Women often have one question when they want to travel after they find out that they are expecting.
Is it safe to fly when pregnant?
While there is no concrete answer to this question, most of the time, the answer is yes.
According to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists website, most women can fly when they are pregnant until they reach the thirty-six week mark. Obviously, every woman’s pregnancy is different, so you may find yourself facing different guidelines than your best friend who is expecting at the same time or a co-worker who delivered their baby six years ago.
Flying while pregnant is not always easy, which is why many doctors recommend you wait until the second trimester to do any traveling. During that time, your morning sickness will have hopefully subsided, and you will find that you have a little more energy once again. Take advantage of that energy, because not too far into your third trimester, it may disappear again, as your little one will be moving around and kicking nonstop!
6 Tips for Flying While Pregnant
1. Check with Your Airline
Every airline has their own guidelines when it comes to pregnancy and flying, so you will want to make sure you know and understand those guidelines before you even attempt to book your flight. Most airlines will not let you fly after you have reached a certain number of weeks, and almost all of them will require a medical certificate before they let you board.
2. Check with Your Doctor
Your doctor is the one who is in charge of your healthcare and what you can and cannot do while you are pregnant. Before planning any type of trip, you should check with them to see if it is something they recommend. Be honest with your doctor and let them know exactly where you are going, how long it will take to get there, how long you will be gone, and what you plan to do while away. They need to know those answers to give you the green light. Plus, since most airlines will require you to have a medical certificate to clear you to fly, the only way your doctor will give you one is if they have all the information they need.
3. Prepare for Nausea
Even if you wait until your second trimester to fly, you may still find that you are nauseous at some point of your trip. We recommend taking a few precautions by booking an aisle seat, bringing saltines with you, and maybe bringing a few mints if they normally help keep nausea at bay. You might want to grab a couple of Ziploc bags too!
4. Use the Bathroom Before Boarding
As a pregnant woman, we are sure that you have noticed you are in the bathroom a little more often! After all, you do have a little one pushing on your bladder right now! We recommend that you make a trip to the bathroom right before you board your flight, so that you do not need to worry about having an accident if it takes your plane a little longer to get into the air and to the altitude it needs to be for you to move around the cabin safely.
5. Show Off Your Pregnancy
We understand that you may not want to look like an over inflated balloon, but when you are flying while pregnant, show off that bump! Most of the time, when people see a pregnant woman, they are a little more cautious around her. That means less bumps and jostles and maybe a head-start to the bathroom when you get off the plane.
6. Move Around Often
DVTs, or deep vein thrombosis, is very real, especially in pregnant women. If you do not know what this is, DVT is a condition where blood clots can form in your legs or other parts of your body. Those blood clots are dangerous, as your blood cannot flow past them, plus those clots can travel directly to your lungs. You can prevent blood clots when flying while pregnant by drinking enough fluids, wearing loose clothes, and walking, stretching, and moving around regularly.
As long as your doctor has approved you for flying while pregnant, you are welcome to jet off to the destination of your choice for some rest and relaxation before your new little one arrives! We recommend that you have a few things in place though, just in case something doesn’t go according to plan. A name of a doctor or two that you can call if you need them, the address of the closest hospital with an emergency room and obstetrical care, and even the address of a local pharmacy can all come in handy if you decide that something isn’t just right.
