Alice Veysey
Black Ferns Sevens great Michaela Brake gives pregnancy a miserable four out of 10, but seven months on from welcoming her son Harvey, her rating for motherhood flies off the chart.
“Our prolific little thumb-sucker is at such a cool stage now, crawling everywhere, blabbing away and climbing up on things – he’s such fun,” beams the rugby star and double Olympic gold medallist, 30, chatting to Woman’s Day as she feeds him his favourite foods, strawberries and spinach, which she’s puréed and frozen into ice cubes.
“Feeding him solids has been an adventure too. It’s a real mess, of course, but we’ve loved watching him explore different textures and flavours. That first disgusted look is just so funny!”
Getting into routine
Also bringing Michaela (née Blyde) joy is the fact she’s regained a degree of routine and rhythm in her life – especially important given she’s working hard to get back on the pitch by early next month.
“I like structure and planning rather than going with the flow,” confides the New Plymouth-born, Tauranga-based star, who is married to fellow Olympic athlete Michael. “Parenting has been testing my organisational skills, but it’s going very well so far.”
Making the switch
Having switched codes from rugby to league, Michaela played four games for the Warriors Women last year, before announcing her pregnancy. “That first trimester put me on the couch or in bed with morning sickness and nausea,” she recalls, adding that her third trimester was over summer, when “being an oven 24/7 wasn’t such fun”.
Michaela continues, “Overall, I give pregnancy a four out of 10, but it definitely made me appreciate what a woman’s body can do, how it changes along the way and how incredible it is that we can grow another human from scratch.”
The athlete’s birth plan was simple – “to keep me and Harvey alive” – but the wee boy threw his mum a curveball. “Unfortunately, Harvey was going the wrong way and didn’t want to leave via the tunnel,” shares Michaela. “His heart rate was going up, so I ended up having an emergency C-section.”
Meanwhile, rower Michael, 32, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was forced to rely on his sporting experience to keep calm while worrying about his son and his wife. “During my whole career, I’ve trusted professionals with decisions around my body, so when we heard Michaela needed a Caesarean, we trusted their guidance,” he tells.
Michaela speaks of feeling euphoric after giving birth. She remembers, “As soon as Harvey exited the womb, I felt amazing. I was like, ‘Thank you!’”
Navigating post-partum
Unfortunately, “a wee bit of the baby blues” was lurking on the sidelines. Michaela’s hormonal crash was something that hit “quite dramatically” in the first four weeks after she gave birth, despite the fact Harvey was a textbook baby, happy, healthy and sleeping for three- or four-hour blocks.
“It’s such a huge transition in life,” shares Michaela.
“I thought I was prepared, but then it happened and it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ Because I come from a high-performance background, I’m used to being in control of my body – fit, fast and strong. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t. I struggled.”
Family support was crucial, and her mum Cherry, a former Black Fern, and mother-in-law Paula, a nurse, were angels. Both were there to help after Michael returned to his job as a civil engineer and both know plenty about raising boys, having welcomed six sons between them!
“They’ve been a huge help the past three months when I’ve been back training,” tells Michaela. “They’re absolutely rapt to spend so much quality time with Harvey and we’re so very grateful.”
Preparing to return to the game
She now trains four days a week and hopes she’ll be ready to be back to rugby full-time in early- to mid-December. Michaela shares, “On those training days, I get up, have brekkie, breastfeed Harvey, then he’s handed over to whichever nana is on babysitting duty that week. As soon as I’ve finished feeding him, I pump, make my lunch, brush my teeth and then head off from 7.45am until 4pm.
“When I get home from training, I hang out with Harvey while whichever nana is with us does the cooking. Michael gets home from work about 5.30pm and we spend as much time with Harvey as we can until his bedtime at 7pm. We’re a very structured family.”
Amid all the busyness, there’s time to ponder their son’s future. Asked which sport Harvey will pursue when he grows up, Michael suggests golf, although Michaela insists athletics should be first out of the starter blocks, to which her husband swiftly agrees.
“We’ll discover from that if he’s going to be an endurance runner, a sprinter or a power athlete,” she laughs. “He started crawling at six months, so we think he’ll favour an active life. Of course, the expectation is that he’ll be a superstar!
“He can do whatever he wants, but he has to go hard and commit,” adds Michael, noting that this is the attitude they plan to instil in their son. He’s in awe of how successfully his wife is combining motherhood with her sporting career.
“She’s not one to shy away from anything difficult and I’m so impressed,” says the former rower, who has competed internationally since 2012 and retired after his second Olympic Games.
Aiming for Los Angeles
Aiming to win gold at her third Olympics in 2028, Michaela will know by mid-January if she’s been selected to don the Black Ferns jersey for tournaments in Perth and Singapore. If so, she’d be travelling with precious baggage – under New Zealand Rugby’s parental policy, players can take their babies and a support person on tour until their child turns one.
That’s just one of the many ways the organisation helps new mothers like her and teammates Sarah Hirini and Shiray Kaka. Michaela smiles, “New Zealand Rugby has been fantastic and incredibly supportive with finding the best resources for us. It’s made being a mum so much easier and more enjoyable, but I can’t wait to be back on that field.”
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