Is flying on a plane dangerous for your unborn baby?

Posted 03-17-2010 1:37 am by
Many women during pregnancy try to avoid traveling by plane.  They fear that traveling on an airplane will hurt their unborn baby.

Unless a pregnant woman has specific medical problems or problems with her pregnancy, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the biggest group of ob-gyn doctors in the U.S., states that pregnant women can fly safely up to thirty-six weeks of gestation.  

The climate of the airplane, including elements like the low humidity in the cabin and changes the mother's heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, they haven't proven to have any effects on the baby.  There are some unconfirmed reports that flight attendants have an increased chance of a miscarriage or having a spontaneous abortion.

A study followed 222 women, of whom 118 traveled by air at least once during their pregnancy.  When the physicians compared the two groups, there were no differences in length of pregnancy, the risk of having a premature baby, the babies' birth weights, or anything else that could go wrong during pregnancy.

Although, a big concern with long air travel is deep vein thrombosis (DVTs) or clots in the veins of the legs that can then travel to the lungs.  Experts suggest that pregnant women might be at increased risk for having DVTs, but there are no published reports of an actual increase in DVTs in pregnant women because of flying on an airplane.  It is recommended to all air travelers pregnant or not to frequently flex their ankles and feet and take regular walks in the plane to avoid DVTs.

Pregnant women are also afraid of being exposed to noise vibration or to cosmic radiation in the atmosphere while traveling by airplane.  There isn't a lot of scientific evidence that has tested whether these are problems for an unborn baby.  

Studies of the health effects of aircraft noise and of galactic cosmic radiation exposure for anyone during air travel indicate that any potential risk to pregnant women is so small it should not be cause for alarm.

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