“Now boarding 1stclass, group 2 and the lady with the giant beach ball under her shirt”
Flying while pregnant can be interesting, frustrating, fun, tiring…yea. All of that! Last week you may have noticed I was not on the air or posting as usual but rather ‘on vacation’. That’s only half the story. A while back my husband lost his Grandfather to cancer and we all flew down to Florida to pay our respects and honor is memory. It was a difficult flight for a number of reasons, the purpose of the trip, and the fact that I’m 30 weeks pregnant.
You’re probably thinking WAIT! She can fly? In 3rdtrimester?!
I was a bit skeptical myself but I gave it the old College Try, flapped my arms and landed safely in Florida. (See what I did there? How could I resist and easy joke like that?)
I asked my nurse and midwife (multiple times in fact)…so I can really fly? Yes, I have no medical issues nor complications, neither does the tiny human, and I’m ‘only’ 30 weeks. It’s around that 36 week mark the airlines start freaking out, then there’s notes and doc exams, etc. I still made my dr’s office give me ‘we promise she’s ok to fly’ paperwork. Plus flying with a glucose monitor was a joy (I’ll go over that in another blog entry).
Before I left my Dr’s office the staff told me I needed to 1) make sure I got up and walked around during the flight to prevent blood clots/DVT and 2) Don’t go through the full body scanner.
That made me freak out…just a little.
First of all…I don’t know how often you fly…but the seats at small, the aisles are smaller and I’ve never heard of an airline offering a treadmill service mid flight to ‘walk around’….maybe it’s out on the left wing! So there I was mid-flight, halfway to Tampa…and I thought…I should walk around. Food service was done. (It wasn’t a fancy airline….what I really mean is a cookie and some juice…basically AirKindergarten). So I’m row 20 something out of 30, there’s no one in the aisle, so I waddle my pregger behind to the front of the plane, stopping just before the 2-4 rows of first class people with their fancy curtain. It’s nice open area to stretch my legs and stand for a bit.
I’m just standing there, some dude is just chilling on his Ipad in that final row and gives me that ‘wassup’ nod. I apologize letting him know I’m not a weirdo and why I’m standing/half pacing. His eyes light up with an ‘aha’ face. He didn’t know that sitting down on a plane for too long was bad for pregnant ladies. Neither did I until a week before my flight! His seat buddy came back and he explained what I explained to him…another ‘aha’ look followed by ‘cool! No prob! Hang out here as long as you need!’ Such nice people!!!
Earlier in the day was a different experience, not bad, just…different. You do as TSA says, that’s my philosophy. They’re doing their job to keep everyone safe. I get to security and I tell the 1st two reps (oddly enough women) that I’m pregnant and would like to opt out of the body scanner. They said that’s fine, just let the agent know when I get to the “scanner agents”. I get to that agent, who assures me several times that the full body scanner is perfectly safe.
Now I my mind…it’s TSA guy’s word vs. my staff at my Dr’s office. I wanted to play it safe….SUPER safe. I told him I understood but would like to politely decline the scanner and opt for a pat down. He went over some sort of legal ‘do you consent’ blah blah blah. They called over 2 female agents, I skipped the scanner thing, they asked if I would rather be patted down right there or behind the screen. I went for the screen. Being patted down in the middle of Burlington Airport seemed a bit awkward. The TSA agents were very understanding, I passed and they let me fly by the way.
Flying back was just a bit different. The TSA agents understood again, with the whole not doing the scanner thing, did the pat down option. But this time it was in the open, in front of everyone (once I knew what the pat down entailed….pfft…no big deal). Besides, I’m flying out for Tampa with 50-100 other people waiting in security. Will I ever see them again? Probably not.
All in all, my experience flying was a bit more involved than I originally thought but not terrible at all! It pays to ask your Doctor/Midwife LOTS of questions, what can I eat, can I fly, can you draw up some paperwork just in case the airline makes a fuss. They did make a fuss…but in a good way. 1 flight attendant brought me an ENTIRE bottle of water instead of the dixie cup sampling they give you during food service.