Diving Whilst Pregnant

[Jaques Custard]

My wife and I recently discovered that we're expecting the second kidI'm gona kill that milkman! However we both love diving and I wondered if there has been any research on peaple diving whilst pregnant. We both Know that it's a no no however is there any ill effects from a shallow dive (I ask as we didn't find out untill 6 weeks and she had dived to 25m before that) Any help appreciated

[divingniknaks]

We found ourselves in a similar situation.

Amanda took OW and then discovered Jack was on the way. She was actually a little further on than your wife. We had no ill effects.

The medical advice at the time was (and is I think) if pregnant dont dive. AFAIK there has been little or no studies done so they play safe.

I would say your mrs iwll more than likely be fine, but any doubts find a hyperbaric doctor (the BSAC websote has a list) who will I'm sure be more than happy to help.

Congratulations !

[BJ]

My wife and a girlfriend both did a lot of deep air diving in the Maldives and then later found that they were both pregnant. My wife was worried. She phoned Dr Chris Edge (a friend and member of the UK Sports Diving Medical Committee) and asked whether she should terminate. His answer (if I may quote) was "Don't be 'king stupid!"
Both babies were born within a day of each other and today both are very fit highly-intelligent difficult-to-argue-with seven-year-olds.
So whereas the sensible advice would be do not dive if you are pregnant, don't worry about it. Worry about the trauma you face bringing up two children! (Two children seem to be an infinitely greater number than one.)

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by BJ

My wife and a girlfriend both did a lot of deep air diving in the Maldives and then later found that they were both pregnant. My wife was worried. She phoned Dr Chris Edge (a friend and member of the UK Sports Diving Medical Committee) and asked whether she should terminate. His answer (if I may quote) was "Don't be 'king stupid!"
Both babies were born within a day of each other and today both are very fit highly-intelligent difficult-to-argue-with seven-year-olds.
So whereas the sensible advice would be do not dive if you are pregnant, don't worry about it. Worry about the trauma you face bringing up two children! (Two children seem to be an infinitely greater number than one.)

sensible thing is no diving, however if you don't find out until after you are pregnant then do not worry, the worrying that you did some harm will cause more harm than the actual diving itself did.

there has been very little research, for obvious reasons.

[Adrian Kelland]

I recall Marguerite St Ledger-Dowse did some kind of research study into this. Before the internet became well known, but someone will access to papers on line might be able to track down a copy.

Adrian

[Hellvet]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

I recall Marguerite St Ledger-Dowse did some kind of research study into this. Before the internet became well known, but someone will access to papers on line might be able to track down a copy.

Adrian

here's some stuff on the DDRC website - truncated version i would think...
DDRC

[Ahoy]

In summary, and confirming earlier comments, there is no firm evidence to say whether it is safe or not. The most recent article on this concluded that the available evidence was not sufficient to establish any robust conclusions and went on to say that it is unlikely that this question will ever be answered!

As such, the advice is not to dive.

S.

P.S. Here's the reference if anyone wants to read further:

J Obstet Gynaecol. 2006 Aug;26(6):509-13

[aclivity]

sorry to be a naysayer but having been through a stressful few weeks when our last children were born (the elder of the twins was seriously ill and stopped breathing at 5 days old, we had a few weeks of intensive care to sit through) I can safely say that you should give yourself no added "ammunition" to beat yourself up with. It's probably unlikely that your child will be ill, but on the rare chance that s/he is, you will spend lots of time closely examining EVERYTHING that went on during the pregnancy (Should I have eaten that? Was it safe to fly? When I fell on the ice, should I have been wearing better shoes?). A few months off - it's really not that long. Why risk it?

[Jaques Custard]

Thanks Guys and Gals thats reasuring, except I'll never hear the end of it every time I sneak off for a dive, its one of the unfortunate or fortunate things about life , us guys can still dive when the misses does all the Hard work. And thanks for the warning about two verses one, my collegues have informed me that the "terrible twos" refers to quantity of kids as well as age, Oh well

[Jezza]

My wife dived in the early days of her first pregnancy (before she knew), unfortnuately she miscarried at 13 weeks, although there is no direct connection between the two, I know she still doesn't forgive herself for it.

We now have one 2 and a half year old and another on the way, she hasn't dived at all in either of these pregnancies, better safe than sorry.