Flying while pregnant - am I being unreasonable? - Page 2

[leurMaman]

I've flown throughout my pregnancies (this is my 6th). Neither of my m/c could be attributed to flying directly. I flew at 38 weeks during my last pregnancy. If you listen to your body, consult your caregiver, and make sure you stay hydrated and walk every hour, you should be fine.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Every woman's pregnancy is different. For the way mine went, I would have been 100% fine with that schedule.

[Pinoikoi]

Where I live very pregnant women fly at full term all the time.. has to do with few roads and lots of remote locations..

HOWEVER, I am not comfortable with flying late in pregnancy.. my dad is getting his doctorate next month and he wanted me to fly down to his graduation.. sorry, but no.

[expat-mama]

Originally Posted by evjolin

from the research i have done on the whole radiation & flying thing, i believe that 30 hours in the air = one xray. and i have flown just about 30 hours this pregnancy.

Yes- This is pretty much the same info I've gotten from my research. It HAS been proven that shorter flights are not much of a concern but longer flights are. The international flights that I tend to do that are 13-16 hours one way and then back again did concern me.

[xekomaya]

Here is a chart to help anyone who actually wants to figure out their radiation exposure (in millirem) during the year and how much it is increased per hour of flying.

The exposure per hour on the average jet plane is .5 millirem/hour. Some x-rays are as low as 1 millirem, so yes, flying can add the exposure of an xray. However "big" x-rays are as much as 500 millirem and most pregnant women are not going to log that much air time.

Lets compare apples to apples, eh?

[lsnjd]

I am flying to mexico next month but booked a direct flight to avoid as much air time as possible and to avoid layovers... more money but just couldnt stand the thought of a 9 hour layover!

[new york momma]

radiation

Hi, My brother-in-law is a doctor and new parent. He told me that every time a person flies in an airplane, they subject themselves to a small amount of radiation. He said though it's not enough to effect an adult made up of millions of cells, it can be harmful to a developing baby made of much fewer cells. He said there is less radiation exposure when traveling at night. I don't understand the science of it, apparently it has something to do with solar radiation. He said that flying across the U.S. is liking subjecting yourself to 1.5 chest x-rays. Somehow, flying across the poles is much worse, like 15 chest x-rays. When his wife was pregnant, they did take a flight, but they made sure it was a night flight.

Perhaps your ob/gyn can explain this better.