Flying The Blue Skies With Your Big Belly

Summer time is here and many of my patients want to plan a nice relaxing vacation before their baby is due. 

Here are a few recommendations that I share with my patients to help them choose the appropriate vacation.

1.  Get an aisle seat. Not your partner, but you sit in the aisle.

This way, when you are constantly getting up, you are not self-conscious.

In order to prevent potentially dangerous blood clots from forming in your legs,  you should get up every 1-1.5 hours and walk around if only for 2-3 minutes (although common even amongst non-pregnant people, pregnant women are at higher risk).

2.  Buy 1 liter of water for every 2 hours that you are flying.

Do not count on the flight attendant to bring you that shot glass of water.  You should know that the planes are kept at a very low humidity to prevent people from sweating and then smelling and the dry air can dehydrate you.  Dehydration can potentially send you into preterm labor, and did you know that the first thing we do when you have preterm labor is stick an IV in you and hydrate you?

In addition, dehydration is actually one cause of jet lag...so keeping hydrated is good advice for everyone.

3.  I recommend to my patients that it is usually best not to travel out of the area until after about 12 weeks and then to stay close to home after 34 weeks. 40,000 feet or in a foreign city is not where you want to be if things go wrong.

Did you know that in many health insurance "fine print" it says that if you are out of the area after 36 weeks (40 weeks is your due date), and you need medical attention, you will not be covered at all?

Dr. Ian Taras