travel insurance when pregnant

[BPrincess]

Just wondering if anyone's had any experience of this or knows anything useful?

Off to Tenerife for a week in 10 days - will be 24 wks prg. I have the European medical card, which apparently covers everthing you would get on NHS here. But what I'm not sure about is extra travel insurance - the medical card doesn't cover transport costs etc if I had to go home early or things like that.

Any advice anyone?

Travel Insurance is essential (IMO) and especially so while you're pregnant. It won't cost that much but if needed it will become invaluable. We're off to Maldives next week and I'll be 23 weeks and have taken insurance out. It cost me about £50 for the 2 of us for 10 nights with Aviva so yours should be much less as you aren't travelling as far. I would do it for peace of mind.

I would recommend insurance too, just in case and for piece of mind. Make sure to tell the provider you are pregnant and check you will be covered. Enjoy your holiday!

Haha sorry: that should be peace of mind not piece of mind, obviously!

BPrincess there is another MN'er called SouthseaRocks whose waters broke when in America at Christmas and she gave some good advice around making sure you get insurance and making sure it would also cover the baby if born abroad prematurely.

FWIW, I have a policy with American Express. More expensive than others, but I have phoned them a couple of times to grill them about my pregnancy/baby cover if anything happens when I'm away at 20 weeks and they assure me everything is covered.

Thanks everyone. I'll look up Southsea's post, too, and start calling round. I suppose my partner will have to be covered too, as he'd have to be there too if anything untoward happens...

Great advice!

BPrincess, the EHIC card doesn't cover everything that would be covered on NHS here, it entitles you to the same cover as a local would be entitled to, which might not be free universal healthcare with no limits, for everybody.

In lots of European countries for example, there are some things that have to be paid for, even with the EHIC.

The rest of the tab needs to be picked up by you or by an insurer. So it's really important to get good insurance. FWIW, my annual policy covered me with no extra charge up to 28 weeks, after which it would have been a declared medical condition with an extra premium payable.

You would also as you say need your insurance to cover travel to return early, and also associated expenses if anything happens and you end up having to stay there for extra weeks/months (and the associated expenses that entails).

Do make sure that EVERYthing is covered, as southsearocks story tells us, things can happen that are VERY unexpected!

D

One thing to add - when you phone around, ask the companies specifically if pregnancy is considered a 'pre existing medical condition'. I came across a cheap policy that didnt mention anything about pg in the exclusions so it would have been easy to think it was ok. However, on enquiry I eventually got the answer that it would have been considered a pre existing condition and therefore excluded. Flippin cheeky I thought!

jasmine, our insurance provider told me it would be illegal to discriminate against pregnant women in that way...two agents told me the same thing.

Good thing you checked!