Taking a plane during pregnancy

[Jennifer48]

Hello, I'm currently 10 weeks pregnant folowing an IVF procedure in Madrid in mid-May. Over the moon about being pregnant, I am on my own with no partner and this was my third attempt with one of my eggs (it's fertilised by a sperms donor). I usually fly to Ireland during the summer but am scared about taking the plane for two main reasons - the main reason is that I'm 43. The second reason is that this the third IVF attempt and I have never been pregnant before.
My gynaecologist and the clinic in Spain say there are no contra indications against flying. That said, my younger sister had a miscarriage in February just after taking a flight and that petrified me.
I am based in France so it is not as simple as taking a ferry from England to Ireland.
Grateful for any thoughts.
Thank you.

Hi OP. Many congratulations on your pregnancy, I'm delighted for you. I think you'll be absolutely fine to fly. I flew at 21/22 weeks on my first pregnancy and was perfectly fine. Uncomfortable but fine. I've since had two losses and there was no air travel. I highly doubt there was any connection between your sister flying and her loss.
I know lots of people who had IVF abroad and they all came home by plane. Book the flight!

I may be teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but the average person freaks out about flying thinking the pressure will cause an issue. My ob gyns have both said - 1) the risk is a blood clot but it’s no different to sitting at your desk or sofa for 3 hours (or whatever length of flight), so whack on some compression socks if you want and 2) plenty of pilots and cabin crew have and are pregnant and no trend reported. The radiation is minimal.

Get on the plane! (To be extra cautious, request a pat down rather than the security scanners in the airport)

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

With your sister's loss, remember correlation does not mean causation. There's no additional risk flying that would cause a miscarriage.

I've had 4 miscarriages (none caused by flights) and so far this pregnancy have flown 3 return flights, 2 of which were long haul, and no issues.

Just keep hydrated and moving as much as possible to keep the blood flowing. Short haul flights are usually as long as we sit to watch a movie, so not really a big deal to sit for that long. I always wear compression socks for an extra level of help with reducing the risk of clots too.

I greatly appreciate your responses. Thank you so much @Moosey898 @MauriceTheMussel @SureLook

Get on that plane and enjoy! I'm 44 and 22 weeks pregnant (also via IVF) and just came back from 3 days in Spain. Nothing I have read or been told leads me to think there's miscarriage risk from flying ☺️

See how the pregnancy develops. For most people flying is absolutely fine, especially early on.

I kept on having little bleeds and discovered at my 20 week scan I had placenta previa - placenta covering the exit essentially. That was the cause of the bleeds. That was dangerous, 100% couldn't fly and actually wasn't supposed to be more than a certain distance away from a hospital at any time. So from 20 weeks until 30 weeks I really couldn't fly, but then my placenta moved 🥳, at which point became a low risk pregnancy and could have flown no problem!

So what I'm saying is, in the absence of other complications flying is fine, if you're having no problems get on a plane. If you have other factors, talk it through with your midwife/doctor/OBGYN.

You have an appropriate user name @FlyingHighFlyingLow 😃I do not have complicating factors that I have been told or that I know of for now but it's still early days, as I mentioned- the transfer was 16 May so I'm about 10/11 weeks pregnant.
And thank you.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Flying won’t affect your chances of miscarriage so go for it. I understand the anxiety though as I have has 2 IVF pregnancies over 40. Generally I prefer to travel before the viability limit as a premature birth abroad would be my worst nightmare and I would avoid long haul flights and stay within Europe but Ireland is obviously fine. Miscarriages are more common before 12 weeks so some people that travel will experience one but they would have miscarried anyway sadly.

I had an ivf pregnancy and a job that involved lots of international travel. Flying is not an issue. However there are ferries from France to Ireland if you prefer that - a friend uses them every year to go from his home in Ireland to his holiday home in France.

Whilst I agree with all PP that it'd be fine to fly, I probably wouldn't - because if anything did happen (& yes, it would be correlation, not causation), you wouldn't forgive yourself.

But then, I'm somebody who refused to buy any baby stuff until I was 30+ weeks gone. Tempting fate, and all that.

Many congratulations OP. I flew long haul at 10 weeks - was very nervous as previous pregnancy ended in miscarriage and flew at 25 weeks too.