Skiing while Pregnant!

Now, before we go getting all moralistic, this topic has been discussed by me and my ski buddies over the last few weeks, and I have decided to through it out to the greater mass!

My sister in law is 14 weeks pregnant, and we are going sking tomorrow. At her last scan (3/4 weeks ago), the consultant told her she would be ok to ski, that babs is in a safe place at the moment (behind some pelvic bone somewhere!) but to take it easy.

Now she was considering some blues and light reds, but as she gets closer to the day, she is starting to get cold feet. She is an excellent intermediate skier. What complicates the matter is her other sister in law (also an excellent skier) skied when she was 5 months pregnant and is constantly in her ear saying try it.

I'm not going to tell you what we've discussed to date, I just want to get your thoughts!

So what do you think?

Pregnancy is not an illness !!!!
But everyone is different and I wonder if the key point is "if you feel like it".

Whilst the medic may be saying your fine, but take it easy, there is bound to be some risk - skiing is a risky business.

As a point of interest in Tignes last easter there was a ski instructor (female !!) who was very visibly pregnant taking classes.

OldAndy wrote:As a point of interest in Tignes last easter there was a ski instructor (female !!) who was very visibly pregnant taking classes.

Male would have been interesting!! :P

It has to be her decision. I was in a similar position as booked a year in advance when I didnt know I was pregnant. I decided to go and was 7 months pregnant when I got back and had to shop around for special insurance as I was so far on.

I took it easy but had a great time and hubbie carried my skies everywhere (and in fact has ever since!) Eight years on and my daughter is now an avid skier far better than me!!!

boo_yay wrote:

OldAndy wrote:As a point of interest in Tignes last easter there was a ski instructor (female !!) who was very visibly pregnant taking classes.

Male would have been interesting!! :P

:thumbup: :thumbup:

When I was pregnant I continued milking the cows until the day I went into labour. For those of you who don't know, this is a pretty hazardous activity because you are very likely to get squashed, kicked or stamped on. However, we wouldn't have been able to afford to pay anyone else to do the work while I had 9 months off, so I saw it as a necessity and I was prepared to take the risk.

But a ski holiday comes into a different category because it's a leisure activity and the pregnant woman puts herself and the baby at risk for no reason other than her own enjoyment and that of her companions. Or, to put it another way, if she doesn't ski all she misses out on is 6 days of ski-ing. But if she fell badly (which may not be her fault as someone else may lose control and hit her) the consequences could be frightful. So if you simply weigh up risk versus benefit then the risks are much greater than the benefits. Plus, if she fell and then subsequently had a miscarriage even if they weren't actually connected, she'd be bound to blame herself.

So, if it was me I wouldn't ski. Apart from anything else I wouldn't be able to live with myself afterwards if anything did go wrong. In fact, I don't think I'd go on the holiday either because I'd hate to see everyone else ski-ing and not be able to take part. I'd go and find something else to do.

And, having said all that, I think it's very unlikely she would come to any harm but personally I found the responsibility of being pregnant quite stressful enough without adding to it, and I wouldn't have been able to relax and enjoy myself on the ski slope while wondering who was about to flatten me.

It was different for the female ski instructor because like me it was her job and she probably couldn't afford to give it up for several months.

Ally

Short of smashing her pelvis at 14 weeks the baby is well protected and the exertion is not a risk for the baby.

She's passed the peak time for miscarriage.

If she's not hindered by morning sickness she should really expect to have the low alcohol version of the holiday she would have had had she not been pregnant.

Take the chance now as it isn't so easy to fit in skiing holidays when you've got a young family.

It's her decision, she can ask for advice but anyone pushing her towards either direction is unfair. If she is pushed into skiing when she'd rather not then I'd guess she's likely to be nervous. Making her more likely to fall. If she's confident with skiing there's no medical advice from her doctor to prevent her from skiing.

If she asked me I'd say go to resort, ski if you want to, relax and chill out if not. Take plenty of books and magazines!

If anyone was pushing me either way I'd politely and firmly tell them I'd heard enough.