Hellobee Boards

It's totally fine to fly in your 1st and 2nd tri, and even in your 3rd, up to a point (ask your Ob when she recommends that you stop, as different doctors have different rules). I took 4 4 hour flights at around 15 wks pregnant and had no issues. You just want to make sure you get up and walk around to help blood circulate in your legs. But a 3 hour flight is not a big deal at all!

You can't fly past 36 weeks typically. Compression socks are good and you want to get up once an hour and stretch your legs/move around. Don't cross them on your flights (not like most people have the room for that) and drink water. No biggie!

Like everyone else, my midwife didn't have a problem until the airlines did, around 35 weeks or so. That said, I personally want to limit travel in my 3rd trimester just because I think I will be uncomfortable.

Flying in the 1st trimester, when I had all nausea, kind of sucked, not gonna lie. But I made the mistake of storing my bag with snacks where I couldn't reach it, so if I'd kept eating, I would have been better off. I just had some really long flights at 18-19 weeks and they were fine, though my ankles were pretty swollen and puffy at the end of them-- nothing that didn't fix itself overnight though. Drink a lot of water and get up and walk around-- if you are like me and peeing ever 30 minutes, that's easy enough.

You may want to ask your provider, when the time comes, about airport security. My basic impression was that the new machines are fine, but why take the risk? I felt that since the technology is so new, they couldn't *really* know if they were OK and since I had a bunch of flights in a few days, I opted for a pat down. The security agents love to ask about your pregnancy then.

@Pepper: They waived you by security?? Most of the airports didn't give me any problem, but always said, these are safe, you know, but it's your choice. And I always said, I know, but I'd feel better this way. One airport though really tried to discourage me from doing the patdown-- I think the agent really didn't want to do it or something. Two different people described it (like, you realized we have to pat you down everywhere, etc), then said, are you *sure* you want to continue? It was pretty annoying, actually, because they made me feel like a crazy person. And I had an obvious bump.

@Foodnerd81: Hmm guess it depends on the airports. The two I flew into/out from have the full body scanners, but they just randomly select certain people to go through. I still went through the metal detectors and all of that. On the way home the one TSA agent looked at me and said "don't worry I'm not making you go through the machine," before I even had a chance to ask for a patdown! That's so annoying that they gave you a hard time... even though they say they're safe, they make me nervous.

Oooh, good question. I was thinking about this too; I have a trade show in Vegas (and I haaaate the Vegas) when I'll be 34 weeks, and another one when I'll be 40 weeks. I obviously wouldn't be going to the latter of the two, but I'm soooo hoping that my doctor will help me out and tell me I can't travel at 34 weeks...I reeeally don't want to go!