When would/did YOU stop traveling?

My OB said I shouldn't travel, even a few hours by car, after 28 weeks, which is okay with me. I have a conference scheduled at 32 weeks and I'm a division chair, but I'm already making arrangements to have people cover my duties.

However, I have three other traveling opportunities before 28 weeks, and I'm wondering now whether I can really do them. My doc would officially say that I can, but I could use the advice of women who have experienced twin pregnancy farther along than I have.

Background: I recently gave a talk at a university that's only 2.5 hours away by car, and it really took a lot out of me. These talks always involve 2-day visits, and they schedule you from morning until night. I was on my feet most of the day, and came home absolutely exhausted. And I was only 17 weeks along! I can definitely tell my hosts from here on out that I need to rest frequently, but I wonder if the travel itself will be too much. Here's my potential travel schedule:

22 weeks: university #2 (fly to East Coast; I'm in the Midwest)
25 weeks: university #3 (drive 3.5-4 hours one way)
26 weeks: university #4 (drive 4.5-5 hours one way)

I really want to do the first two, but I think the last trip may be cutting it too close. Also, it's only a week after the trip before it. I have to let the organizer know soon. What do you think? TIA! :unknw:

 

I think you should really just take it day by day and see how you feel before you commit to the traveling. I had the perfect pregnancy, no problems to speak of and then out of nowhere at 24 weeks I was admitted to the hospital on bedrest for PTL. I am not saying that is going to happen to you, but I think you need to make plans if in the even something comes up and you are not able to make it. Every pregnancy is different and it is really impossible to say how you are going to feel when the time comes for you to travel. Good Luck, and take it easy!! :hug:

 

I agree, you need to take it day by day, you just don't know what will happen with twins or how you will feel when you get to that point. I know for me I was feeling absolutely wonderful at 23w and everything was perfect and then delivered one of my twins t 25w3d, I never would have imagined that would have happened. So there is really no way you can plan that far in advance.

 

I think I could have handled a trip at 22 weeks if I had been careful to slow down. The type of visit you describe (always on your feet, on the go all day long) would have been too hard. (My husband is a professor too, and he does those trips and always comes home exhausted -- and he's not carrying twins.) But the trip itself would have been OK, as long as I made sure to build in time for rest, and make sure I had enough to eat. That for me was the bigger stress when traveling, because no one (not even DH) really understood how much and how often I had to eat!

As others have said, PTL can come on really fast and without warning. I would probably just cancel the 25 and 26 week trips because that is a time when you don't want to take any chances. Even without that, I found that my physical condition went downhill dramatically between 22 and 26 weeks. I felt pretty good until about 20 weeks, then every week after that was worse.

 

I flew to DC from Wisconsin at 24 weeks and it was a rough week. The meetings were fine and my company accomodated me at all times - I got up and walked around during meetings, snacked throughout the day, didn't go out with everyone at night because I was tired, etc. That said, my first flight was delayed; I sat on the plane for four extra hours with nothing to eat and no ability to go to the bathroom. By the time I got to the hotel it was 1am and my meeting started at 8am. I was exhausted the entire next day, and pretty tired the rest of the week.

I don't think I had any long term complications, but looking back, I'm really glad I didn't have any more travel scheduled after that. My doctor actually advised me not to travel after 26 weeks.

 

I did some similar conferences around 28/29 weeks and I was fine – hopefully you’ll be off your feet for a good chunk of the time. I remember suddenly realizing that I just couldn’t stand up any longer. It was long and exhausting but it was important for me to do professionally so it was worth it.

I personally haven’t flown since around the 20 week mark, but a couple weeks after wouldn’t have made a huge difference looking back. (for me)

The only other advice I can offer is that if you haven’t gotten a flu shot, I’d still get one. I realize now of course that I pushed too hard to still prove to everyone that my pregnancy didn’t affect my “professionalism” and ended up with a month-long cold/flu that I just couldn’t kick. Really could have done without that. But the air travel, close quarters, shaking hands and those long hours just walloped my immune system. If you go, take it slow and proactively buffer up your system with lots of water and rest and good foods.

 

My ob has officially cut me off at 28 wks, but I won't be doing much from here on out (almost 25 wks). DH had to travel across the state last weekend and it nearly killed me. The ride there was 4 hrs due to bad weather and back it was 3. A lot of the time in between was spent sitting in an upright (dining-type) chair visiting. It was sheer torture and totally caught me off guard to feel that bad! I presumed sitting for that long wouldn't be a big deal like I would expect from having to be on my feet, but it was. I blame it on uncomfortable, straight-backed chairs that I couldn't shift around a lot in. I was fortunate that I was with DH, as he drove and I at least was able to shift my position a little in the car, but if you're driving you won't have that luxury.

Tough call and everyone's different, but if it were me I'd be leery of commiting to those events because - just like everyone else said - you just don't know.

Eve

 

i traveled by plane 4 hours at 22 weeks and was fine, but just a month later i took a 4hr train home for the holidays and it was a bigger deal. mostly, i just wanted to sleep in my own bed, plus just visiting with family wore me out. i haven't traveled out of the city since the new year (28w).

 

I stopped at 24 weeks, air and car longer than 4 hours. My family lives in Los Angeles and I'm in San Diego. I'm having a shower when I'm 29 weeks in Los Angeles and that's the last time I will be going over there. It's about a 1hr 45 min drive. It's not just the distance, but I just get tired being in the car in the same position for that long!