Driving When 8 Months Pregnant?

[CupcakesHay]

Hello

Will I be able to drive when I'm 8 months pregnant? I have the choice facing me at the moment of driving when 8 months pregnant - or going on the train with all my luggage on my own - so I'm swaying towards driving.... will i be able to do it? I'll be driving initially from London to Cardiff and then about a week later, Cardiff to devon... and then I'm in Devon til my baby comes! it'll be Dec time, so i have a little while to think about it.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!
Hayley

Of course you will be able to do it...as long as you can still reach the steering wheel.

I have known one person that was just too big with short arms to drive for the last couple of weeks but for most people you can drive right up until due date.

I think you'll be fine driving. I drove fairly long distances right up to the birth of both my babies. I even drove myself to the hospital to give birth both times although I was induced so wasn't in labour!

The only difficulty I had was that I had to stop about once an hour to get out and stretch as I got very uncomfortable with the baby digging into my ribs, but this would be the same sitting anywhere, not just driving. I found I was pretty rubbish at parking when pregnant too, but overall driving wasn't a problem.

My next door neighbour drove herself to hospital in labour.

I was driving daily even once i went overdue as were most of the women i know.

It only really affects driving ability when you have to reverse as it's kinda hard to sling your arm over the back of the passanger seat and look out the back window when you're huge! And if baby is wriggling a lot it can be a bit distracting but i found the motion of the car seemed to settle the baby quickly so that rarely affected me for long.

The only thing i did find difficult was that my SPD acted up if i drove a long way (the hospital was an hour away so long drives were a regular occurance) but i found if i wore boots with heels so that i only had to move my feet up and down and not my whole leg it was better.

Im 36 weeks pregnant with twins and can still drive. However i drove from glasgow to aberdeen at 20 weeks and swore never again. I was way too uncomfy and it took me a couple of days to recover. So i wouldnt say its a case of can you drive but a case of would you really want to. Is there anyway you can get help to the train and have somebody meet you at the other side?

Great - thanks for the advice - I figured i'd be OK ish, but just thought i'd check with some women who had been there!