Flying Pregnant

[FlyFalcon]

I was looking for information about flying as a flight attendant while pregnant. Does anyone know the limitations or hazards? Thanks for the advice.

 

[semperfido]

probably not reccomended in third trimester. check with an AME or contact these folks for a definitive answer. www.aviationmedicine.com

 

[Metro752]

Do changes in pressure affect the baby also?

 

[Flechas]

Do changes in pressure affect the baby also?

Changes in mood affect the rest of the crew though!!

 

[lowlycfi]

Changes in mood affect the rest of the crew though!!

I can vouch for that! I'm not a woman, so I don't know the details of SWA's rules, but I remember a few women I've flown with have said it's up to their doctor. I've flown with some pretty pregnant stews at SWA so they must be able to fly well into the pregnancy. I don't think its a good idea after day one of the pregnancy, though I'm sure economics play a big role in each woman's decision. Read the following article and see if you agree:

Miscarriage Risk For Flight Attendants


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Female flight attendants who work during pregnancy may have nearly twice the risk of miscarriage compared with attendants who do not fly during pregnancy, investigators say.
However, this excess hazard was considerably reduced after certain demographic and lifestyle factors were taken into account. "Future studies are needed to address the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes among flight attendants," say researchers led by Dr. James E. Cone, of the University of California, San Francisco.
Their study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Cone and colleagues conducted a survey focusing on the pregnancy outcomes of 394 female flight attendants, each of whom conceived during the years 1990 and 1991. The women averaged just under 36 years of age.
"Of the female flight attendants who worked outside the home, 47 of 321 (15%) experienced a (miscarriage), compared with 6 of 73 (8%) who did not work outside the home during the pregnancy," according to the study authors. Flight attendants who worked during their pregnancy did so for an average of 16 weeks.
However, the California researchers note that this excess risk fell to "borderline significance" after they adjusted for factors such as maternal age, income, smoking, number of prior miscarriages, and number of alcoholic drinks per week.
The California team found no differences between working and nonworking flight attendants in terms of their respective risk for delivering low-birth-weight newborns.
The researchers say, "overall, flight attendants who participated in this study reported reproductive outcomes that compare favorably with other working women in the United States."
However, the California experts support further research into the issue, explaining that the impact of many aspects of airline employment upon reproductive health remains largely unknown. They believe pilots and cabin crews may be vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of phenomena including disruptions to their sleep-wake cycles, increased gravitational forces, noise, vibration, decompression, and long-term exposure to cosmic radiation and numerous chemicals. SOURCE: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (1998;40(3):210-216) [/FONT]

 

[Geronimo4497]

I can vouch for that! I'm not a woman, so I don't know the details of SWA's rules, but I remember a few women I've flown with have said it's up to their doctor. I've flown with some pretty pregnant stews at SWA so they must be able to fly well into the pregnancy. I don't think its a good idea after day one of the pregnancy, though I'm sure economics play a big role in each woman's decision. Read the following article and see if you agree:

Miscarriage Risk For Flight Attendants


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- ................. They believe pilots and cabin crews may be vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of phenomena including disruptions to their sleep-wake cycles, increased gravitational forces, noise, vibration, decompression, and long-term exposure to cosmic radiation and numerous chemicals. SOURCE: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (1998;40(3):210-216) [/FONT]

Damn ChemTrails...............................

 

[FlyFalcon]

Thanks for the info! I'll look into it with a flight doc. and ob. Not pregnant yet, just didn't want to do any harm from being unaware of the dangers.

I would have to agree too on the "mood change effect of crew memebers"... ugghhh

 

[dhc8fo]

When my wife was pregnant, her doc made her stop flying once the baby was viable had she gone into labor and delivered it on the plane... his reasoning was that she wouldn't have had adequate time to land and make a trip to a hospital to provide the baby with emergency services. I can't remember the exact time in weeks, but it was sometime around the 24 week mark I believe. She stopped as soon as she could because she hated flying and being sick and hurting, but I know women who have gone into 30 and 32 weeks before they stopped.

 

[Resume Writer]

I flew with my son all the way through my 7th month of pregnancy. He is just fine. The main thing is getting tired. With my daughter, I worked as a ticket counter and gate agent until I was six months pregnant. You just have to be more careful. I think the cut off for working as a flight attendant is 7 months, but I am not sure.

The minute I found out I was pregnant, I put on that maternity uniform. Passengers are just nicer to you when you have it on.

If your doctor says that you have a high-risk pregnancy, do not work. We had a woman working at the ticket counter. Her doctor told her to be on light duty. She was on probation at the time and they would not reassign her. She ended up continuing to work and lost the baby. No job is worth losing your child.

Good luck to you!

Kathy

 

[MQAAord]

At AA we could not fly in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy. If we had a doctor's note maternity leave could start even earlier.

I believe the APA has some info on their site somewhere. I'm too lazy to look it up myself, but apa.org may have some info.