Chelsea are used to being the first. While plenty of that has come on the pitch, it is the behind the scenes work that is truly leading the way for female players and women’s health.

Now, the Blues are the first team in the WSL to introduced new fertility and maternity policies, giving their players the choice to start a family in whichever way they want to, and the post-natal support to balance the demands of elite sport and motherhood.

The Blues were also the first club in the world to starting tracking menstrual cycles – introduced by Emma Hayes in February 2020 – and how they impact performance. This is the next step in that process.

“As a club, it’s always been really important for us to support our players the best way possible,” Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor exclusively told Sky Sports.

“We want to be a club who always supports the players to have more knowledge around different opportunities… it’s more for them to be able to make a choice and a decision about what they want for them.

“Every player is different, every individual is different, they have a different journey and you can make a choice based on what you know and what is available for you.

“You don’t have to choose anymore between your professional career and your personal life being a mum. Now, both are possible.”

Chelsea have partnered with leading London fertility clinic Fertility Plus – and former goalkeeper and commercial manager for the women’s team, Carly Telford, has led the way it that collaboration.

She exclusively told Sky Sports: “I’ve seen first-hand the kind of experiences that women, girls and athletes have when it comes to making choices around fertility and I wanted us to be a leading club in that.

“I wanted to find someone that understood us as athletes first, but also understood us as women and what that comes with. I wanted to find a fertility clinic that offered more than just egg freezing and more than just optional things, but to give choices around hormones, endometriosis, cycle tracking, testing – something all-encompassing around the female body.

“Then what the players do with that is completely up to the individual. That was really important to the club and to the players in terms of having options outside of their careers for how their families or how the individual look at themselves.

“It brings comfort and a thought process that we as a club are looking at them differently and are treating them as people as well as footballers. They will give their whole bodies to this club for the amount of time they’re with us and it’s an extra option for them to think about themselves.

“It’s an important thing to have that every club should be looking at, the league should be looking at, the FA should be looking at in terms of making sure that women have a choice when it comes to their whole body and what that looks like during and after their careers.”

‘I thought there was only one way for me to becoming a mum and be a footballer’

Bompastor herself has four children with her partner, Chelsea assistant coach Camille Abily. She always knew she wanted to have a family, but a lack of options during her own player career led her to believe there was only one way for her to have children.

“When I reflect on my own story and experience, I didn’t really have the choice,” she explained. “I wanted to have a really good career as a player and I decided to carry on and to finish maybe a little bit earlier than what I should have done because I also wanted to become a mum and have a family.

“With the knowledge I had in that moment and everything that was available for me, I thought it was almost the only way for me to do that, because when we talk about becoming a mum when you are still an athlete, there are lot of questions to answer.

“It’s about the pregnancy, but also everything after that. How can you look after your kid when you are an athlete and you play at the highest level? All these things were really difficult questions for me and I didn’t have all the answers.

“Now, to have a club who is able to support the players, bringing them the knowledge, allowing them to talk about that subject is really important for us and giving them different opportunities to become a mum when they decide to. I’m really proud to be the head coach at Chelsea and to offer that opportunity to the players.”

‘Players are feeling comfortable with new policies’

No Chelsea players have yet revealed their intention to use the new resources available to them which, of course, should remain their own private decisions.

But Telford – who remains close with the squad from her own playing days – gave some insight into how the policies have been received.

She explained: “We touched base with some of the players and I’m lucky enough to be friends with a lot of them, so I leant on a few of them just to see what they felt about what this would look like for them. A lot of the feedback was ‘this would be really good, keep us across it’.

“As soon as we knew the deal with Fertility Plus deal was close, we informed the leadership group who then informed the team and since then, we’ve had a lot of good feedback. The players are feeling very comfortable with it and then how they act upon that based on their own individual needs.

“Any information will confidentially be shared amongst the doctors at Fertility Plus and the doctors within the club and it will stay like that.”

Chelsea have had pregnant players before. Melanie Leupolz had a baby in 2022 before returning to play for the club, while Zecira Musovic moved back to Sweden in June 2025 before giving birth later that year.

Telford said their pregnancies made her and the club consider how older players in the squad might be approaching their fertility and future families. For example, former Blues captain Millie Bright recently announced her pregnancy having retired from playing earlier this year.

“The 30-plus-year-olds are probably the last group of women that have had to maybe put those things on hold,” Telford hopes.

How the policies work in tandem to offer players options

Ultimately, the two programmes offer players choice in whatever they decide, whether that is to start a family or looking after their gynaecological health. There is a clear link between fertility and maternity care and the two will work in tandem to give the players the support they need.

Bompastor said: “Having a family is something no one can teach you. You just learn to be a mum when you have your first child and even if someone is trying to tell you how you have to deal with the situation, you only learn when you have a baby.

“Having the opportunity to have platforms where you have information you can share with different people who already experienced that is already a big thing.

“Also, giving the support to players after having a baby. They need that because when you are a high-level athlete and you become a mum, those are two full-time jobs and you need that support to be able to do both at your best level.

“All these elements are really important for the players to have, but also for them to know there are different opportunities and they are available for them.”

‘All women should know about their bodies’

While Chelsea’s announcements are player-focused, Telford is hoping that the club’s profile can help raise the importance of women’s health across the board.

She explained: “We want to be followed for the things we’re doing around the team that have a wider impact when it comes to women in general and that’s the impact that our sport has.

“We’re very lucky to play one of the most popular sports in the world and be part of one of the biggest clubs and biggest brands. If we can make businesses, other football clubs and other sports think differently around their women, that is what we want to do.

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“As women, we need to take more control of ourselves and have more viewership of what our bodies are doing, what they look like during womanhood and how that changes in terms of genetics, lifestyle, all these things that impact our bodies.

“And it’s not just the athletes. They take a bigger toll on their bodies because of what they do, but general womanhood and what that looks like for us, that is the thing that I wanted to echo outside of football.

“I would have loved to have known more about my body for lots of different reasons while I was playing – how I get the best out of it as an athlete, what it’s like during menstruation, what it’s like in terms of longevity of my cycle and fertility and what that looks like moving forward, the options I then have during my career and what it looks like later on in life and in my career.

“Now they have that, I am really proud of it. I do hope this sparks a big conversation around what that looks like, not just for the future of women’s sport, but for the future of women in general.”