WNBA rookie of the year Candace Parker (who plays for the LA Sparks) announced that she was pregnant late last month. She’s due in the spring and plans to play this summer (the season runs September to June).

There is absolutely nothing odd about this. Women — especially athletic women who continue to be active during their pregnancies — can easily return to full form shortly after giving birth. Paula Radcliffe won the New York City marathon in November 2007 after having a baby earlier that year.  Sometimes such athletic moms return in even better shape (continuing to exercise with extra pregnancy weight is a bit like training at altitude). I suspect this will be the case with Parker. After all, if my calculations are right, she was pregnant in September — the queasy, tired stage of pregnancy that’s harder than anything you experience postpartum — and possibly even August when she was still playing hard.

And yet, some league officials and fans are expressing disappointment — as if this (married) young mom is letting the league down. Far from it. She’s showing that there is absolutely no problem with being a mom and an athletic star, just as there is no problem with being a doctor and a mom, a lawyer and a mom, etc. I expected better from people who claim to value women’s empowerment. The true cultural, feminist vanguard these days is women who are having their babies young, and building big careers with kids in tow.