Work travel to Bangladesh at 21 weeks

[emilyarm]

Hi

I have a 12 day work trip planned to Bangladesh when I will be 21 weeks pg. I've spoken to a travel clinic who advised that the main risks were food hygene and dengue (although I don't think there is a high risk of dengue at this time of year).

They advised that I should be sure that there are good hospitals I could go to in Dhaka in case something went wrong.

I wondered if people had similar experiences ie travel with work to less developed countries, and if anyone had any specific information about travel in Bangladesh whilst pregnant, especially hospitals.

Thanks

Absoloutely not....
I've been several times for work and whilst its a fab and interesting country for many reasons its not a sanitary place, the traffic / travel is extremely dangerous, and the medical provisions low - even in dhaka. transport is so so so congested even if you stayed centrally it could take you hours to go just a few miles. Food is variable.
Not sure what line of work your in, but feel free to message me if you have any secific questions
At 21 weeks I did travel broad - but shanghai & hk, avoided india & bangladesh
all that said if you HAVE to go, literally have to, there are 2 hotels i can recommend
hope thats helpful and not just negative!!!

ABROAD sorry!

I would second oggy. I went to Dhaka for work and I would not even dream of going there pregnant. The pollution and congestion is unlike anywhere. If you intend to stay at the best hotel there, you will prob be ok but if there is a risk that something could happen I don't know that you want to be out there.

I have been to the large cities in Pakistan also which are much much better equipped medically than Dhaka but wouldn't chance it there either.

Hi, dnt think its wise to travel abroad whn pregnant, as anything could happen. Im sure uve seen thread of m.n whose waters broke in America! However, if u must then westin is the best place to stay cos its central, v.clean etc. Hospitals -Square and Apollo in Dhaka is better than nhs! Hopefully u wnt need to find out. Btw, what job do u do?

I wouldn't risk it, we have business there and all my colleagues get dodgy tu s when they travel there.

There are plenty of developing countries I'd travel to while pregnant... but not Bangladesh. Hopefully you'll have another chance to go after the baby is born? Shame to pass it up, but really I would.

Definitely not! Would your travel insurance even cover pregnancy related complications? The last thing you would want would be to be unable to fly home and be stuck for weeks in a hospital over there. I would not take the risk.

Hang on! I lived in Dhaka for years as an expat and many of my expat friends were pregnant there and some even gave birth. Apollo hospital is well equipped and the British Embassy has an excellent clinic with doctors and nurses.

If you are low risk and haven't had any problems I don't see that you would. As long as you aren't going to do anything really daft you will be fine. I have never seen a better standard of living anywhere than I saw for the rich in Bangladesh.

Make sure your vaccinations are up to date, and don't touch anything dodgy. Eat only in very well known and well respected restaurants.

Ps - Having said all that, I actually did get Dengue Fever while I was there but this can be avoided if you are really careful in terms of nets and covering up. :)

I would be wary of traveling anywhere.... i just did and it didn't work out so great.

We left for America (home for me) when i was 20 weeks and returned when I was 23. Because it was long haul I was on Heprin and low dose aspirin (and flight socks and loads of water etc) for the flights and there was a terrific nose bleed at 30,000 feet!

Whilst we were there I was fine. But I picked something up on the way back. We got back on a Friday and I felt very odd. I figured between heprin shots, travel, jet lag and pregnancy this was to be expeceted. But that weekend I kept feeling weird, really weird. Even just sitting down I would come over incredibly dizzy like I was going to pass out. All I want to do was sleep. I headed back into work on the Monday and by 10 am was screaming for someone to come and pick me up off the bathroom floor. The feeling dizzy was quickly progressing to-unless-i-am-lying-down-I?m-going-to-faint. So I popped up to the doctors. My blood pressure had risen from its always 110/70 to 120/90 with a resting heart rate of 128!! They asked me to wee in the pot (getting to be a difficult thing to do- cant see what I?m doing!) and as soon as I saw it I knew something was wrong. Everything under the sun was in it. Blood work came back saying low sodium (?) and infection. So I got signed off work, put on antibiotics and told to rest. The infection cleared in time but it was a good 3 weeks before I had any energy.

I had already agreed with my employer I would finish work at 32 weeks and seeing as the doctors felt I wouldn't be well enough to work until 28/29 weeks I ended up just resigning. I worked for an extremely small company and felt having them arrange cover for a month for me to possibly be well enough to come back for a month when I was leaving to take care of baby full time wasn't fair to them. To be honest although i feel much better, I'm not sure I could really cope with being back.

I suppose you could argue I could have gotten sick anywhere but, I think being exposed to so many germs on flights etc and just the stress of travel was just a bit much for me body to cope with.

Hopefully things would go better for you!

x

I went to Cuba for a holiday when I was 23 weeks, and generally my (realistic but slightly depressing) view is that if anything were to happen to the pregnancy at that stage, even the best care in the UK wouldn't be able to help. Having said that, Bangladesh is probably not the best place to go even when not pregnant, but I guess if it's unavaoidable, just be very careful with food and water and stay in the best hotels.

Also read the "waters gone in America" thread to appreciate why long haul esp somewhere without the best medical care is not a great idea.

Thanks all for the throughtful advice. I've actually spent a lot of time in South Asia, though never Bangladesh and would be happy to go to big cities in India. It's the medical facilities, or lack of them, which is my main concern about Dhaka, so am going to do a bit more research on that. Although agree with KnockedUpMell, this isn't about needing facilities that could deal with a very prem baby, as that's not a possibility. Insurance will cover me as long as Dr hasn't advised agaist it. Seeing my GP on Monday, so that cold be the decision made for me right there! Will keep you posted how it goes.

"Although agree with KnockedUpMell, this isn't about needing facilities that could deal with a very prem baby, as that's not a possibility."

I don't agree - read the water's gone in America thread. Obviously its unlikely, but if your waters were to go while you were there (but you didn't actually go into labour) it WOULD be about needing facilities that could deal with a very prem baby.

emilyarm - honestly I have travelled around india alot with work, and bangladesh IS very different, less stable infrastructure etc and very dangerous travel wise -more so than india, I'm not trying to be alarmist just wanting to place a really clear image in your mind
Do you know where you will be staying, there are 2 main international hotels - the radisson which is on airport road out of city, and the westin right in city
I have always stayed at radisson, and its been ok, thought I have friends who have stayed at both, and been v ill at both,
Have you travelled whilst pg as yet? will you be business? after a 12 hrs business flight to shanghai I was ok but extremely baloated, after a short 2hr econ flight squished between to gents to hk from shanghai felt v odd
purely nosey can I ask what industry youre in?
wouldnt say no to travel just want you to be aware of whats at the other end of your trip!

I don't know anything about Bangladesh but I went to NE India when 20 weeks pregnant over Christmas and I was fine. My husband,our 3 young childen and I stayed with family members there. There weren't any mosquitos at all and we did not use anti-repellants. I had travel vaccines as dr said the benefits outweighed the risks but I haven't had the baby yet, its due in May. We went to visit my husband's Dad who had a stroke. I was really careful with the water and only drank bottled water. I didn't need to visit the doctor or hospital. If you're having a healthy pregnancy I wldnt think there's too much risk of giving birth prematurely, but ultimately it's your decision. What sort of work would you have to do out there?

Thanks again for all your input. After listening to you guys, discussing with other colleagues and friends who know Bangldesh well, as well seeking advice from my GP (who was reasonably familiar with healthcare sytem in Bangladesh) I have decided to go ahead with the trip. I'll keep posted on how it goes.

hi - glad you were able to make a decision - do you know where youre staying? pm me if you need suggestions etc

I said I'd post on how the trip went -sorry this slipped a bit - the trip was weeks ago now but thought it might still be worth an update in case similar queries come up in future.

The long and short of it was that the trip was fine, no real problems at all. Perhaps the worst part of it all was the flight out there. I really bloated up and found it quite painful. This was much better on the way back, which I think may have been because I ate less before the flight.

Dhaka was full on, although didn't find it any more so than India. I stayed in a guest house in Dhanmondi - I work for a charity , so 5 star hotels are not an option. But a guest house worked really well for me as it was very friendly, clean and I could eat all my meals there, making special requests if needs be. The managers were also incredibly helpful and I could call them anytime if I needed any help.

Staying in the centre of Dhaka also meant less travel round the city. My colleagues were very accomodating and came to me for meetings as much as possible, also reducing the amount of time I had to spend on the roads. When I did have to travel round the city, again my Bangladesh colleagues looked after me, telling-off drivers for going to fast or taking potholes too hard!

I mainly ate in my guest house, with some meals out. I have spent a lot of time in Asia and other developing regions and since being very ill with dysentry as a student traveller I haven't had any problems, even when drinking local water, eating street food etc. I was a far more cautious on this trip and it paid off as I had no illness, although I did miss the street food. ;) Have to say that I wouldn't have wanted to be there in the first trimester - smells and bad driving would have made me feel really ill.

I guess the biggest issue the trip caused for me was some anxiety beforehand. I did have a few 'oh-my-god-i-must-be-mad' panics in the middle of the night, so anyone doing this kind of trip when pg needs to be confident that they've weighed up the risks and can handle a bit of the unknown.

I don't mean to sound glib and I'm sure there are some MNers who think that just because something didn't go wrong, doesn't mean it couldn't have but I felt on looking at the risks it was worth going ahead with the trip. Overall going to Bangladesh probably isn't top of my list of things to do when pg but I'm glad that i did it and have no regrets.

Great update! Really glad all went well. I was one of the pessimstic ones ....