Holiday

[LouiseSarah]

Hi, I am in my second trimester and I would like to go somewhere on holiday in January. Anyone got any ideas of where is safe? Dubai? Carribean? I take it you need good hospital care available just in case?

Just make sure you can drink the water with no issues. Is it that you want to go somewhere warm? what about Florida? Most of it isn't touristy and really beautiful if you stay the hell out of Orlando and Kissimi

I just was in Dubai on holiday a month ago when 6 mths pg with DC2, went with DH and DS (who was 17 months). Good hotels, great service, good food and direct 6-hour flight from London, plus very child friendly if you have other DCs. All safe and clean. Thought about Florida but the weather can be more unreliable and we wanted warm weather and sunshine guaranteed, within short direct flight. Caribbean not good for hospitals, in emergencies people often get airlifted to Florida. Health insurance for US is very expensive btw if you have a problem. Also got travel insurance that would repatriate us if problem.

Check with your doctor about flying long-haul as the risks of DVT are so high in pregnancy (1 in 1000 on the ground, compared to 1 in 4000-10000 for a non-pregnant person flying long-haul). If your BMI pre-pregnancy was overweight, the standard advice is that you need heparin injections to fly long haul while pregnant.

You need excellent hospital care available if needed and very good travel insurance - check that it would cover expenses for your other half and baby if it arrived early.

I went to Barbados for a week when I was 25/26 weeks pg. It was fantastic! Stayed in a decent hotel and was lucky enough to fly premium economy which definately helped but it was a good temparature (hot but not boiling) and if you are looking at going in Jan then you wont have as bad humidity in the Carribean.

I dont know if I would have wanted to fly anywhere for much longer than 8 hours - got a bit uncomfortable and developed very attractive cankles but would def recommend the Carribean - I would probably go to one of the more developed islands though if you are concerned about hospitals etc.

Thanks for you comments. Japhrimel sorry to sound ignorant but can you tell me what DVT is?

Just to agree with unreliable Florida weather. I went in March a couple of years ago and it was far from warm!

DVT - deep vein thrombosis (clotting, usually in legs, hence tight flight socks).

For DVT risk, when I was pregnant with DS and about to fly to Hong Kong (12 hrs) in 2nd trimester, consultant recommended taking baby (low-dose) aspirin - one 24 hrs before flying, one during flight, one 24 hrs after landing. It reduces risk of blood clotting.

We are going to Puerto Rico. The island is part of the US and has very good medical facilities. The weather is amazing in January. Other places with good medical care are the Caymen islands, Bermuda, US/ British Virgin islands and Barbados. DH and I decided to avoid other places such as Dominican Republic, Mexico, Mustique, Aruba etc etc.