New Mum Travel Advice

[Peanut1807]

Hi there, I have a dilemma and hoping to get some advice from other mums out there.
I am due to have my first baby 14 July by C-section. My best friends wedding is in Barcelona, 1 Aug and I am not sure how feasible it would be to fly post C-section and with a 2 week old baby, (all being well). Has anyone flown with a new baby 2/3 weeks post c-section? Thanks

You will struggle to get a birth certificate let alone passport in two weeks.

I don't think this will be possible unfortunately. You're unlikely to be able to get a passport that quickly, and you'll likely still be quite sore from the surgery.

There are a few reasons why this will not be possible, not least of which is that you won't be able to guarantee a passport for your baby in such a short turnaround (almost 100% impossible, even if you registered them in the day they are born.) Both of mine took well.iver 3 weeks to come.
Also having had 2 C-sections I can say you will not be able to manage the logistics of that amount of walking/ lifting.
And you may well have aftercare appointments/ health visitor/ midives/ hearing tests/ eye tests for you or baby during that time.

I'd let her know now it's going to be impossible.

I flew post C-section with a 3 week old, but they were my third baby (and third CS) so I knew what I was getting into. I would not recommend it at all with a first-born.

My c section recovery was really straight forward, but it would have been too much walking for me. Also lifting/carrying is tricky. And I’d only fly with a 2 weeks old in an emergency, you’d expose them to a lot of viruses etc in an airplane.

Sadly I don't think that would be doable - if you manage to get an appointment to register the birth and then another appointment for the 1 week turnaround passport service you might (just!) have a passport in time, but I think it would be unusual to feel up to going abroad 2/3 weeks post section, especially with a first baby. Mine was a tricky recovery as it was an emergency after a long labour, but I don't think I'd even have coped with all the walking round the airport at that stage, let alone being away from home while trying to settle into life as a parent.

I would send a lovely present and make plans to get together before or a little while after for a celebration which won't be so pressured on you!

As pp said - you will be lucky to register the birth let alone get a passport, and you will not be wanting to fly anywhere 2 weeks post section. It's a big no-no unfortunately.

I'd bet my house it would be a no. You can't make an appointment to register the baby until they're here and our registry office has a wait of about 3-5 weeks for the appointment. I don't think you can fast track a first passport, and I don't think you can get same day appointments at the passport offices for children.