It would have to be an individual's choice based on her own and partners feelings and her doctor's advice. Ultimately it's down to her though.
My reason for originally posting was for debate purposes. It occurred to me that it is fairly likely there may be some women paintballers who would wish to carry on playing paintball for a while whilst pregnant.
As tourney rules stand at the moment there is no provision for padding/protection of the abdomen, which was the original topic.
I think it's good to hear the views of others and i applaud all the guys who have said 'no way' would they step onto a field with a pregnant woman. Cool, Respect to you guys. I wouldn't shoot at a pregnant player either, but i'm sure there are some who would regard her as 'just another opponent'.
So where do we go from here, if anywhere?
1. A ban on pregnant women added to tourney rules?
I can see several problems with that...
(a)How would we enforce it? It wouldn't be obvious until around the 16th week of pregnancy or later in some cases...
(b) What if an overweight female baller was accused of being pregnant? It could happen.
(c) Pregnant players who were determined to play may not admit they were pregnant for fear of comdemnation/ refused entry onto the field and thus take to the field without any abdominal protection.
To address these problems, if a ban was enforced then all female ballers would have to take pre-tourney pregnancy test!
or
2. Allow them to take to the field with adequate abdominal protection?
Problem: half the other team may walk off field and that would surely be exploited.
or
3. Keep our fingers crossed that no pregnant women will want to play paintball?