Becoming a mother is a life-changing experience.

Being a new mother on the soccer pitch while your team prepares for a W-League Western Conference sudden-death playoff match creates even more challenges.

Moments after Vancouver Whitecaps defender Martina Franko finished practice Thursday she was bouncing her six-month-old son Micah on her hip. Her husband was loading baby supplies in their vehicle while the family dog circled.

"I think any mother can say there isn't a lot of time in the day," said Franko, who helped lead the Whitecaps to an undefeated season. "Everything revolves around the baby, so getting time to train for two to three hours a day isn't easy."

Franko, a veteran of Canada's national women's team, hopes to continue the hectic schedule a couple more weeks. The Whitecaps need a victory over the Pali Blues Saturday, at Swangard Stadium, to advance to the W-League Final Four.

The Whitecaps finished first in the Western Conference with a 6-0-4 record. The Blues, a team from the Los Angeles area, squeezed into the playoffs with a 3-4-3 mark.

On paper the game looks like a mismatch. But no one on the Whitecaps is taking Pali, the two-time defending W-League champions, lightly.

"They have a talented offence," said Franko. "They are very quick.

"When they are on, they are very good."

Whitecaps coach Hubert Busby Jr. said the Blues have quality players "that know how to get it done."

"They are coming in here believing there is nothing for them to lose," said Busby Jr. "But there is no pressure on us as well.

"We have to do what we do correctly and I think we will have no problems."

The Final Four will be held July 29-31 in Santa Clarita, Calif.

Franko was a member of the Whitecaps team that won the league championship in 2004 and 2006. Her national team commitments prevented her from playing with the Whitecaps in 2007 and 2008.

She spent last season with the Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer.

Soon after joining the Sol, Franko learned she was pregnant. She continued to play for the first three months of the season, but it wasn't an easy decision.

"There isn't a whole lot of research," she said. "Not a lot of women have done that sort of thing. There was a lot of anxiety not knowing if what I was doing was the right decision. Everything turned out well.

"All the research I read was: the first three months the baby is very small and sheltered. After that, there starts to be some concerns. That's when I stopped playing."

Franko played a number of league games before she told the Sol coaching staff, including Busby Jr., who was an assistant coach, she was pregnant.

"She masked it very well," he laughed. "For the first two months you would never know. She went out there and competed very well."

The biggest challenge for Franko was dealing with fatigue.

"You are a lot more tired," she said. "Getting up for practice was tough. It took a lot of energy to get started.

"Once I got started, I felt normal. All the endorphins energized me. Within two hours (after practice) I was pretty much laying down for the rest of the evening."

Franko's son was born in January. She planned to return to the Sol but the team folded.

When Busby Jr. was hired to coach the Whitecaps one of the first players he contacted was Franko, who lives in Squamish, B.C., about one hour north of Vancouver.

The Whitecaps made it easy for her to return. The team paid for her husband to travel on road trips to look after the baby.

Busby Jr. said Franko's veteran leadership has added stability to a team that missed the playoffs last season.

"She is the ultimate professional," he said. "She takes care of herself. Sometimes I have to say to her, 'you can take the odd day off.'

"She doesn't want concessions made. She wants to come here and train."

Franko isn't sure about her plans for next year.

A veteran of 55 international games, she was part of the Canadian team that lost in extra time to the U.S. in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That defeat still makes her cringe.

"It felt like our time to win," said Franko. "We had so many difficult battles against them. Some bad losses and a lot of ties.

"I thought I would retire after the Olympics. It made me want to come back and do better."

Franko would like to play for Canada at the 2012 London Olympics but has reached an impasse with the national team. She will only play if the team pays for a caregiver to travel and look after her son, something that has been done in the past.

Currently, there is no money in team's budget for a caregiver.

"It's an on-going debate right now," Franko said.

If the national team isn't an option, Franko could retire. She currently is the head coach of the Quest University women's soccer team in Squamish.

At 34 years old, she also has a husband and child to consider.

"It's not necessarily my age as much as my life plans," she said. "You want to do so many things.

"If the national team isn't going to work out, I'll have to revisit my priorities."