Flying while pregnant: What the health risks are and how to manage them
Business travel, a wedding, a funeral, maybe just a relaxing break before the baby arrives — there are plenty of reasons why you might need to fly while pregnant.
But with airline restrictions around pregnant passengers and often conflicting information from friends and family, what are the risks to taking to the skies when you've got a baby on board?
According to Brisbane obstetrician Dr Will Milford, while there are some special things you should take into consideration, flying while pregnant carries very little additional risk.
Why do airlines have restrictions around this?
It has more to do with reducing risk to the airline than to you."Flying does not have any effect on the pregnancy," Dr Milford says.
"You're not more likely to go into labour or break your waters from flying. What airlines are worried about is a woman giving birth on the plane, the risk of which obviously increases as you get close to your due date."
So what are the airlines' rules?
Restrictions around flying while pregnant vary from airline to airline, and also according to the length of the flight.Both Qantas and Virgin Australia allow women without pregnancy complications to travel on flights more than four hours in length up to the end of the 36th week for single pregnancies and the end of the 32nd week for twins or more.
For flights less than four hours, you can travel up to the end of the 40th week in a single pregnancy and the 36th week for a multiple pregnancy.
But both airlines require women travelling after 28 weeks of pregnancy to carry a note from their doctor or midwife confirming their due date and pregnancy details. For Virgin Australia travellers, this letter needs to be dated no more than 10 days before travel.
And if you have complications, you have to travel with a medical clearance form signed by your doctor.
Carry your documents with you
Ms Wishart says her daughter Brielle, now six, went on 19 flights between five different countries while she was in utero.
She was moving home to Adelaide after a stint working in Bangladesh, but decided to squeeze in some trekking in Nepal and adventures in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand before settling down to parenthood.
"The doctors that I saw were international doctors and if you were really fit and healthy they didn't have a problem with you flying, but the airlines didn't always necessarily see it that way," she says.
Despite carrying a doctor's note with her, Ms Wishart says overcautious staff at one small airline delayed her whole flight while they worked out whether or not she should be allowed to board.
"The bigger airlines were fine but [staff at] those smaller airlines weren't necessarily sure about what their policy was," she says.
Ms Beattie had similar experiences, and eventually began travelling with printouts and screenshots of her correspondence with the airline about the fact she was cleared to fly.
Her homewares company is based in northern New South Wales but has offices in the US and manufacturers in China, meaning she travelled internationally and around Australia throughout her pregnancy with son Theodore, who is now two.
Ms Beattie also got some strange advice from other women, including a suggestion that airport security screenings were dangerous, which prompted her to do some harried Googling.
"That put a bit of fear in me, but [I discovered] there's nothing wrong with that at all," she says.
What is the main health risk from flying?
Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is the main health concern, Dr Milford says.This is when a blood clot forms in a deep vein of the leg, which can cause complications such as pain, inflammation and swelling. The greater danger with these clots is that they can dislodge and travel through the circulatory system, blocking blood supply to the lungs.
The risk of DVT is higher when pregnant and being immobile for long periods is also a risk factor, so it's worth keeping in mind for any sort of travel, including long car trips.
"The usual things we suggest to reduce that risk is to make sure you're well hydrated, to make sure you're well mobilised during the flight and to wear compression stockings," Dr Milford says.
In very rare cases, women with a higher risk of clotting may be on special medication to guard against this, but this would be part of an ongoing conversation with a doctor regardless of travel plans, he says.
What about cosmic radiation?
Cosmic radiation comes in the form of high-energy particles from outer space. At ground level, protected by Earth's thick atmosphere, our exposure is very low but it increases at altitude.Dr Milford says for occasional travellers, it shouldn't be a consideration.
"The amount of radiation you get from a single flight is really, really low," he says.
Very frequent flyers — like flight crew or some business travellers — have higher levels of exposure, but even then, 100 hours in the air only presents a "very small theoretical risk", and still less than other radiation sources people might encounter on the ground.
Dr Milford's tips for flying when pregnant
- Get a letter from your health provider as per your airline's requirements
- Reduce the risk of DVT by staying well hydrated, staying mobile during the flight and wearing compression stockings
- Make sure your travel insurance covers pregnancy-related conditions, just in case something does happen while you're away
- Carry a hard copy of your pregnancy summary with you when you travel, just in case you need medical treatment during your trip
But most importantly?
"The major thing is emphasising that pregnancy isn't a disease," Dr Milford says."Being pregnant, you're just as healthy as you normally are. But some things just require a bit more thought and planning than otherwise."
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