I'm an admin on a paintball web forum. One of our members has recently announced that his brother's wife is pregnant. Both of them are avid paintballers and her doctor says she cleared to keep playing. Our member on the other hand feels it's a bad idea and this has sparked a bit of a debate that I'm hoping to have settled.

If you don't know: Paintball is basically a grown up version of tag played by teams. Each team member has a paintball marker that launches bath oil beads of washable paint, used to mark your opponent out, and appoximately 280 feet per second. The games are played either in the woods or on special fields about the size of a hockey rink. Statistically speaking it's a safer sport than bowling and golf.

Some of us feel that she and the baby will be fine and the only problem will be in third trimester, depending on how big she actually gets. Other than that the exercise will be good for both mother and child.

Others feel that the impact of the paintballs could harm the child and that the running could cause problems.

The mother is obviously aware of the regular dangers of the game such as tripping on a tree root and falling.

Hopefully someone here can shed some light on this either t allay the fears of the members or to show that it is in fact a bad idea to play and why.

If any of you would like to post on the forum I will include a link to the thread. [removed]

Thanks.