Travel insurance

[Preggers86]

I saw a thread on here a few weeks ago regarding travelling whilst pregnant and cannot for the life of me find it anywhere. I am due to travel once at 20 weeks and again at 33 weeks to Gran Canaria and was wondering if you guys have any recommendations of who to get insurance from?

Thanks in advance

I got mine through Ravenhall. Expensive but worth it for peace of mind.

I have mine through Virgin Travel - it's an annual one so still running from last year. We're going on holiday next month so I phoned them to ask if I needed to change anything in my policy to reflect the fact I was pregnant and they said no, as pregnancy is not something they routinely scan for. I think it might be different if you're having multiples though.

*screen for - I have scans on the brain!!

I went through Ravenhall as well for America at 27 weeks.

When you’re choosing make sure there is cover for the baby as well as you. Not all policies include this.

I have just done a quote through ravenhall and even though I knew it would be more expensive I didn't think it would be that much £80 for 10 nights for 2 people

Ravenhall is expensive but most standard insurers won't cover the cost of the baby if the baby makes an arrival. So your medical expenses may be paid, but nothing for your baby. Read through the terms and conditions and you will see the difference between what cover is provided

I’ve got mine as part of a bundle with Natwest. It’s an expensive account per my, but covers travel insurance for my whole family, including the unborn baby (and from when he’s born).

They don’t need to know if you’re pregnant, have pretty lenient “when you can travel” rules, and don’t require a medical certificate for you to fly (unlike Ravenhill). Some airlines do, but others don’t... This one just says you mustn’t travel against medical advice.

Most standard policies will cover you as "pregnancy is not an illness", but you should check the policy wording before you commit. I went with the Post Office and it was £46 for the two of us for a week in mainland Europe. In my naivety I didn't check to see if the baby would be covered if something happened. If Ravenhill do then I would say another thirty quid is worth it for the peace of mind.

Mine covers the baby if born prematurely while we're away.

I'm thinking of getting a standard policy for the 1st one when I'm 20 weeks and then going with ravenhall for the one when I'm 34 weeks on the day we fly back

I've been checking this out as am off to France when 34 weeks. I actually posted about 2 months ago and after advice plan to go with Ravenhall.
Although other policies include pregnancy as its not a "condition" if you read the Ts & Cs you find that they only cover complications from pregnancy and not normal labour. Some will also only cover complications up until a certain week (I've seen some that stop at 29 weeks)
I don't want to end up with a hefty bill if I should go into premature labour and would need the baby to have cover as soon as they were born.
I'd speak with any current provider to check their terms otherwise get a pregnancy specific policy.

@peasando I'd check your policy for definite confirmation as when I checked out virgin travel insurance terms it said that they only cover claims due to complications of pregnancy or childbirth and that has to be confirmed by a qualified person. It had a list of what was considered complications of pregnancy and childbirth and standard labour isn't one of them. Only an emergency c section is along with things like pre eclampsia and retained placenta.

Yea I'm definitely going to get a pregnancy specific insurance for when I travel at 33-34 weeks. But was wondering if there is any point for when I travel at 20-22 weeks as surely if anything unexpected was to happen then it would be classed an an unfortunate miscarriage? Do other countries operate on the same 24 week cut off like the UK?

Thanks @Frizzy1986 - reading the t's and c's is always good advice.

If only I'd been a qualified lawyer for 13 years and I read contracts for a living...oh, wait... 😂

In all seriousness though, my Virgin policy covers amongst other things emergency sections and premature birth more than 8 week (or 16 weeks if you know you are having more than one baby) before the expected delivery date. Obviously the usefulness of this depends on when you are travelling.

@peasando oh well that's good. Didn't spot that you were travelling earlier!
I find it all very complicated as they all say yes we cover pregnancy but really they only cover you cancelling because of a problem and that's it.
Be better if they were up front and said we don't really cover much to do with being pregnant as I bet most people are concerned about hospital costs should they need it.