Advice on long haul flights at 35 weeks

[Ruth96]

For unforeseen circumstances we are having to travel to Australia from uk. The flight out there I'm not so worried about because I'll be 31 weeks pregnant however flying back I'll be 35.

Just wanted to know if anyone else had done something similar. If so how did you cope?

Was it hard to get a fit to fly?

What happens if you go into labour on the plane?

What advice did your midwife and gp give?

Mine is currently researching answers. I am just worried it's going to be left to long as I fly in a short amount of time and do not know what to expect.

What are your plans if you can't get 'fit to fly' to return. Do you have enough money and/or insurance for all of you to stay? £130 seems really, really cheap - are you sure that it covers all eventualities?

What happens if you go into labour and end up dropped in a country you hadn't planned on visiting? You may have to stay a couple of months there. Are you travelling alone? Do you have friends/family in Australia to look after you?

Do you have to stay for 4 weeks? Can you go earlier and come home earlier? Struggling to see why you have to make the journey other than for legal reasons, and surely they wouldn't force you to do something so risky? But anyway that doesn't really matter.

Just plan, plan and plan some more, so you have an answer for everything and more insurance than you'd ever think that you'd need.

I have to add to the voices saying don’t do it. It’s easy to keep behaving as you did when you weren’t pregnant but there comes a point when you have to stop and take stock and decide it doesn’t make sense to keep trying to behave as you would of not pregnant. I wouldn’t risk a 2 hour flight at that stage let alone 20 hours. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. I think it puts a real risk on the pregnancy.

If it’s for a wedding it’s not worth it. If it is to visit a dying relative...maybe...but I would get back sooner.

Ok so I hear everyone's concerns!!
They was also my own.
I'm not going for legal reasons, I'm going because I have to.

I dont want to say why I'm going, but it is for something more important than a bloody wedding.

The only real risk is going into labour on the plane. I have come to terms with having the baby in Australia if it happens it happens. I have my health care covered while I'm there.

Yes the flight will be uncomfortable but there has been some really good advice on how to manage this.

I don't think being a first time parent should be on anyone's mind. Yes I understand that there are things that I can no longer do, and my life is about to change. I understand the responsibility of a Child and there safety is my up most important thing to me.

However, there are no risks put onto the baby when flying or you wouldn't be able to fly.

Obviously if the doctor doesn't give me a fit to fly then I wpnt go.

However, I'm struggling to get a doctor appointment in the uk before I leave to get professional advice and the fit to fly.

However, it was really easy for me to arrange the appointment in Australia.

I'm not travelling alone and we have family in aus.

Sorry if I seem snappy, just stuck on how I can make this better.

We tried to change flights was unable to.

No, the only real risk isn't going into labour on the plane. I'm afraid you're deluded. It really does matter that you're a first timer, otherwise you wouldn't make such a careless statement.

But, you seem to have made up your mind. If your AND THE BABY'S healthcare is covered everywhere for the entire trip (UK, Aus, Singapore, Amsterdam), and you think you've covered absolutely everything else...well, genuine good wishes to you and the baby.

You do seem snappy, but that's OK, because you're pregnant!

That changes everything.

Do you see that?

You don’t sound snappy, just woefully naive.

Thank you for all the supportive messages of people who have done similar trips and the great advice I have received.

Really appreciated.

I know you just wanted to hear people tell you it'll all be fine. But a lot of people haven't, and they didn't do that to be mean, but because the odds are higher than most people would accept that it won't all be fine. There's a reason that you're struggling to get a fit to fly and that your midwife wanted to research it first. They don't do that when you fly earlier in pregnancy because that's much more clear cut.

I'm.struggling to get a fit to fly as I cant get a gp appointment and they wont do it over there phone.

The appointment that I can get will mean it's too late for me to fly if it takes them the full 14 days to write it. They said between 1 and 14 days and cant see me until ten days before I fly. So i need to get some advice of professionals

I know you’ve booked but if there is any way of switching to a slightly later flight that would give you a 10+ hour layover in Singapore, I would look into that. Book the airport hotel and get a good rest in a proper bed before tackling the second leg. A lifesaver when I did that trip while pregnant.

It's madness. Absolute madness.

I'll be surprised if you get a fit to fly.

Holy poop. There is no way. Unless my mother or father easy dying. Would I of done that.

You said the baby wouldn’t be formed at 31 weeks. I had two premature babies. One at 32 weeks and one at 35. My 32 weeker weighed less than 2lbs. (She was incredibly small and stopped growing at 25 weeks). She was fully formed. Friend had twins at 23 weeks. One weighed 450 grams and was also fully formed

I beg of you to rethink this. I really do. I had blood clots. I had clots in my brain. My spleen. My tummy. My arms. My lungs. My legs.

Trust me. It’s horrific. They told my husband I had an 85% chance of dying. As well as my child who was given a 1% chance of survival.

We are both alive. I’ve been left partially disabled.

Whatever it is. It’s not worth it.

I’m 31 weeks and there’s no way I would be risking mine and my baby’s health unless it was life & death, but that’s up to you.
Make sure your health insurance covers you worldwide as if you go into labour they may divert the flight to anywhere close by (UAE, Dubai, Singapore etc).

If you had a medical emergency on the flight the pilots would use the aircraft satellite phone to call a doctor for advice. If the doctor says divert to take you to a hospital, the aircraft would land and you’d be taken to a hospital. I look at some of the places we fly over on the way to the Far East and think I wouldn’t much fancy being dropped off in most of them. Once you get over Turkey there’s nowhere really comfortable looking for the rest of the way - after Turkey there’s Iran, then the gulf states, then either the great expanse of the Indian Ocean or skirting along the coast of Pakistan. Then India, then the ocean again, then Malaysia and Singapore. The bit over Turkey and Iran goes on for ages. Then you take off again from Singapore and you go over Jakarta in Indonesia then there’s nothing but little South Pacific islands until you hit Australia, but flying over Australia takes hours too, and there’s not really anything in the middle. It would be an adventure being dropped off in Alice springs!

Personally, I found sitting still to be incredibly uncomfortable when I was 35 weeks pregnant. There was no way to get comfy, even on a sofa or bed. I can’t even imagine that a club seat would be comfortable enough. I find them OK for a few hours but I’m not pregnant. I fly for a living and it is very rare to get someone in the later stages of pregnancy flying long haul. I can’t remember the last heavily pregnant passenger I had on board. I’ve never had a pregnancy related medical incident though. That’s possibly down to the very small number of women who fly at that stage in pregnancy.

I’m trying to give some supportive advice but am struggling. I live in UK with family in Australia. I have lived through the terminal illness of both parents back in oz and 8 pregnancies: 6 miscarriages and two prem births. I would far rather fly with a 3 month baby than past 20 weeks pregnant. That said, we weren’t allowed to fly with DS - who was born at 33 weeks - until he was 1 yr old (he had respiratory distress when he was born). Thank goodness I wasn’t in Oz when my waters went at 30 weeks.

I am struggling to see why you “have” to go to Australia for a month at this stage.

A friend of mine looked into this as she had a very poorly close relative in Aus and was desperate to see her as it was terminal. Her dates were similar to yours. She could get travel insurance and it didn't cost as much as people thought because you don't declare pregnancy as an illness. However, most policies would only cover her for complications rather than normal pregnancy related issues from 28 weeks. So if she went into labour early but it was a normal delivery, she would not be covered. Neither would any care for the baby that was normal for a premature baby. If she had been unable to gaped on the plane in Singapore due to being in early labour, she would have had to pay out thousands for health care there, possibly for weeks for her baby, and would not have been able to claim for the costs of the missed flights. She calculated that she would be out of pocket by tens of thousands if that happened.
She didn't go. The financial risk alone was too great.
OP, I think you're being very naive if you think it'll be ok. I don't know if you've flown so far before, but it absolutely takes it out of a non pregnant body at the best of times. What will you do if you get there and ten days before you're due to return you can't get a fit to fly note? Not necessarily because you're going to go into early labour. You could be stuck there for months! It could be more than seven weeks before the baby arrives, and then you'd need to sort all the legalities of getting baby a passport to return home, plus additional costs of return flights.

I flew to Cyprus at 35 weeks and flew back 5 days before my due date.
My advice: don't make eye contact with anyone at the check in desk and carry a jumper in front of your bump (in my case, a denim jacket and my other kids stuffed toys).
We flew with a budget airline and it was relatively short haul so I doubt anyone was interested in how pregnant I was to be honest. They probably just thought I was fat and in the off chance that they though I was pregnant they were probably too embarrassed to ask me how far along I was! In case I made a scene!
In hindsight, the holiday was lovely but the lead up to it was incredibly stressful because my whole family thought that I was going to go in to labour either a) in a foreign country or B) in mid air and I'd be stuck with the cost of having the plane diverted etc. Stressful! Wouldn't recommend!

Will Australia let you in? Some countries won't let heavily pregnant women in as some women try to get citizenship by having a child born in that country. Perhaps worth checking it out?

OP only you know what’s acceptable for you. I do find advice on certain things on mn to be very far from reality. I know two other woman who flew and similar date and we’re fine and neither of their healthcare providers were worried. Obviously this is my personal experience and other people have others but I think all the talk about “not fully understand that you’re a mother now” is a bit much.
Honestly my midwife and doctor weren’t concerned at all about me flying at almost 35 weeks.
No I didn’t take blood thinners. Mine was a super fast turn around and I think you need to have then for a while before you leave. I decided to go on the Monday, saw the midwife on Tuesday (regular appointment) booked in to see my gp Thursday flew Friday. I had a gp appointment booked the other side too, took my notes and contacted a consultant there (my sisters)

Thank you.

I have book an appointment the other side. My auntie is a CEO of a medical centre. Which is what we would call a hospital over here.

Ahh that's so reassuring that you have flown at the same stage of pregnancy! And your sisters.

Someone at work (I work in a hospital) mentioned the blood thinners.

Thank you again for your reassurance!!

Ps what does OP mean?

OP = original poster.

What if you can’t get a fit to fly letter to come home again? Will your travel insurance let your DH stay with you? Could he, for potentially 6 weeks until the baby is born and say 2 after until you can come home? Could you afford to do that.

Honestly, I know you say you have to but if it’s not a legal reason then actually, no, you don’t, and I think you’re adding a layer of complication to your life here that you simply don’t need.

Also, if you go into labour on the plane then they will divert you to the nearest airport. So it’s not about medical care in the U.K. or Australia, it’s medical care anywhere on that flight path.

I would be extremely concerned that you wouldn’t get a fit to fly note for the return journey. I know a lot of doctors (GPs and obstetricians) in Australia and none of them would give you a fit to fly at that gestation. Have asked a couple for you and they just laughed.

Having the baby out there isn’t so much of a problem so long as your insurance covers the baby (you said it covers the bump but presumably it will cover nicu/repatriation etc - you must check this) but you need to be prepared that if you go, you may not be able to travel home until you’ve given birth. In that circumstance your insurance definitely won’t cover you (as it won’t be unexpected, you’ll be classed as stupid) and you’d have to pay for your medical care.

I had my first baby at 35 weeks - at your stage I was experiencing a completely normal pregnancy. You just don’t know. If I’d have gone into labour on that flight my baby wouldn’t have survived.

The risks to both of you flying long haul at that stage are huge. Risk of blood clots etc.

I think you are completely bonkers to consider going. It’s selfish and short sighted. Think about your unborn child. There is no reason more important than their well-being that could require a trip to Australia.

She’s not listening people.

Give up. 😢