How many weeks pregnant to travel to Australia

[Elito]

Hi all!

Wondering for your advise here, please!
We’ve got a holiday booked to Australia and are thinking of going pregnant. Based on your experiences how many weeks would you advise the pregnancy to be? I’ll be 33 and will be first pregnancy.

Have you flown there before? I haven't flown there whilst pregnant but have flown there lots of times (I have family there and also lived in Perth for a couple of years). I personally wouldn't want to do that flight while pregnant, it can be incredibly uncomfortable sitting for that long and the dehydration is horrible - I also suffer with jet lag for about 3-5 days afterwards. Maybe early on in pregnancy it wouldn't be too bad but for me I imagine it would be horrible whilst heavily pregnant.
Saying all that it's an amazing place that I recomend as a holiday destination to anyone!
Maybe ask your midwife or Dr on their opinion

It will be first trip to Australia! We want to do it before children, as it's quite far.
Last year we went to Bali, which is not too far from Australia, and yes it was long but it was ok.

I think it's tricky in that you dont know how you will feel pregnant until you are. You could have severe sickness throughout or a low lying placenta.

I guess generally the second trimester is a good time to fly if you are well without complications.

If you are likely to be any further than 24 weeks make sure you have really watertight insurance, covering both you, a possibly premature baby , medical needs, accommodation and repatriation including medical repatriation.

To be honest I wouldn't if it was me. I've had a (touch wood so far- easy pregnancy) however I am now 36 weeks and from around 30 weeks I've felt exhausted, moving is difficult, sitting still is uncomfortable and things like being constantly thirsty and needing the toilet also make it tricky.

You just don't know how you will feel when you're that far gone so it is risky.

Also once you're on holiday have you thought about how you will deal with waking and the heat? I've found my body temperature is soaring and was walking around today without a coat outside when it was 1.5 degrees!

We went when I was 11 weeks pregnant. (We had gotten the 12 weeks scan in before we went). The flight although uncomfortable was ok although it did cause me to have a bleed (both ways) fortunately we had a follow up 12 week scan when we got home (3 weeks later, the day after we landed) I’d convinced myself we had lost the baby due to the bleeding, which was particularly bad on the way home. However fortunately we were ok.

If I were to be positive the outcome would be the same I would do it again, although the bleeding part was terrifying. The midwife seems to think it was down to the cervix being irritated due to such a long flight.

So have a chat to your midwife and GP and see what they say. Our trip was booked before I was pregnant but we still checked with the GP and midwife as the GP had said if he believed I wasn’t safe to fly then the insurance would pay out. Thankfully for us it worked out all ok and I’m now 25 weeks 😍

How many weeks would you be coming back? I live in NZ at the minute but we’re moving back to UK later in the year - I’m going to stay and have the baby here because I can’t face moving and flying that distance at 34-35 weeks. The risk of DVT etc would be much higher than normal so unless you could afford non-economy seats might spend all flight having to walk up and down aisle!

It’s a bit bloody risky at 33 weeks to be honest

I wouldn't. I had my first at nearly 35 weeks and you wouldn't go all that way for just a weeks holiday...

I wouldn’t personally and I’m a massive world traveler and have flown just about everywhere now. I consider myself an excellent flyer. However I’d never been pregnant before and this pregnancy has knocked me out. I’ve never been so sick in my life and I’m 22 weeks in. I can’t inagine trying to fly like this. And you don’t know if you’ll be sick or when it will stop. It’s a gamble.

The holiday won't be fun if you find that you can only walk at quarter of your normal walking speed and that you need the loo every 20 mins because the baby keeps headbutting your bladder.