6 days ago
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Netballer Emily Mannix envisaged a magical moment for the birth of her first child.
The Melbourne Vixens defender had a straightforward pregnancy. She diligently attended prenatal classes and had a flexible birth plan – a scribbled list of rough dot points underscored by the essential desire to have “a healthy, happy child”.
She and her partner, Ari Levinson, elected not to find out the gender beforehand, but Mannix was secretly adamant she was having a boy.
In January last year, with her partner and her doula beside her, Mannix gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Mabel. The labour was straightforward, until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
Mabel was born with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck and was subsequently diagnosed with moderate Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) – a brain injury caused by reduced oxygen before or shortly after birth.
Mannix doesn’t fully remember what happened next. She recalls a flurry of beeping machines and concerned voices and at least 10 doctors and nurses crowding the room, placing tubes on her daughter’s tiny body before wheeling her away.
“I still remember this feeling of just guilt, of not feeling anything, like no connection,” Mannix tells this masthead.
“Because that was something I was really looking forward to, the ‘bring your baby to your chest’ bit, those really special first moments didn’t happen.
“I felt this guilt of not having that connection from the get-go.”
Thirty minutes later, a specialist came in to explain the diagnosis to Mannix and her partner. The medical team couldn’t tell the new parents how long Mabel had gone without oxygen and couldn’t provide firm answers about what might happen next.
Mabel could be in a wheelchair, have a low IQ, or she might have a limp or be unable to go to a regular school.
It was, as Mannix describes, “a wave of unknowns” that was deeply painful.
Mabel was transported to the Royal Women’s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit in Melbourne and underwent cooling treatment to prevent any secondary brain damage.
Days old, she was connected to a morphine drip with various needles and monitors; Mannix and Levinson weren’t allowed to hold her. Five days later, an MRI cleared Mabel of any serious health concerns and the couple could finally bring her home.
Nearly 16 months later, Mabel is an energetic toddler. She happily waddles around the State Netball Centre court, under the watchful eye of her grandmother, Kaz, as Mannix describes her experience of childbirth, and her return to elite sport.
Glancing over at her daughter, Mannix is emotional as she reflects on the support she received from her family, friends, the staff at Ronald McDonald House and her teammates during those stressful early days.
“It feels like it happened yesterday, but to see her [Mabel] running around and developing; she’s a small little tacker, so she won’t be playing goalkeeper, maybe wing, but that’s OK, she’ll be fast,” Mannix jokes.
“She’s already got us on our toes, and she’s got this little personality that’s just shining through. She just brings so much joy to so many people’s lives.”
Physios and scar massages: How to play netball after giving birth
In 2026, the Super Netball league is having a baby boom. Mannix as well as NSW Swifts players Gina Crampton and Maddy Proud, and Adelaide Thunderbirds defender Shamera Sterling-Humphrey have all returned to the court this year after giving birth.
West Coast Fever superstar goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard and Australian Diamond Paige Hadley are currently on maternity leave, while Giants defender Jane Watson and West Coast Fever’s Romelda Aiken-George both have toddlers.
As new mum Maddy Proud notes, the ability to have children, return to court and remain a professional athlete would have been near impossible a decade ago.
“When I was growing up, I always thought that the age that I’d stopped playing would be when I decided to start a family,” she says.
“Now you can do both, and your career doesn’t have to end the moment you decide to have a baby. It’s just really nice that you can sort of prolong your careers and keep doing what you love while being a mum.”
Netball Australia says the body’s maternity leave policy was designed to support the sport’s elite athletes.
“The pregnancy policy is currently being actively reviewed and updated by Netball Australia, the Australian Netball Players’ Association and Suncorp Super Netball clubs,” a spokesperson said.
“While there’s no set date for the review to be finalised, we’re working closely with ANPA [the Australian Netball Players’ Association] and clubs to ensure the policy supports our athletes across Suncorp Super Netball and the Australian Diamonds program.”
Proud and her partner, Australian cricketer Daniel Hughes, welcomed their daughter Lily last May in England, while Hughes was playing county cricket for Sussex. The couple returned to Australia late last year, so Proud could prepare for her 15th netball season.
The dual premiership player had an uneventful pregnancy, but Lily was an undiagnosed breach, which triggered an emergency C-section.
The recovery took months, making simple tasks, such as walking down the street, challenging.
Proud, now 32, had been plagued by niggling knee issues, so chose to fully rest during her maternity leave. She returned to running when Lily was five months old. With the help of Swifts trainers and coaches, she took things slowly, but still encountered unexpected difficulties, as she coped with the changes to her body.
“During my first session… I realised the scarring from the caesarean was pulling up quite sore, so I saw female health physios and got some scar massage,” Proud recalls.“There’s definitely a lot that goes into it that you don’t even realise until after you give birth.”
After having Mabel, Mannix elected not to play for the 2025 season and supported her team from the sidelines. She watched the Vixens triumph at a sold-out grand final, a feeling she admits was “bittersweet”.
She knew it would take “a lot of work to get myself back” and started seeing a physio plus a strength and conditioning coach for her own “pre pre-season training”.
Mannix admits the early days of training with the Vixens were difficult. The new mum was breastfeeding and had to travel from her home in Geelong to training in Parkville while balancing Mabel’s feeding times.
“I’d try and feed her before training, but she wasn’t ready, so she’d bite me. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is just really hard’,” she winces.
“Sometimes things were really difficult, but we made it work, and I had so much support around me.”
Vixens teammate Hannah Mundy said Mannix’s return and Mabel’s birth had brought “a beautiful vibe to the group”.
Both Mannix and Proud are candid about the physical and emotional changes of motherhood. The Adelaide Thunderbirds’ Sterling-Humphrey has been open about her journey with post-partum depression on social media, telling her Instagram followers in a January post “it gets better just hold on”.
Mannix says she was elated to bring Mabel home, but after a traumatic birth and days in hospital, it “took a little bit of time to build a connection”.
“It’s something that you build up so long for, nine months of waiting and wanting to meet your baby, that happens and sometimes it catches people by surprise … the sleep deprivation and what we went through ... everyone has their own experience.”
Proud’s mum, Jenny, moved interstate from Adelaide to Sydney to live with her in March this year while Hughes plays cricket overseas.
“Lily gets to grow up with her grandma, and it means there are three generations of women living in the one house,” Proud says.
Mannix and Proud agree that motherhood – in all of its gloriously messy moments of sore breasts, changed bodies and sleep-deprived nights – has irreversibly altered their perspective on the sport they love.
For Proud, her daughter is a reminder that there is a world “bigger than just netball”.
Mannix agrees, and says while she still places high expectations on herself as an elite sportsperson, Mabel has given her a new perspective on life.
“I get home from training and I’m absolutely buggered, but she’s there smiling, putting her arms out for a cuddle and everything just washes away.”
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