Elaine

A question for all you moms and dads out there - would I be silly to travel in my first trimester? Would we ruin a perfectly good trip to Ireland if I got pregnant before we went? All experience and feedback welcome. <BR> <BR>thanks

Judy

Hello Elaine, personally I would not want to be pregnant and traveling....no alcohol, maybe morning sickness(yuck) yada, yada, yada. Being extremely tired(like I was in prehistoric times), is perhaps the biggest impediment to having a good trip IMO. <BR>To be or not to be...... what a question, yes? Judy ;-)

Shannon

Is this your first pregnancy? If so I'd seriously advise not planning to travel while pregnant. Even if it's not the first, all pregnancies are different. If I had traveled during my first pregnancy I'd have spent the whole trip in bed or over the toilet. Nausea and fatigue are very common in the first trimester (for some all 9 months). I'd sure hate to be nauseous and tired all the time during such a fabulous trip. I'd either plan to go post-baby, or better yet postpone the baby a few months. If money's not a huge issue book fully refundable air tickets so if you do get pregnant and experience some of these lovely symptoms associated with pregnancy and decide to cancel, you can!

Sue

Dear Elaine, <BR> <BR>I've done it and don't think it will ruin a vacation, but I agree with Judy that you may have morning sickness and be tired. Luckily, I didn't have morning sickness, but you never know. <BR> <BR>It was tough being in Paris and not being able to drink, eat pate, or a number of other things my doctor recommended against. <BR> <BR>The flight is no problem. Just keep drinking water and walking. <BR> <BR>How about getting pregnant while you're there??? <BR> <BR>Have fun. <BR>Sue

Cindy

If you can schedule things for month 5, you'll probably be feeling a lot better. For me, it wasn't the morning sickness in the first trimester that got me. It was the fatigue. You know, being in bed and being too tired to roll over and turn of the lamp. I can't imagine trying to tour in that condition.

ds

Elaine, <BR>I became pregnant while in Italy 2 years ago (on purpose) although I didn't know it until I arrived home. In retrospect, I was a little more tired and certainly much more hungry! I chalked it all up to the walking we were doing every day. <BR> <BR>Ultimately, you'll have to decide what you might be able to tolerate. A crystal ball to predict morning sickness would be very handy right now. <BR> <BR>Best of luck. <BR>ds

m

if your pregnancy is going smoothly, i don't see any problems. at 5 mths i went to cayman islands, spent a night on the floor in a school gymnasium because of a hurricane. all things considered, it was fine and a good story to tell my daughter. i would recommend you purchase trip insurance just in case.

Donna

I was fortunate in not experiencing morning sickness, but as others have mentioned, I was overcome with the uncontrollable need to sleep all the time during the first three months. All the time! I'd doze off on the couch in the ladies lounge at work at lunchtime, and they'd wake me up to drive home. Upon arriving home, I'd sit down on the couch and the next thing I knew it was time to get up and get ready for work. The second trimester is probably the best time to travel. Hopefully, by then, any initial "side-effects" due to all those hormones changes have subsided. Many women (myself included) report they are full of energy during the second trimester. Beyond that, though, you can never be very far from a ladies room.

xxx

I became pregnant on our trip to Greece last summer, but had a miscarriage a few weeks after coming back. Of course it probably wasn't caused by the travel, but after something like that, you are full of "what ifs". Did I eat something wrong or drink water that wasn't safe, etc. etc. Since we traveled by plane from island to island, I started to wonder if that may have affected my pregnancy. The answer is probably "no" but like I said, it leaves you with many unanswered questions and lots of misplaced blame. We are going to try to conceive again this year, but are purposely avoiding any big trips this summer because of our experience last year. I don't want to cause unnecessary worry, but I just thought I'd share my experience while you are making your decision.

xxx

Sue <BR> <BR>What's the problem with eating pate when you're pregnant?

Shannon

Elaine, most posts here seem to be written by those who had little or no morning sickness. Hopefully you'll be among those lucky ones. Evenso I would still seriously hesitate planning a trip for your first trimester, because you never know what your particular experience will be. I was fully blown over by my morning sickness by week 8--to the point of needing an IV and nearly being hospitalized several times. Granted my experience is somewhat extreme (I've heard worse), I don't think the whole nausea issue should be dismissed. I agree with a previous post that month 5 is an ideal month--not big yet, mostly over sickness (if any) and fatigue, etc. Also you'll likely notice a sharp increase in the need for bathroom visits, which is pretty inconvenient in Europe. So if it were me I would still prefer to go "unpregnant." Good luck in making your decision. Hope it goes well for you.

edie

Elaine, i am particularly suited to answer your question b/c i am in my first trimester right now and went to ireland back in Feb. I was not pregnant then, actually got pregnant in Dingle. <BR> <BR>two thoughts: <BR> <BR>specifically regarding IRELAND, for me, being pregnant would have sucked. we went out to pubs every night, drank beer and i smoked (had quit but picked it up for the 10 days i was there) even if you don't smoke, everyone else does. so it's really hard to avoid secondhand smoke, which is bad for baby and awful for a nauseaus (sp?) preggo chick. <BR> <BR>second thought: <BR>there are really severe restrictions on what you can eat while pregnant. a big no-no is anything that is not pasteurized, and most cheese in europe isn't. unpast. food and things like pate can contain the listeria bacteria. will make a normal person a bit ill, will cause instantaneous miscarriage in a pregnant person. that's why no pate. <BR>also, no caffeine, nothing cured (ham, sausage, luncheon meats) b/c the nitrates cause birth defects. <BR>i am being really conscious of what i eat these three months b/c developmentally so much happens to the baby. to be under these restrictions in a european country would <BR>A. impact my ejoyment of the native food <BR>B. stress me out about whether i was doing the baby harm. <BR> <BR>this whole thing is not even beginning to address the constant state of exhaustion and nausea i have been experiencing for the last ten weeks. <BR>

Lexma90

Good question, and obviously one that has very personal answers. <BR> <BR>I went on a European vacation at the very beginning of one pregnancy, and had no problems (the pregnancy was planned, but we were sure it wouldn't happen that fast - we found out I was pregnant the day before we left). <BR> <BR>I went on a different vacation on approx. week 13 of my second pregnancy; we had wanted to time it for month 5 or so, having read that the 2d trimester is the best time (during a pregnancy) to travel; unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. I had no morning sickness, wasn't tired, but developed a complication that turned out to be ok, and might have happened even if we weren't on vacation, but caused us to try to figure out how to get me to a hospital from a rural location in Italy - it would not have been easy! And the second-guessing we would have done if things had gotten worse would have been pretty horrible. <BR> <BR>And of course I couldn't drink or eat raw-milk cheese. I've never heard about the pate thing - and I ate a lot of it during the second pregnancy! I didn't bother me too much to have to miss out on that. <BR> <BR>Would I travel during a pregnancy again? I'm not sure. My midwife encouraged the second trip, telling us it would be the last time in a while that we'd get to have that kind of trip, and most people don't have complications during pregnancy, but it would have been pretty depressing to have a miscarriage and have to think for even one minute that it was caused by something I did. <BR> <BR>Remember that most miscarriages occur in the first trimester, so statistically speaking, that's the riskiest time for the fetus. You'll have to make a difficult decision.

xxxx

I can't believe it ,now we're giving advice to someone who is thinking about travelling if she should indeed get pregnant.........and once again there are people RESPONDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

margot

One of my best friends just returned from a Hawaiian vacation - she's in her first trimester. It didn't sound like much of a vacation. Between the exhaustion and morning sickness, and trying to cram in a bunch of activities - she didn't have much fun. <BR> <BR>I went to Hawaii in my fourth month of pregnancy. Although we had a great time, the rich "vacation food" I indulged in gave me severe cramps. Being my first pregnancy, I was nervous and called my doctor. The on-call doctor told me she shouldn't even talk to me over the phone, that I needed to go to an ER, and that "when you travel in pregnancy you takes your chances." Although I thought she was a bit abrupt, I now agree - I probably wouldn't do it again. Just my opinion...