Trans Atlantic Flight - Advice anyone?

[BritinUSA]

Hello! I am English, but live in Chicago. I'm 18 wks and plan to travel to the UK to see my Mum, Dad and family at 22 weeks. I've been coming under some pressure from friends here in the States about the wisdom of traveling whilst pregnant, particularly on a reasonably long flight. My doctor has not told me not to travel - their line is "at your own risk" although they offered plenty of tips on how to make the journey more manageable. I'd really like to see my Mum (miss her terribly, particularly now pregnant and with our first) but have become unnerved by all the comments from well meaning friends here. In fact they have really left me distraught, particularly as I didn't give it a second thought when booking the flight. I've read the second trimester is the best time to travel and assuming one does get up, move around, drink plenty of fluids and generally look after yourself, hopefully all will be okay. I've had one episode of spotting around week 15, when the doctor brought me in for an ultra-sound, other than that, fingers crossed all okay. Any advice anyone would be able to share about travel would be greatly appreciated and is much needed! Thanks so much :)

I did London/Sydney and back at 20 weeks with an 18 month old in tow. No probs - can't see any reason for you to be concerned unless you have some serious complications. It's no like your flying to Afghanistan fgs.
If you were talking 35 weeks I'd probably tell you to just hold off until the baby is born, but 20 weeks wouldn't make me hesitate in the slightest (obviously!)

Did your doctor say you shouldn't travel because of some specific concern about your pregnancy (if so ignore my previous post) or is it just standard American-doctor-wanting-to-waive-responsibility talk?

I fly a great deal and I am 22 weeks. I am doing a 14 hour flight in 2 weeks and have done a total of eight 7 hour flights throughout my pregnancy so far. Although I would rather not be flying, needs must! I am actually considered high risk because I had early onset and severe pre-eclampsia. Last week one of those flights was to go back to the UK to see the high risk pregnancy unit and they are aware of my situation- husband lives abroad, I live between two countries. I also told them about my planned 14 hour flight and asked if they thought it would be OK. They seemed totally fine about it and had a discussion about heperin, but decided that the best thing was for me to use the flight socks/ bandage thingys and to drink loads of fluid, move around every hour and all should be fine.

My ob-gyn (very senior and very good) was perfectly happy for me to fly to and from the USA at about 20w. Similar discussion to Lulu, similar conclusion.

Flight socks, bulkhead seats so we could stretch out (dh has very long legs!), plenty of water, no alcohol or caffeine, moving about every hour or so.

I just did the reverse as I am from Indiana and live in London. And I am 20 weeks. My midwife told me to wear the DVT socks, drink lots of fluid and keep moving ... it was just fine (although jetlag is worse I think).

And actually this flight was originally booked for Dec (1st tri) and my doctor recommend I move it to 2nd as its much safer.

And I am high risk.

BTW - I did play the pregnancy card ... pointing to my bump and insisting on an aisle seat. Worked just fine.

I flew london - shanghai & back at 21 weeks, was business class tho, and fine
the MW just emphasised to move every hour (!!) and get GOOD dvt socks
The only issue you might have - has your dr said DONT or wouldnt travel? if 'dont' you might struggle with insurance - just worth checking
take your notes as you'll potentially need to prove to your airline youre early enough to fly

I'm a long haul flight attendant (currently about to have dc2), the airline I work for isnt british and if I had wanted to continue flying until quite late in my pregnancies I easily could have...(and I'm talking 14+hr flights....just couldnt face the thought of scrambled eggs after an all nighter with morning sickness!!! ). There is no reason you cant fly at all, just listen to advice given, DVT socks, lots water, move around, tell the crew youre pregnant, keep blood sugar levels up etc. Your dr, is, I suspect covering his arse and obviously double check but normal travel insurance should suffice with a 'normal' pregnanacy. Enjoy mummy time! x

Check with the airlines as far as their policy on whether you need a doctor's note to fly. I've flown at 25 weeks with a toddler London-NYC-LA and back, and think the airline said the cut off was 30 weeks before you need a doctor's note. Not sure how they could tell though how many weeks you are?

I'm 24 weeks and have been flying regularly (last time at 22 weeks). It's short-haul so a bit different, but I haven't had any issues and the midwife is happy for me to keep flying as late into the pregnancy as I feel comfortable. I have pelvic girdle pain, but bizarrely airline seats appear to be really well designed for it and I am quite comfortable! Check both your insurance and your airline's policy (no problem with either of mine, DirectLine and KLM).

I also flew plenty in my first pregnancy and have a couple of times in this pregnancy, with two 12-hour flights coming up in a month (at around 22 weeks).

You'll be tired, so allow time to recover after you land each end. Otherwise, get up and move around, play the pregnancy card on check-in (as others have said) and make sure you buy lots of snacks and water at the airport to take on with you. I found the on-board food not to my pregnancy tastes at all, and not nearly often enough.

Make sure the flight attendants know you're pregnant too.

Finally, make sure your travel insurance will cover you if you end up having an emergency over in the UK and have to stay over here to have the baby (search for the threads about SouthseaRocks and her experience of being stuck in the USA after Christmas; she ended up giving birth over there) - although if you are British I guess the NHS would cover you 9and you have family over in the UK to help)?

Hi there,

I'm going to be 27 weeks when I fly out to the states and then 28 when I return, and from all the literature I've read, I've not been given any reason not to travel.

Agree with all of the advice above about flight socks, lots of fluids, snacks etc, and in my humble opinion I'd ignore your friends and look forward to catching up with your family at this exciting time.

Hope you have a great trip and good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

I have flown up until 28 weeks pregnant i wouldn't fly after that. Although after reading the saga about southsearocks i would be hesitant now. I am high risk as well though and given birth to a preemie.

22weeks would be fine though. Just make sure you drink lots of fluids and don't worry if your annoying who your sitting with by getting up and down every hour.

I flew to the US at 18-20 weeks with my first two pregnancies! No problems at all, not at that stage.

Well, I say that. No problems with the flying. However, I did have a scan at 18 weeks with my second pregnancy as I was over there so long and was worried something was wrong. It was and I ended up admitted to hospital for emergency placement of a rescue stitch or my baby would have been born within a few days. However, it saved her life - and it was something a UK scan would not have routinely checked for and I'd happened upon a scan clinic that had a peri who was one of the best in the country for rescue stitches which helped too. We had good travel insurance and ended up not a penny out of pocket and flown back home first class so I could stay horizontal. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't gone on that visit, DD2 would not be trashing the living room right now.

However that is so, so, so, so rare for something like that to happen. And the UK isn't the third world (err, mostly!) when it comes to medical care so unless something happened on the flight (how unlikely is that?!) then it doesn't really matter where you are if things go wrong.

You'll be fine!

Ladies - thanks so much for your insights and common sense approach. Thank you for taking the time to post and share. When I read your responses before work this morning, I felt much, much better and will follow all the advice given, socks, fluids, snacks, aisle seat, moving about the aircraft frequently. It all makes sense. I haven't been told not to fly, rather you do so at your own risk, which is the 'standard line' my obgyn's office gives all pregnant women, unless they are told specifically not to fly. Thanks again to all and I'm really looking forward to coming back to the UK!

Just wanted to add - dont forget to take all your medical notes with you, just in case you do need to be seen while in the UK.

I flew long haul (Costa Rica-London, 18 hour trip) at 10 weeks and again at 36 weeks. 36 weeks was much easier because i looked pregnant and was allowed to go to the front of all the queues. If no one offers you extra help ASK FOR IT! Enjoy your hols

Hi, I used to do about 50 flights per year in my professional career and was very easy about flying. When I fell pregnant, my doctor did a series of tests and discovered a blood clotting disorder I was not aware I had genetically... He prohibited me from any long haul travel (I was due to travel to the USA for X-mas as DH is American and had to scrap off these plans). The genetic blood clotting disorder test I had done cost about GBP400 (not covered by insurance and not offered on NHS). I think there is definitely merit in excercising caution and not travelling if this is your first pregnancy and I would personally go with the doctor's advice. A friend of mine travelled from London to Philippinnes and had a miscarriage on the flight... My view is that better safe than sorry.

I went to Mauritius on holiday at 20 weeks. No problems with the flight but we went premium economy for the extra space which is well worth it if funds allow. (Also flew back from China when about 3 weeks but didn't know about that one!)

Just a tip - if you look even remotely big, do take a doctors note stating how pregnant you are. A friend got refused travel at 26 weeks because they didn't believe she wasn't much further on.

Tell them you're pregnant and at the gate ask to board with the babies so you don't get pushed and shoved in the mass rush.

Mention pregnancy at the security checks - there are some new machines out which aren't suitable for pregnant women - not come across this in the UK, but in Dubai and Mauritius they took me for seperate checks.

Have a fab trip and enjoy your family time!

I was living in NY when I was pregnant with my DS1. We flew down to Savannah when I was about 16 weeks , then back to England when I was 20 weeks, and we did a 2-week long trip to Alaska when I was between 29-31 weeks. Everything was fine and as long as you're having a healthy, low-risk pregnancy you should be too.

This pregnancy I travelled to the US when I was 6 weeks and we just got back from a holiday to Italy (I was 27-28 weeks).

It's whatever you feel comfortable with. And you're coming to a safe place to have your baby if worst comes to worst. My thing has always been that if something goes wrong am I going to be somewhere first-world with decent hospitals? If the answer is 'yes' and you feel comfortable travelling, then do it.

Just a note about the flight socks - if you don't have any already get your mum to buy some and send them to you (or perhaps you could get some online). I found that you can't buy them at US airports, although they're readily available at UK ones. So don't go to the airport hoping to be able to pick some up, because you might not be able to find any.