Pregnancy while Traveling

Many see pregnancy as the ideal time to travel - a last yahoo before baby comes and changes everything. It can be a real bonding time for you and your spouse as you plan your future together with baby.

Update:

The official Medical Advice (from my midwife in the UK, who works for the NHS and is a granny):

• the real danger in traveling pregnant is a DVT or deep veins thrombosis
• dehydration is not a good idea in pregnancy either though

The avoid a DVT or deep vein thrombosis

Move around. My midwife suggested being as mobile as possible to keep circulation going.
'Get up and go to the bathroom whenever you can,' she said. 'Or just get up and stretch.'
She also suggested leg exercises, anything to keep from sitting still the whole 10 hour flight.

To avoid dehydration

My midwife said I should buy a milkshake or smoothie or even a cup of tea in between connections, and to try to drink on the flight as much as possible.
'Try ginger ale or anything with lemon, ginger or mint.'
Drinking a lot also means going to the bathroom a lot so these two sort of fed each other. This is a lot easier to do when you don't have a clingy child or two on the flight.

Extras

My midwife also suggested wearing flight socks - the medical variety are best but even just knee high socks that are reasonably tight are better than nothing.
It is worth checking with individual airlines before you book a flight because some airlines refuse to let you travel after 24 weeks or not without a letter from your doctor.

What to wear

I have tried wearing
trousers
sweatpants
and decided for me the most comfortable is the trousers because I am always worried about underwear lines showing on my thin sweatpants, and also trousers are easier to scrub clean if some food or something gets on them. They also feel more formal and make me feel more grown up. I have a pair cut on the bias with a very stretchy waistband which is great for the early stages of pregnancy.
I also think comfortable shoes are essential, especially ones you don't have to do a lot of fiddling while bending over them.

Smells

Smells are harder to deal with when pregnant so I discovered my long sleeve undershirt was my best friend - I pulled it over my nose as soon as I entered the airplane toilet to filter the disgusting smells.
The worst smell other than the bathrooms is when you step onto the plane, and all the airport smog and airplane gas is being blasted by the turbines right up your nostrils. It makes me reel. I always try to hold my breath, but the crowds always crawl onto the airplane so sometimes you don't have much choice. I thought about pulling my shirt up as a filtering mask at this point but thought it might get some odd looks.

Lifting Heavy Objects

I would never recommend taking a lap baby when pregnant. It puts a lot of pressure on your abdomen, as I know from experience.
Don't be shy of asking people to lift heavy bags into the overhead compartment. You don't want that sort of pressure on your core, my midwife said.

Fainting

If you are prone to fainting in pregnancy, it may be to do with being dehydrated or not eating enough. In which case you should try to always have some ginger biscuits to nibble on. I have even asked if it was okay to nibble on biscuits while being dealt with at check in desk or in other funny airport situations.

If you cannot keep anything down, you may be doomed to getting a bit faint.

It might not be a bad idea to label your bag and have an emergency contact and your GP or midwife's number in your wallet.

Vomiting

When all else fails - make sure you always have your 'barf bag' ready. One of my sisters always managed to get off the plane before she threw up but in pregnancy, I find I never even make it to the bathroom.
I think it's part of traveler's universal courtesy to tell your seatmate, 'Don't worry it's not a stomach bug - I'm pregnant' so they don't have to wonder.
On my last trip I managed not to throw up while we were circling over the Firth of Forth or while everyone was filing off the plane but as soon as those airplane fuel smells oozed into the cabin, I was throwing up everything I had and didn't have in my stomach. After three flights in 24 hours, it wasn't a lot.
This is another reason to travel light because my little backpack didn't fit in the overhead compartments because everyone else brought a roller case and a handbag so when I boarded the plane I had to take it to the back and put it with the flight attendant's baggage. This meant I had to wait for everyone to get off the plane before I could retrieve my luggage.
I carried off my 'barf bag' and got on the bus that drove to the airport building, and hauled my barf bag and passport through customs and immigration before I found a trash can/rubbish bin to drop the barf bag.

Being absentminded

I think it's important to tell immigration officers that you're pregnant from the get go in case you accidentally slip into talking about 'we' and 'us' when referring to just yourself, traveling solo (but pregnant), and they get suspicious.
It's worth taking some extra dollars or other currency in case you realize you have forgotten something essential for the trip.

Stress is theorized to impact pregnancies negatively. So try to keep stress levels down when traveling.

There are some great things about traveling pregnant as well as hairier points.

Pros:

• You can tell your seat partners that you are pregnant and get their sympathy
• You can ask your husband to do more with the born child/children
• It's easier to fall asleep because you're exhausted 
• You can shop for maternity clothes in exotic climes

Cons:

• Your born child/children may be extra clingy and suddenly your space is cramped by a baby inside and a baby outside hanging like a limpet
• You may be more emotional and little more foggy than usual so prone to make poor split-second decisions.
• Your hair seems a more prominent feature 
  
• Your morning sickness may coincide with travel sickness - and you can't take travel meds
• You are terrified of hurting the baby by being dehydrated, hungry, overly-tired, bending over too much, overly-stressed...so you force yourself to eat while feeling sick, to try to sleep, to sacrifice pride and ask people to do things for you
• You may need to use the bathroom constantly which can be tricky based on the Seatbelt Sign being on or seating arrangements. Being pregnant, you are less nimble when it comes to leaping over anyone blocking you to the aisle. I always ask for an aisle seat!
• Some believe it is not safe to travel whilst pregnant, that it could cause an early birth or even miscarriage. If you are worried, you should speak to your doctor.

Traveling pregnant is hard. There are many challenges but it can still be special to share with friends and family.

Next see traveling while breastfeeding, expressing and recovering!

Choosing Seats and Battle Mapping for Transatlantic Travel with Multiple Small Children

Where's the battle strategy? Clearly it's all in the positioning.

For under 5's, we recommend the parents divide and conquer on transatlantic flights.

Here is a normal plane - it has bulk head seats at the front of sections, first class at the front of the plane, toilets and the golden area in the back where food and drink are available.

Look at the red seats. This looks like  an ideal situation - bulkhead seats for mom with lap baby, dad and older child. But you cannot get in and out without disturbing neighbors, esp if there are any bags or tables and drinks set out. You do have more leg room, easy access to the toilet and more attention from the flight crew.

This scenario has happened to us more than once. One lap baby and four people in a row of three. It is a little harder to get the flight attendants' attention. The toilets are still nearby. You have easy access to the aisle. You have to check before you lean your seat back and you have to be aware of the people in front as well - they might lean their chair back unexpectedly while your baby is on your lap. The best thing about this scenario is that one of the kids can sit by the window!

This is the safest part of the plane - near the furthest back exits. It is also blessedly near the toilets. Flight attendants and therefore unlimited bottled water are within easy reach. You still have to keep tabs on whether the kids are kicking the seats in front. Ideally the kids are not sitting next to each other as they will probably keep each other awake. You have easy access to one aisle and best of all you can lean your seat back without worrying about cramping the person behind you!

This is the most difficult scenario - two inner row seats with two lap babies. You won't be able to get out to use the toilet without making at least one person stand up or cringe back as you hop over them. You are cramped with people in every direction. This was about to happen to us once and we felt blessed to be moved to a bulkhead in the first half hour of the flight.

This 3-1 scenario can be tricky with one parent in the row behind the rest of the family. We thought it would work well for us to take turns being the parent on duty but as it turned out after 10 minutes of managing two kids you suffer extreme fatigue. It is hard to concentrate on two and make sure that neither is kicking the seat in front and that their basic needs are met.

This is the other 3-1 scenario. Dad and Child 1 behind and Mom and lap baby in front. Each parent looks after one kid to keep a consistent management. This scenario is usually a result of too many moms with babies being on the flight so they only give the bulkhead to the mums and the dads get stuck in elsewhere. Another benefit is that Child 1 can sit behind mom and not inadvertently kick the chair of a stranger who might be reticent to complain. It actually works well as long as dad has everything he needs. 

It's better if you can gauge one kid the whole time if possible. It depends on seating and the mood of the passengers around you of course. And there's nothing wrong with asking your spouse to watch your charge while you go to the bathroom.

If you do one kid the whole time, you can have consistent strategy (one gift or sweet an hour) and keep tabs on how many diaper changes/bathroom trips he's taken and how much he's eaten and how much he's slept so when he's bad you can target the area he's most deprived. For example 'Your brother has had a nap on this trip but you haven't tried that yet, I think you'll be much happier if you do.'

For Under 3's

Try to get both kids in the same nappy/diaper size - it works if your kids are close in age and just two sizes apart. We traveled once when Z was size 5 and Y was size 3, so we packed loads and loads of size 4 nappy/diapers. That helped us faffing about looking for the correct size in frantic changing situations.
Clearly this won't work if you have a newborn and a 3-year-old but sometimes if your children are 18 months apart or less, at certain stages, this works a treat.