Traveling by air does not pose a particular risk to pregnant women and their unborn children, even if three weeks are left before their birth, doctors say.
Healthy women with a normal pregnancy can use the plane until the 37th week, they say at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The most serious risk for women at an altitude of 10 km is preterm delivery.
You should also not be afraid of security scanners at the airport, since their radiation doses are negligible, and pressure drops during the flight. As well as there is no reason to worry about motion sickness and deep vein thrombosis during longer flights. It is enough to take precautionary measures, for example, to use compression stockings.
Those women who are at risk for the likelihood of premature birth (which can happen with multiple pregnancies, for example), should not even board a plane when they are 32 weeks old.
Despite the directives approved by doctors, some carriers ask you to present a written permission of the gynecologist to fly, starting from the 28th week to confirm the estimated date of birth and the absence of complications.
However, there are diseases that can cause complications and problems during flights. Risk factors include severe anemia, recent fractures, recent bleeding, serious heart disease, and respiratory illness.
