Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions | Motherhood, midwifery and rugby

Jade Knight’s achievement in doing so in this year’s Women’s Six Nations is made all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that she’s a mother to a three-year-old, and is just over 12 months away from becoming a qualified midwife. All of this without mentioning that she makes the regular trip to training at the Vale of Glamorgan from her home in London.

“I studied Medical Genetics in Swansea, which is a strong degree to get into medicine,” says the scrum-half, who is originally from Llanelli. “Then I took a year out to concentrate on sport, but that’s when I fell pregnant. I was petrified of birth – absolutely petrified – and I think a lot of women are scared of it.”

She explains that overcoming that fear is what led her down the path to midwifery, which she studies at King’s College. “It was a case of trying to find a way of going into childbirth in a better frame of mind. That’s what I love about it: the empowerment and extra support you can give to women as a midwife.”

There are no tentative steps when it comes to Knight’s line of work. “Medicine gives you an option to specialise late on, but with midwifery you specialise on day one, so you have to jump straight in,” she says. “It’s quite daunting with the pressures you’re under, but when I fell pregnant, I saw the way that it helps women so I thought I had to do it.”

She is based at the world-renowned St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where no two days are the same. “I’ve completed my first orientation, and now I’m going into theatres,” says Knight. “If women have C-sections then you need to know how to manage their airways correctly, for example. Some days you feel you know a lot, and other days you feel so de-skilled you just want to go home and read again!”

She acknowledges her debt of gratitude to her course supervisors – who straight away granted her six weeks’ leave to focus on rugby once she was named in the squad – and to her club, Richmond, which she says is “on a whole different level” in terms of professionalism.

The club has helped Knight come back from a complicated knee injury that dates back to her time play football for Wales at the age of 14. She now has a new anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments.

She has previously played for Wales U20, Wales Sevens, and been in senior training squads, but knee issue after knee issue delayed her winning that precious first cap. You could say that she has the benefit of experience, in life and rugby, to make the most of the opportunity she now has. “You don’t take things for granted when you go through things like that,” says Knight. “You become more resilient, more determined.”

It’s this sort of resilience and determination that International Women’s Day celebrates. Some might say that Knight embodies those values. “This week is a significant one for women’s empowerment, what with our game being on Mothering Sunday as well,” she says. “As someone who is training to be a midwife, and who is a feminist, International Women’s Day is a big occasion for women’s rights. I will be thinking about the things I’ve achieved and the things I wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the women who were in front of me.

“Sunday is going to be quite tough. I’d like to be celebrating with my son, but I’m getting an opportunity to represent my country, which doesn’t come around often.”

She met husband Mark when she was playing for Wales’ mixed touch rugby team in the World Cup in Scotland in 2011. He was representing Jersey, and it was on the Channel Island that their son was born. Jersey’s status in international sport means three-year-old Emrys could in future choose to represent any one of the Home Nations if he were to show the same drive as his mother.

If he chose Wales, not only would he be following in Jade’s footsteps but those of her uncle: 52-times capped centre Mark Taylor. “I was wearing a Welsh flag dress when he scored the first try at the Millennium Stadium, as it was then known,” she recalls. “I remember it like it was yesterday, being there with my sister and my auntie. He managed to get through the gap, a little hand-off, and then tapped it down over the line.”

It was the try which launched a thousand pub quiz questions, but it has an extra special meaning for Knight with Wales Women facing Italy at Principality Stadium this weekend. “I know before every game he used to go onto the pitch and run between the posts. After watching him play at the stadium for so many years, to get the chance to walk on there would be amazing. I’ve done the tour of Principality Stadium before, and you’re not allowed to walk on the grass, so it’ll be really exciting just to touch it!”