Surviving Long Haul Travel while Pregnant | Tips for Each Trimester
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Visiting the Azores in my 2nd Trimester
In an effort to get some of our top destinations ticked off our bucket list before our first baby arrived, we traveled throughout my pregnancy. From the super nauseous feelings in the first trimester to the aches and pains in the third trimester, there usually isn’t a perfect time to travel during pregnancy. However, there are a lot of things you can prepare to make your flights and adventures more enjoyable. As with everything in pregnancy and children, your mileage may vary. Not every woman is the same and not every pregnancy is the same. Hopefully at least, this guide will provide some idea of what to expect or tips to make your travels easier.
Talk with your doctor before you plan to take any major international trip. Most physicians are fine with low-risk pregnant women traveling up to 36 weeks (might be earlier, especially for international trips). Also look into the destination you are traveling to. There may be certain areas, due to health concerns, that are better visited when you are not longer pregnant.
Traveling is an amazing way to spend the last few months before your family permanently expands. You can collect memories that you can share with your child when they’re older, visit somewhere new before your life gets consumed with nap schedules, or enjoy some much needed de-stress time.
First Trimester
The biggest difficulty you will face during your first trimester is morning sickness. Most women get morning sickness starting around 9 weeks and then onward through the first trimester and often the beginning of the second. It can range from mild (queasy feeling when around certain smells) to severe (knock you on your feel nausea, frequent vomiting). The term “morning sickness” is also a bit of a misnomer. You can feel nauseous at any point in the day. There is no use booking flights for the afternoon in hopes that you can avoid puking on your flight.
Additionally, during the first trimester, you will be starting to get used to the new restrictions placed on you that will carry throughout your pregnancy. Different countries and different doctors have varied recommendations, but most have some guidelines surrounding alcohol, uncooked foods, activities with jerky movements, contact sports, certain medications, or hot tubs. You may not feel or look pregnant during your first trimester, but it is important to follow these guidelines. Keep these in mind when choosing your destination and what to do while you are there.
We visited Japan for two and half weeks during my 10th through 12th week of pregnancy. You can check out the blogs about our trip to Japan here.
Choosing a destination
Chances are if you are traveling internationally in your first trimester, you more than likely planned the trip prior to becoming pregnant. If you find yourself with plans to visit a place that no longer makes sense now that you are pregnant (i.e. a place with a high zika risk or an amusement park) look at your travel insurance policy, if you have one. Most travel insurance policies do not cover pregnancy related cancellations if you bought it after you knew you were pregnant. However, if you bought it prior to getting pregnant, it may cover any fees for adjusting your travel.
Any place is fair game. Even with the morning sickness, I felt okay on our 14 hour flights to and from Asia. The bigger I got, the more uncomfortable it was to sit in a small airplane seat for a long period of time. Getting your farther destinations done in your first trimester might be a good option.
Baby Announcement in Japan
Japan in my first trimester
Tips for the Flight
Bring your own snacks. Nausea might prevent you from being able to eat what is offered on the flight. Also, you might only be able to tolerate smaller, more frequent meals. Some of my favorite snacks to bring were apples, peanut butter, sandwiches, trail mix, cheese, crackers, and dried fruits. Even if you don’t use the snacks on the flight, these are great things to keep in your bag while you are out and about during your trip.
Chose an aisle seat. This is a great tip for all points in your pregnancy. I am usually partial to the window seat since I can lean up against the side of the plane on long flights if I am trying to get some rest. However, the advantages of the aisle seat are numerous while you are pregnant: easy access to the bathroom, easy access to walking the aisle to get blood flowing, more leg room, easier to talk to the flight attendant about food restrictions or any needs you might have, and its just the easier seat to get into.
Drink water. Bring a reusable water bottle and fill it up once you get past security. I love my owala.
Take your nausea meds if you need them
Comfort over fashion is always my moto but especially when pregnant.
While You are There
Fatigue is a very common in the first trimester. Your body is going through some massive changes and even though it might not look that different from the outside, you are likely going to feel different. Keep your schedule flexible. We are the type of people who like to fully explore our destination in long 10 hour days without taking a single break. I usually pack our schedules full of everything I want to see. I usually book tickets for museums, events, etc far in advance to save money or time, however that often locks in our schedule. For our trips while I was pregnant, I booked nothing in advance other than accommodations and flights. I made a list of everything I wanted to see and put in order of priority. If we didn’t get to see everything I wanted to in any one location, then that’s fine. Some days you’ll feel good enough to go back out and explore after a midday break, other days you might want to just chill by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
This will be a common theme throughout this article: snacks. Always pack snacks.
Water. Along with that, staying hydrated keeps the nausea at bay.
Avoid risky foods and drinks. Stick to cooked foods and bottled water and read up on local food safety. You don’t need to make your nausea worse. I don’t eat meat, so I didn’t have to decide whether I would eat the raw fish sushi in Japan. However, I did eat at sushi restaurants and I was still able to enjoy Avocado Nigiri, cucumber rolls, etc. I will note that at some points in the trip, even walking past a restaurant that smelled fishy made me nauseous.
Second Trimester
If you were to fly at only one point during your pregnancy, some point during your second trimester is when you should do it. You will likely be nearly over the nausea of the first trimester but you won’t be nearly as big as in your third trimester.
During my Second Trimester, we took a 2-Week trip to the Azores Islands – a group of Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Along with the flights to and from the islands, we took multiple flights on small island hopping planes that fit around 20 people. We visited 3 different islands, rented a car on each and stayed in a mixture of Airbnbs and hotels. We went during my 22nd and 23rd week of pregnancy.
Choosing a destination
Choose a destination that might be hard with young kids but doesn’t have any must-do activities that you cannot do while pregnant. Switzerland was at the top of our list, but I would love to paraglide while there. Costa Rica was also in the consideration, but it is a very kid friendly destination that we can save for the following years.
Here are a few destinations I would recommend visiting (along with all the ones in this article), if you haven’t already been:
Venice, Italy – such a romantic destination, a gondola ride with your partner just doesn’t have the same feel when you are holding a baby. There is also a lot of walking and cobblestone streets that wouldn’t be easy with a stroller.
Santorini, Greece or other greek islands – similarly, lots of stairs that would be hard with a stroller.
Marrakech, Morocco
Buenos Aires, Argentina
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Any other city with great art, food and history that is better explored at your own pace rather than a toddlers.
Tips for the Flight
Avoid sweets! I had extreme nausea during the first trimester, but I threw up rarely. I was given prescription anti-nausea medication that I needed to use throughout my second and third trimester. One of the 3 times I threw up my whole pregnancy was on a flight during my second trimester. The major culprit: eating half a bag of candy before getting on the flight. Eating a lot of sweets can alter your blood glucose levels and make you more prone to nausea. Along with the candy I also had eaten pizza as my lunch. I ate too much in a short amount of time. Eat a smaller meal/snack before getting on the flight.
On that note, pack a change of clothes in your carry on/personal item. This is also good practice for once your baby comes.
Chose an aisle seat. You are now in the time of pregnancy when you are going to start needing to go to the bathroom a lot more frequently. An aisle seat will allow you to quickly get up and go every few couple of hours. I am usually one to avoid the airplane bathroom by all means necessary, but pregnancy just doesn’t make that possible.
While You are There
Pack cold/flu drugs or anything that you might need if you were to get sick. Pregnant people have a depressed immune system and are more susceptible to getting sick. I somehow managed to avoid getting sick my entire pregnancy except for during a trip in my second trimester. About 6 days into the trip, my throat was sore, I was coughing like crazy, I had crazy phlegm, and I felt completely exhausted. We ended up taking 2 days off from our schedule for me to rest. Luckily we were in the beautiful Azores, staying in a windmill so it wasn’t too bad of a place of a place to be cooped up for a couple days while I recovered. My husband had to do several trips to different pharmacies and convenience stores to find me pregnancy safe throat lozenges and cold medicines, while in a country where he doesn’t speak the language. It was a complicated process of talking to my OBGYN, looking things up on the internet, using google translate, and trying to converse with the pharmacist. Save yourself the hassle and bring cold/flu drugs from home that you are familiar with that have already been approved by your doctor.
I had a lot more energy in my second trimester than I did in my first, but I still kept my itinerary flexible other than flights and hotels. We still kept pretty active. The only activity, I noped out of was re-hiking an uphill hike to try again to see waterfalls that were too foggy to see the first time we did it. The hike was a huge struggle first thing in the morning, when the weather was perfect and cool. So I rested while my husband went up the hill to try to capture the amazing waterfalls. He was successful and I was glad just enjoying the pictures he took.
Bring good walking shoes. Some women’s feet grow a size or half during pregnancy, so check your shoes for comfort before you go. These were my favorite shoes while pregnant - what is great is that they are slip on for when it starts being hard to bend down.
They make travel sized of some pregnancy items like body butter. Or you can get reusable travel containers for your well-tested products.
Third Trimester
Choosing a destination
I’d recommend visiting a destination with a similar or cooler climate to your own. In the third trimester, you likely are no longer fitting in most of your pre-pregnancy clothes. It might be a bit of a hassle getting maternity clothes solely for a trip. There were some larger sweaters and tank tops that I still fit in up to 7 months pregnant. Before becoming pregnant, I assumed that it would be luxurious to escape to some warm tropical location and relax during the later months of my pregnancy. That is not the case. Just walking across the street in 75ºF weather you start sweating and start to feel uncomfortable. It is very easy to overheat the further into your pregnancy you get. Look into visiting a destination with a moderate climate.
We visited San Francisco, California during week 30 of my pregnancy.
Tips for the flight
Chose an aisle seat for all the reasons I’ve listed above in the previous trimesters.
Check your airline policies. Some airlines require a doctor’s note if you are flying in your 3rd trimester.
Wear compression socks and move often.
Consider upgrading your seat. Even if it is just to economy comfort, that little bit extra cushion or legroom might really help you out. We flew regular economy and I was sore for the first 2 days of our trip from the flights.
while you are there
Ask if your hotel can provide you with extra pillows. It is just not worth bringing your pregnancy pillow from home, despite how much you might want to. Getting some extra hotel pillows to place around you might help you stay comfortable in bed. Some higher end resorts might even have pregnancy pillows for you to use.
Know where the bathrooms are. Before you go, if it exists for your destination download an app that can show you the public bathroom stops on a map. Or look into the customs or rules around public bathrooms if you are visiting a new-to-you country.
Consider picking a hotel or accommodations that offer a good free breakfast. It felt even more like a perk when heavily pregnant, to just go down the elevator and get a good meal in before a day of exploring and relaxing.
Know where the hospitals are. Look up options near you, just in case there is an emergency.
Listen to your body. Braxton Hicks contractions, dizziness, random aches and pains are common to experience in your 3rd trimester when you are moving more than usual. However, they typically mean that you should rest. Contact your OB if anything concerning happens.
Happy and safe travels!
