Wicketkeeper Donna Boerema helped Payneham claim its first women’s turf cricket title while 22 weeks pregnant

WICKETKEEPER Donna Boerema won a women’s turf cricket grand final while halfway through her third pregnancy.

Payneham women's cricketer Donna Boerema with her husband Jake and children Byce, 5, (front) and Campbell, 2. Donna played the whole season while pregnant with her third child. Picture: AAP/ Morgan Sette

DONNA Boerema did not let the fact she is halfway through her third pregnancy stop her from helping Payneham to its first women’s cricket premiership.

Boerema, who is now about 24 weeks pregnant, played in the Dukes’ Twenty20 women’s first grade semi-final and grand final wins on Sunday, March 18.

The wicketkeeper scored 15 runs and claimed a catch and a run out in the semi-final against Reynella.

Hours later, she made five runs in the side’s grand final victory against Adelaide University.

“I asked my obstetrician if he had an issue with it (playing cricket) and he said no because I was playing already, it wasn’t anything new, so my body should be all right,” Boerema, 36, says.

“It’s my third baby as well, so my body is used to being pregnant, I suppose.

“I also see a really good women’s health physio and they didn’t have an issue with it, so I just thought I’d just go with it as long as I could keep playing

“To be fair, I was buggered in the second game.”

Boerema is the wife of the Dukes’ men’s A-grade captain, Jake Boerema, and the couple has two sons – Bryce, 5, and Campbell, 2.

She told her teammates she was pregnant in January.

Boerema was shocked she managed to play through all seven minor rounds and the two finals.

“I didn’t expect to get all the way through to the final,” she says.

“But I thought ‘oh well, if I keep getting picked, I’ll keeping playing’.

“The girls have been really supportive.

“Jake also knows what I’m capable of and cricket isn’t a contact sport where you get tackled or anything, so he wasn’t very worried.”

Tennis star Serena Williams won last year’s Australian Open while eight weeks pregnant with her first child.

“The positives of playing sport outweighs the risk, in my opinion,” Boerema says.

“It’s as much about mental health as it is physical for me and I just love playing every Sunday.”