Flying with pregnant wife

Captain Wubba wrote:

[snip]

1. What is the maximum altitude that would be 'safe' for for an
expectant mother to fly at?

Our goal was to remain below 10K MSL, and in practice never strayed much
above 9K. About the only input we got from the medical community was
that fetal and maternal hemoglobin has a higher affinity for O2 than
that of adults, so as long as mom wasn't hypoxic the kid was likely to
be fine. We did tend to check the little CO warning tabs more often,
though...

2. Does this vary with the stage of pregnancy?

Jen flew solo until early in her fifth month, at which point she was
cautioned to stop solo flight because some women start to have episodes
of lightheadedness about that time (she never did). She flew dual until
sometime in her sixth month, when she couldn't stuff her 5'2" frame into
the airplane or get full travel on the yoke.

3. Is there a time when we should simply stop flying?

We were never told of a medical reason, but when it got to the point
where it took on the order of minutes for her to get in and settled it
was pretty clear that we'd have emergency egress issues and she quit flying.

4. Are there any resources that anyone know of concerning flying with
small children (i.e. headsets, inner-ear issues, etc.?

A good pediatrician Seriously, the only issue we've had with Duncan
is that he doesn't like wearing his headset (or sunglasses, for that
matter). The tip from our pediatrician on ears was to stuff a tit in
his mouth, but we never had to figure out how to do that in flight. The
pediatrician has been nothing but encouraging about Duncan flying in
light, unpressurized airplanes -- the strongest cautionary note he gave
us was to make sure he was wearing sunscreen.

Cheers,
Chris.
--
Chris Kennedy

http://www.mainecoon.com
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97