HELP!!! Travelling abroad when pregnant with twins

[RuthHasan]

Advice please!!!! I just found out I was expecting twins at my 12 week scan (I'm now 14 weeks) and it was quite a shock! The pregnancy was planned and having already had 2 healthy, straightforward singleton pregnancies that went to term it never even entered our heads that we would have more than 1 baby! As a result of our naivety(!) we booked a holiday to Tuscany for June when I'll be 26 weeks.

We have already paid our deposit and the balance is due in a week's time. We've told our kids about the holiday and our 5 year old is super excited (he's desperate to see the leaning tower of Pisa!)

The doc who did our scan and our midwife didn't seem to think it would be a problem however when we met our consultant today he was less happy about it. He said he didn't object to the flying (it's only a 2 hour flight) and it certainly wasn't a medical recommendation to not go, but his personal opinion was to cancel. He said if it was his wife he would say no because if I went into labour while there and had to deal with medical staff who spoke a language I didn't understand or had to have babies in the neo-natal unit in a foreign country it would be too traumatic.

Now we don't know what to do. He said that a cervical scan would be done at 24 weeks to check if there was any sign of imminent labour and if there wasn't and everything else was fine then there was very little chance of anything happening, but if it was his wife - he'd still say no!

(he also very helpfully suggested that we just reschedule for after the babies are here - I'm assumming by that he's never had to travel abroad with 4 young children before!)

Advice please!!!! Has anyone else gone sbroad while pregnant with twins? What did your doc say? What precautions did you have to take?

[KRH]

bump

[jennyroper]

I flew from NZ to the UK when 18 weeks pregnant with ID twins then flew back to NZ at 29+6. It was an immense strain on my body - I was travelling alone with my nearly 2 year old too. The flight at 18 weeks was easy but the flight at 29+6 was hard work. It was two 11 hour flights back to back with a couple of hours in Hong Kong. I started to get quite decent Braxton Hicks contractions. It was made harder by having to pick up my son quite a lot during the journey.
I think as far as how you would feel if you went into labour whilst abroad it would be impossible for your cosultant to comment on how you would react unless he knows you very well. Ultimately you know yourself better than anyone else so it's up to you to know whether you'd find that situation traumatic or not.
I agree with londonlottie - do a bit of research in advance on local medical facilities and be prepared that you may not know if you feel up to it until much closer to the time. Some people have easy pregnancies and move around with no problem and some don't.
Anyway a warm holiday sounds lovely. I'm jealous!

[magnummum]

I can relate to this. When we found out I was pregnant for the 2nd time (and at an very early scan had been told it was one baby) we went ahead and booked a last bit of sun holiday to Malta. Then found out it was twins and at our first hospital appointment as everything else was straightforward in the pregnancy my only query was about the holiday - which we were advised to cancel (partly because of what might happen over there though I did point out that it was Malta and not Timbuktu).

I posted on various forums at the time and had an almost 50/50 split on people who had had to fly etc out of necessity and had been fine and those who said cancel! DH and I felt that if we had asked the hosptial for a second opinion another doctor might well have said to go for it. The right decision for us was to cancel just to be on the safe side and we settled for a freezing 3 days in Dorset instead. As the others have said you know how you'd handle particular situations.

I have to say I was then livid when the insurance company refused to refund the flight tickets saying the cancellation hadn't been for a legitimate medical reason.

Good luck with your decision and congratulations on the twin pregnancy!

[Janaina]

Hi there
I travelled when I was 20 weeks pregnant with identical twin boys. It was an international flight and we flew business class - that's the only reason I agreed to the trip anyway :-). Everything went well. After that, I had a second cervical exam just when i came back which showed that my cervix was shortening, then it kept shortening even more until i was finally put on strict bedrest when i was 25 weeks. bottom line, there's no way you can know in advance if you cervix will be dangerously short by the time you have to travel, so i'm afraid you will need to take this decision very close to the travel date...

[smokeybacon]

Hmmm. I will be 25 weeks with non id twins when we are booked to go to France for 2 weeks. I now am worrying about this! I guess it will be a case of seeing how things are closer to the time,and checking with insurers about cancelling.

[Sheenie30]

Hi i was wondering if you could help I'm 5 weeks pregnant and I had a scan as I was getting period like pains and i was told that it may be twins. This is my first pregnancy and I've had no morning sickness so far either, been able to eat everything too (all the foods that are allowed) but I was hoping to go on holiday in February. Has anyone else been in a similar situation

[slightlyinsane]

I would wait and see if it is twins, if it is what type of twins and take it from there.
So much can happen between now and then it's very hard to say what's the best thing to do.

[mayhew]

I'm a midwife and agree with consultant. The likelihood is that all will be well but all twins run a much higher risk of complications. Scanning can give warning sometimes but is not an oracle. The commonest complication is spontaneous preterm birth. Whilst Italian hospitals are good, if you have a preterm birth the babies will stay there for weeks possibly months until they are fit to fly.

[oneplus2is3]

I went into labour at 26 weeks so I'm obviously in the 'cancel' camp. I can't imagine the trauma if I'd been away. We got transferred to specialist hospital and being 20miles from home was bad enough. I thought my pregnancy was fine up until my waters broke (was at a party the night before) and am a very positive 'I'll be fine' type but travelling at this point if so tricky. As PP said- if they are born you'll be stuck until they are fit to fly, which could be months.

Obviously my perspective very skewed but personal experience so feel free to ignore.

[AppleMagic]

Sheenie you need to start your own thread. People are answering the OP, not your post, and she was travelling much further along than you will so it's a very different scenario.