Happy Holidays from Dr. Linda and The Smart Mother’s Guide team. While we want you to have a joyous holiday season, here are a few tips to keep in mind to avoid unwanted disappointments or unexpected surprises regarding your pregnancy:
- Confirm whether your physician or healthcare provider will be on vacation and if so, who will be covering in his or her absence, including the labor room?
- Please do not fly after 32 weeks. The change in barometric air pressure increases your chances of prematurely rupturing your membranes (aka breaking your water).
- Ideally, do not travel if you have a high-risk pregnancy, even if you think you’re okay. One of my former patients didn’t follow this advice. Her abnormal lab had not been flagged and when I discovered it, I had to track her down which resulted in her having an emergency cesarean section in another state.
- Do not leave on vacation without obtaining lab results in case they are abnormal.
- Be merry but do not drink alcohol. Alcohol crosses the placenta. It lowers your platelets (which helps clot your blood) therefore increasing you AND your unborn baby’s risks of bleeding too much.
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