St Lucia while pregnant - Zika risk

[CrazyIdiot]

Long time poster, NC for this one.

After yonks of trying I've just found out I am pregnant. Over the moon.

Problem is I'm supposed to be going on the holiday of a lifetime to St Lucia next week. Having given up on getting pregnant, DH and I have splashed out.

But it's classed as moderate risk for Zika 'consider postponing non essential travel'. We didn't know this when we booked it. I've read up on it and if I douse myself in repellent I might not get bitten, and if I do, I may not get the virus, and if I do it may not cause problems.

So many ifs, buts and maybes. It's taken the shine off everything. I feel like such an idiot.

We can't postpone/ cancel / change plans.

Has anyone else been to a moderate risk Zika country while pregnant? I feel like Zika is a 'new' thing, which doesn't lessen it, but 10, 15 years ago, did people travel in ignorance and be ok?

Sorry, to add, we can't cancel without losing all of our money. Last resort is we just don't go, but would never be able to afford anything different instead.

@crazyidiot oh god this is such a hard decision! How long did it take you to fall pregnant? If it was a particularly long time this is obviously gonna feel so special (not that it isn’t anyway) but ultimately also it’s a holiday of a lifetime. I guess it comes down to would you want to risk this pregnancy and the life you are creating if god forbid you did catch it and it did affect the baby.

Zika risk is still very much so in that current area but amount of people affected from holidays etc is very minimal. The risk for you in first trimester is worse though than further being further along.

Only thing I can suggest is if you do go, you can get tests done at a private fertility clinic to confirm if you have contracted the Zika virus to put your mind at rest when you get back. If you haven’t contracted it you can rest easy knowing all is well and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy (this is most likely outcome of course) and if you had caught it (which I think is unlikely but there is always that small risk) then you would perhaps have a very hard decision on your hands if it had affected the baby and that was confirmed at ultrasound etc.

That’s about all I can suggest tbh..sorry. Ultimately only you and your partner can decide what to do. Really don’t envy that decision!

Just to put things in perspective. We had a holiday to Mexico booked for June 2016 which we had booked 7 months ahead. An Zika risk wasn’t in the news then and became apparent about the Feb/March time and we were going to start to try in the June and I really didn’t want to postpone trying (if we went it meant waiting 2-3 months after getting back from our trip to ensure Zika free) and we had got such a good deal with the holiday, and it was our last big trip away. But we had enough time to alter the holiday and so after muc discussion decided to swap it for Canary Islands so we could ttc without any worry. Amazingly we fell pregnant straight away & i thought cancelling the holiday was 100% right decision. But then at 13 weeks pregnant I miscarried in Oct 2016.

After all that ordeal was over and my body back to normal. We were ttc for 6 months and finally fell in May this year and here I am now 28 weeks pregnant expecting our bundle in early Feb almost a year after the due date of the first pregnancy.

Looking back maybe we should of gone on that holiday and postponed ttc a few months and we may have got on better with this journey. But whatever your decision it ends up working out one way or another and nothing in life is ever predictable!

Good luck!

Xx

I'll be honest Op, I wouldn't risk it. I'm really sorry. If you do get bitten you won't know if it's just an ordinary mosquito or not, and you're going to panic. The chances of:

1 - getting bitten
2 - getting bitten by a mosquito with zika
3 - getting zika
4 - zika affecting the baby

are tiny; however the long term consequences if you are unlucky far outweigh a holiday :(

Is there anyone you could talk to - could you find a dr who specialises in that sort of disease, for example?

Good luck with whatever you choose and congratulations!

I was in a similar situation and scrapped my vacation.

Ah, OP, it’s a hard one.

But it seems to me that whatever the downside of losing your deposit, being infected and (god forbid) having a child with a preventable, but debilitating, disease would make those costs look like nothing. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

The worry of pregnancy is hard enough without adding a worry about what one might have done to make the outcomes for one’s infant better.

Even just in terms of what it would do to your peace of mind in the latter stages of your pregnancy (which could and should be wonderful) my call would be to cancel.

But as you say: the risk is small.

I went and I didn't enjoy it one bit. I was hysterical in the correct sense of the word if I saw something that even looked like a mosquito and wasn't convinced until she was born that I hadn't had it. My advice, don't go. Sorry about the situation but congratulations on the pregnancy

Is it worth asking your GP and would your travel insurance not cover the costs if you had to cancel due to medical advice?

Exactly @TheVanguardSix

And by that I meant: @guest2013 . I have no brain for names in the real world let alone this virtual scrum. Apologies for having been too quick on the trigger.

No way would I go. Chances are slim but there's still a chance. Every bite you'd be stressing.

Thanks everyone. I think I was hoping for a rash of replies all saying yes we did and it was fine.

Tough chat to be had with DH tomorrow.

Is the holiday booked with a travel company? The company a friend booked (similar to Kuoni I think) allowed them to swap for an admin fee of a couple hundred quid as a gesture of goodwill! They didn’t have travel insurance yet.

I wouldn't go and some of the effective repellants aren't suitable in pregnancy.

I definitely wouldn't go. I had a holiday booked to the Caribbean when I was pregnant last year, thankfully I cancelled as the people I went with both contracted Zika virus. The official advice is to avoid it and I would be following that advice unfortunately. It absolutely sucks, but in the scheme of things a holiday is incomparable to a healthy baby.

Would have went with*

Do you have insurance? My friend had to cancel because of pregnancy / Zika zone and got her money back.

I'm afraid I wouldn't risk it either. I'd be liking to if there's any way out like a swap, refund, selling the holiday on for less etc.

Not familiar with St Lucia but are mosquitoes everywhere or only in certain areas? I’ve been to resorts in some places where it’s only outside in the “real world” that you encounter mosquitoes and inside the resort is relatively clear of the buggers. But when I go back home to South Asia there is nothing we can do to avoid mosquitoes inside our home even though it’s scrupulously clean and mopped twice a day etc etc. Just trying to get an estimate of the risk I suppose. But tbh, I would probably find it hard to go.

Firstly congratulations on your pregnancy.

I’m afraid I wouldn’t risk it either. The risk is small, but if there is a problem, do you really want to be faced with the choice of having a baby born with significant medical problems or having a termination of pregnancy on medical grounds? I’m sorry to be blunt, but if you do contract it, that may be the situation you are in.

I feel like Zika is a 'new' thing, which doesn't lessen it, but 10, 15 years ago, did people travel in ignorance and be ok?
No, there’s recently been an epidemic of it which is why it appears to be a new thing. It has been around for years, but there wasn’t a massive outbreak of it until 2015 onwards.

We lost all our money cancelling a holiday to a malaria area when I got unexpectedly pregnant. No way would I go.

I would not risk it. Sorry! If you went I doubt you would enjoy it as you will be constantly stressed and unable to relax. I'd rather lose the money than a lifetime of looking after a child with severe disability.

I have to say, I wouldn't risk it either. I had my worst mozzy bite-attacks ever in St Lucia, sitting in an indoor restaurant covered in repellant and with one of those repellant candles under the table.

Its not worth the risk.

Congratulations

Congratulations on your pregnancy! It's such a tricky decision, but ultimately a very personal one. I'm sure you will do the right thing that works for you and your baby.

I'm in a similar position. Booked a holiday to st Lucia but have now discovered I am lucky enough to be pregnant and made the decision not to travel. Our hotel has kindly refunded our money, but British Airways have categorically said we can't get a refund on our flights (that's over £1000 we have now lost!) Have others experienced this? I can't believe they can actually do this- it just doesn't seem fair?!
Any help/ advice would be much appreciated!!!

Congratulations!

Have to be honest I wouldn’t take the risk, especially as I think I’m right in saying that it is the wet season at the moment, so likely to be lots of mozzies around.

Does your travel insurance cover you at all? Can you sell the holiday on to someone else at a reduced price to at least get something back?

As disappointing as it is, I would look at it as you have a baby which is even better than a holiday!

Congratulations on your pregnancy.
What a horrible situation to be in, only you can decide but the fact you are asking the question makes me think you'll just be worried the whole time anyway.
We were due to go to Cancun in December and we have cancelled, in 13 weeks pregnant and I get bitten to pieces and didn't think it was worth the risk. Especially as the sprays you can use will also be limited.
We lost out on our flights but the hotel we were able to cancel.

Don’t go. It’s not worth the stress or risk.

Get on the case with travel company/ airline/ insurance and swap it for somewhere super safe winter sun place like a canary island x