pregnancy and snorkeling

Scubachick

Hi folks,
Well I haven't been logging on here for a while - did ya miss me ?

I managed to get myself up the pole since I was last here , so I figure diving is out for this season. However, any of you know about snorkeling during pregnancy? Can I wear a weight belt and duck dive? Someone also said that being on a bumpy rib was a no-no? Do I really have to be landlocked for the season or do I just have to take it easy for my first 12-14 weeks?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Scubachick

Evil Phil

Congratulations! (I hope ) and go to your doctor/gynacologist and ask them.

Medical advice is not, I repeat not to be given out on this forum. Normally I'd lock the thread but people will want to say congratulations (and that's all if they have read the charter!!!).

Evil Phil

Here's some doctors who deal with divers perhaps they can help. I'm not a total monster!

Peace

Up the pole, how did that happen?

Congrats!

Evil Phil wrote:

(and that's all if they have read the charter!!!).

Whats a charter?

dublinbay

Evil Phil wrote:

Congratulations! (I hope ) and go to your doctor/gynacologist and ask them.

Medical advice is not, I repeat not to be given out on this forum. Normally I'd lock the thread but people will want to say congratulations (and that's all if they have read the charter!!!).

Take two anadin.......sorry,take two blue ones and a yellow one and one of the stripey ones , you should be ok:)

Congratulations

bigfeller

Hey Scubachick!

Congratulations and all. I'm sure there'll be a Scubababy bombing around the waters of Clare in a few years.

Actually, was in your neck of the woods for a few dives on Sunday. Top class stuff.

Scubachick

Thanks for the congrats. I did get myself into this on purpopse! (Some of you seem to be wondering there!)

I didn't think I was asking for medical advice as such - just wondering what the official stance is on snorkelling while pregnant. The official stance on diving is fairly easy to get. I have already asked my medical fellas. As they are not divers (and probably afraid of being sued!) they just say not to do any exercise other than gentle walking. My sis-in-law was even told by her GP not to go on a speedboat while pregnant. However, I know of girls who continue to do their yoga, judo, horse riding etc safely through their pregnancies - certainly through the first and second terms anyways. I just cant seem to get a straight answer about snorkelling. Nobody seems prepared to say either it is safe or that it is not, but swimming is encouraged. Perhaps I will try contacting PADI/ CFT directly. I'm sure there are other Scubachicks out there may be interested in the answer.

donny

I can't see why there would be any reason not to snorkel while pregnant (assuming you're not doing crazy breath holding stuff). Normal snorkelling about should be fine. One of the reasons I believe that you're not to dive when pregnant is due to elevated ppo2 affecting foetus. I think the foetus is also more susceptible to DCS.

Lippmann's book Deeper into Sport Diving has a whole chapter on this as far as I remember.

Again as stated above, this isn't a medical forum and I have zero expertise in this area so contacting CFT/CFT doctors would be a good idea.

Peace

Spotted this in a thread on a different diver forumn. THought it might be of interest.

From the DDRC website

Women and Diving Studies at DDRC

An update by Margueritte St Leger Dowse

Background
Between 1989 and 1992 the DDRC circulated a large number of eight page questionnaires to recreational divers in the UK in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the diving habits and histories, DCI, and health when comparing males with females. In addition there were also many female specific questions focusing on the effects of diving on the menstrual cycle and diving and pregnancy. A total of 2,250 divers responded, 46% of which were female.

The study, which was published as "Men & Women in Diving" in 1995, highlighted many interesting differences in both health and diving between males and females; for example 45% of the reported DCI incidents were self-diagnosed, questioning previous estimations of the rates of DCI. Males in our study had a higher estimated rate of DCI per 1,000 dives compared with females with the same level of experience, and the study was able to illustrate the importance of taking into account underlying factors when analysing these kind of retrospective data.

Our sample of data from women who had dived whilst pregnant was not large enough to be of statistical significance (although some women had dived consistently throughout their pregnancies there were not enough dives per pregnancy overall) and therefore should not be regarded as anything other than an interest factor.

27% of all females who reported pregnancies in the study had dived whilst pregnant, and accounted for 16.5% of all the pregnancies reported in the study (some females reported more than one pregnancy).

Where diving had only taken place in the first trimester (first three months) 32% of dives had taken place at depths greater than 20m.

15% of the dived pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion, but this did not differ from estimates of the national trend.

Although, as stressed earlier, our sample of data was not large enough to be of statistical significance we observed that our data showed that there were slightly more spontaneous abortions where more than one dive per day and dives with decompression stops had taken place.

When we investigated the outcome of the pregnancies where "holiday" style diving (multi day, consecutive day etc) had taken place we observed that 4, out of the 5 respondents of spontaneous abortions in this group, had taken part in consecutive day diving.

From the overall data we did not find any statistical difference between the pregnancies that had dived more than twenty meters and those that had not, over the groups of spontaneous abortion, problems during the pregnancy and problems with the baby. We did however observe a higher incidence of clinical abortions amongst pregnancies that had dived over 20 meters though it was not statistically significant, and it must be remembered these data were retrospective.

Scubachick

Thanks for that Peace, I had seen it - and several other similar articles. It is easy enough to get information on diving during pregnancy - but not snorkelling :rolleyes:

Donny, there are possible problems with snorkelling during pregnancy that I can think of. This is just my thinking - perhaps I'm way off here - which is why I am trying to find out! I thought that PADI/ DAN/ someone would have a published document about it within keyboard's reach! Anyways, here are my ideas:

1: The uterus is an airspace and will be compressed on a breath hold dive. I aint planning on breaking any breath-hold records here, I think I can only get to about 6-10 meters max! But, as baby grows there will be less and less space in the uterus. Therefore, the baby may be squished even with small duck dives. Perhaps the little bubbleblower can take this, but I'm not sure.
2: pregnant ladies aint supposed to carry any weight - which is where the problem with the belt comes in. I think this may only be a problem during the first and last few weeks.
3: All the bouncing around on a RIB wouldn't do a new feotus any favours in the early days as it will be trying to implant and attach. In later weeks, the bouncing could cause problems as pregnant ladies tend to get a bit light headded and may loose their footing/ fall.

Evil Phil, sorry if this has turned into medical questions! But I'm just wondering if I am worry wort, or is there some science out there.

donny

I wasn't sure if you'd be duck diving or not

Best bet is to contact CFT/PADI approved doctor... good luck and again, congrats

CJhaughey

Unless you are freediving to big depths , I wouldn't think it would be that harmful, I know that M-T Soloman freedove while pregnant, maybe on one of Pipins clinics in the RS.
My wife did plenty of snorkelling in Greece while pregnant and found it great for taking the weight off her legs and back.
I would say just stay on the surface and treat it like swimming with a view:)