Travelling when 15 - 17 weeks pregnant

[ohthegoats]

Hi, I have a travel related question.

I'm a 'high risk' pregnancy, in that I have to inject heparin due to previous DVTs, and I'm also 40. We've got flights to Bangkok booked for Easter, at which point assuming everything works out OK, I'll be 15 - 17 weeks pregnant.

Before this happened, we planned to fly from Bangkok into Cambodia for the two weeks. A few days temple seeing from Siem Reap on hired motorbikes, down the lake and river on a boat, few days in Phnom Penh and then rickety bus out to the coast to go to a small resort on an island called 'Lonely Beach'.

Now, this would be a normal sort of holiday for us, but I've been doing some reading and am worrying about the lack of medical infrastructure in Cambodia. All guide books say 'If in any medical situation, get yourself to Bangkok if at all possible'. Which doesn't sound very reassuring.

I haven't spoken to the midwife about it (seeing her Saturday), but my doctor when I went for the heparin just said 'Yeah, it'll be fine'. I'm not convinced.

Has anyone got any experience of travelling 'roughly' while pregnant? How did it go? Do you think I should change my plans to something more sedate?

Sorry for the long post.

If you can get the heparin through customs, I would go. At that stage, if anything does go wrong, there isn't a huge amount that can be done.

I too had a high risk ( twin) pregnancy on heparin. I would have done something similar at 18 weeks, but not beyond about 22 weeks.

Have fun!

That sounds amazing! What's the malaria and vaccinations situation with Cambodia? We're thinking about holidays at the moment, and I'm pretty sure we ruled out Cambodia and Vietnam because I don't want to be on anti-malarials when pregnant (although apparently some are fine).

I've used heparin for years when flying - I've got it through customs lots of times, including in and out of Thailand twice.

I'm not very good at taking malaria pills, but I suppose I'd have to. My vaccinations are up to date as of 18 months ago, so think that's OK.

OK you're making me feel more positive about Cambodia.

I'm just sitting here googling other options from Bangkok, and I'm not really very interested in anything other than Cambodia. Been to most other options.

Having been to Cambodia I'd be a bit wary about how comfortable you'd be when travelling on motorbikes / rickety buses. I remember the roads being horribly bumpy there. And I'm a very laid back traveller (and pregnant person!) too.

And please correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think you could take Malarone when pregnant? However I wouldn't bother with anti-malaria medicine in anywhere but East Indonesia in SE Asia.

I think you could still go to Cambodia but look at doing things more comfortably. Hire a driver instead of the rickety bus and motorbikes for example?

Yeah, good thinking tertle - I'll have a look at drivers and posher hotel type options.

I've never taken anti malarials in SE Asia, and have been to just about all the countries other than Cambodia, I'd only take them this time if I had some big doctor type telling me off.