Abstract
Methods
To evaluate if air travel affects pregnancy outcome, all women with singleton, non anomalous fetuses, admitted for delivery at a gestational age >20.0 weeks over a 6-month period were asked if they traveled by airflight during pregnancy, including details of the destination and length of their flights and any complications during the travel. Pregnancy outcome was obtained by chart review. Statistical analysis included Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, chi square, Fisher’s exact test where appropriate, and linear and logistic regression analysis, with p<0.05 considered significant.
Results
Two hundred twenty-two women were studied. Of these, 53% (n=118) traveled at least once during pregnancy (median 2 flights, range 1–12). The first flight was taken at a mean ± standard deviation gestational age of 13.3±7.6 weeks with average flight lasting 4±2 h. There were no differences in gestational age at delivery (39.1 vs. 38.4 weeks, p=0.07), neonatal birthweight (3,379 vs. 3,273 g, p=0.24), or rates of vaginal bleeding (2% vs. 5%, p=0.26), preterm delivery <37 weeks (9% vs. 14%, p=0.29), preeclampsia (5% vs. 6%, p=0.76), neonatal intensive care unit admission (13% vs. 16%, p=0.56), or cumulative adverse obstetric outcome (p=0.61) between those who did and did not air travel during pregnancy. Power analysis demonstrated that a sample size of 2,803 women in each group would be necessary to show that air travel has a protective effect against adverse pregnancy outcome (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.80). There were no thromboembolic events complicating any of the pregnancies.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that air travel is not associated with increased risk of complications for pregnancies that reach 20 weeks’ gestation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ACOG Committee Opinion (2002) Air travel during pregnancy. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 76:338–339
Aspholm R, Lindbohm ML, Paakkulainen H, Taskinen H, Nurminen T, Tiitinen A (1999) Spontaneous abortions among Finnish flight attendants. J Occup Environ Med 41:486–491
Cameron RG (1973) Should air hostesses continue flight duty during the first trimester of pregnancy? Aerospace Med 44:552–556
Huch R, Baumann H, Fallenstein F, Schneider KTM, Holdener F, Huch A (1986) Physiologic changes in pregnant women and their fetuses during jet air travel. Am J Obstet Gynecol 154:996–1000
Parer JT (1982) Effects of hypoxia on the mother and fetus with emphasis on maternal air transport. Am J Obstet Gynecol 142:957–961
Scholten P (1976) Pregnant stewardess—should she fly? Aviat Space Environ Med 47:77–81
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Freeman, M., Ghidini, A., Spong, C.Y. et al. Does air travel affect pregnancy outcome?. Arch Gynecol Obstet 269, 274–277 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-003-0579-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-003-0579-5