Hi! My name is Ester. I'm a Norwegian amateur climber and have been climbing since 2014. I started climbing during my student years, and honestly, I owe almost everything I have and am to climbing. First of all, I met my life partner through climbing. We were introduced by a very special friend in Lebanon in 2016. Later on, my partner and I moved to Oslo, Norway. In 2022, we became parents to the greatest gift of all—our dear daughter, Sara, who is soon turning two years old.
This is a brief story of my climbing journey through pregnancy, postpartum, and up until today. Apart from the very obvious reason why I owe my life to climbing—meeting my husband—I’m also incredibly thankful for all the psychological benefits I’ve gained from climbing and the life it has given me, especially around the time of becoming a mother. And not to brag or anything, but I also made quite a few physical advancements! Spoiler alert: my personal bests in both sport climbing and bouldering (!) came after I gave birth to Sara! I guess that’s quite contradictory to common beliefs, but it's not too rare on a larger scale. Most of all, I’m thankful for the meaningful friendships I’ve developed with other climbing mothers.
Early in my pregnancy, during the first trimester, I was hit somewhat hard by the common symptoms of nausea, tiredness, and fatigue. The only place I didn’t feel those symptoms was actually on the climbing wall. I think the reason for this was that I would disconnect and be forced to focus on the moves, and perhaps more importantly, on a psychological level, I felt so empowered! It was quite a contrast to my usual sofa-bound sloth status that I would be in most of the time otherwise. Once the first trimester passed, I felt more energized and started living more “normally.” Some of you might be curious if I climbed like I did before pregnancy. And honestly, for me, I just did whatever felt comfortable. And if someone were to ask me for advice about it, that would be it—just go with the flow and do whatever feels comfortable. I didn’t feel comfortable taking big falls, even in the first trimester, so I just avoided them. I know some of my fellow mother climbers felt totally fine with that, so they kept on climbing as before. As my belly grew, I stopped bouldering, mostly because it felt in the way. Top-roping, autobelays, and easy, low-risk leading became my go-tos throughout my entire pregnancy. And I learned a lot (!) about footwork (I mean, how else would you compensate for not having any core whatsoever?). I climbed until three days before I gave birth, which means I even passed my due date, as I gave birth 10 days “overdue.” Honestly, during my pregnancy, I felt the happiest and most at ease in the climbing gym or outside climbing.
Then came the time of Sara's birth, with all the overwhelming emotions that entailed. What an amazing experience it was! Uff, I have such good feelings about the whole birth experience, to the point of becoming a bit weird, haha. I had quite an intense birth, mainly because it dragged out in time, but I felt strong throughout. I remember one of my best friends had some encouraging words for me right before I gave birth; she said: “Just think of it as a really hard fitness exercise, and you can totally handle that.” That really kept me going, and honestly, it was the most accurate description of the experience! Fellow mothers out there, you are all so impressive!!
The postpartum period was mostly filled with joy, and both my husband and I were just so thankful and happy. And it wasn’t long after that I returned to the climbing gym. Here in Norway, we’re blessed with quite a long parental leave. But how do you spend your days? Sara was born in the middle of winter, and it was cold and snowing outside. So the optimal place for the two of us was to hang out in the climbing gym! They have the most amazing rolls and coffee there as well, so no problem for a starving postpartum mother. And most importantly, in the gym, I met my fellow mother friends, with whom I shared experiences. I believe it’s very important to talk to other parents when becoming a parent, especially in those early weeks and months when so many things are happening, and questions are popping up. If you’re mostly at home, who will you talk to? I got so much empowerment through those conversations. We helped each other with everything from “What color was your son’s poop today?” to “What kind of routes on the Kilter board should you climb/not climb when dealing with this or that distance in your diaphragm?” We also continued climbing together after our parental leave and still meet up at least once per week to this day. A big part of it is climbing, but also, the social setting is still so important. And it feels so empowering; climbing feels like a really good setting to help build each other up! I’m not sure, but I do think something changes when women become mothers. I think I’ve read somewhere (haha, I should definitely know this since I’m a clinical psychologist) that you do become less selfish after having a child.
Finally, I just have to repeat that I owe so, so much to climbing, way more than the things I’ve mentioned here. It’s been the thing in my life that has helped me through many hard times, but I don’t think that’s mainly because of the climbing itself, but from all those other things. I am forever grateful and blessed—and so excited to be climbing better than ever.
