Advice on booking flight tickets while pregnant [closed]

My wife would like to travel a few days before Christmas; she will be 30 weeks pregnant (from last period) at that moment. The policy of most airlines is that women that are between 28 and 36 weeks pregnant are allowed to travel, but ONLY if they have a medical certificate. (I assume that the airlines count the number of week from the last period, and not from fertilization - if I am mistaken please correct me!) This certificate has to be recent (a few days), so waiting until we have the certificate before booking the flight (around Christmas!) is not really an option. So to decide whether to book the ticket or not, we would like to know:

How common is it, for pregnant women, to be unable to use previously-booked airline tickets (in Russia/Europe) because of not getting such a "fit-to-fly" letter in time (or the airline not accepting it)? Feel free to share your experiences. Note that comments of the form "I know N times when this was attempted and it always worked" are just as helpful as comments of the form "I know someone who had problems for such-and-such reason" (to avoid publication bias!)

There are two ways things could go awry:

The doctor refuses to provide the certificate for genuine medical reasons. If we had a list of the most common contraindications for flying, we could of course research how likely to develop each of them is, and get a reasonable overall estimate. However, we do not know this. The airlines' terms and conditions are not very helpful in this respect: they provide only generic language (see excerpt below).
We could fail to get this form for bureaucratic reasons: e.g. the airline refuses the doctor's letter because it fails to meet some formal criteria, or the doctor asks us to do a series of tests that we cannot complete in time, or refuses to provide the letter until we clarify the too-generic language, etc. (If it matters, we currently live in Russia.)

Here are the relevant passages from the terms and conditions of two of the airlines we are considering. (They also have clauses that forbid flying after 36 weeks; but this is outside the scope of this question.)

Pobeda:

Women after the 28th week of pregnancy are allowed on flights ONLY when providing a medical certificate authorizing air travel, as well as a completed guarantee obligation in the check-in process.

Ryanair:

Expectant mothers are free to fly up to 28 weeks of pregnancy. Once an uncomplicated pregnancy reaches its 28th week we require expectant mothers to carry a ‘fit to fly’ letter completed by their midwife or doctor.

Download the fit to fly template letter here.

(Their "fit to fly template letter" asks only for generic informations: expected due date, a single checkbox for "the pregnancy is uncomplicated" and a single checkbox "the patient is fit to fly").

Best Answer

You want to fly at 28 weeks ("7 months out of 9 months") pregant.

Your question is a bit confusing. To try provide some rough answers:

Per se, it's no big deal to fly at 7 months pregnant. Humans are tough
My good wife would do it all the time, but she's awesome She never once had any sort of letter, form, etc.
That being said, does your wife really want such a hassle? Why? If you have to "see your cousins" or some such, it can wait. Being pregnant is a great time to sit around and relax.
You mention "booking ahead" etc. Unfortunately, put that out of your mind. That luxury does not exist. So, that's done. You can't "book ahead" more than say, four hours, if you're 7 months pregnant. "Booking ahead" is for 19 year old single people. Forget it - unfortunately that's the reality.
Short flights are hugely different from long flights.
Your question about "what are the odds" is unanswerable. Yes, as you suspect, such a form is a bit of a formality. It's no big deal. So long as your good wife is reasonably fit and not too old, it's a rubber-stamp situation.

To repeat, the key info here is ( ... being a parent is shocking in many ways; wait until you realize you can, eg, "never go out again" .. and that you have to "save $300,000 for college" .. and that you have to "start planning the next kids the day you have the first" ... !), just utterly forget the 'booking ahead' aspect. The way to think of it is, that was just a cute thing that used to happen when you were young and single. :) If you can't afford to book at the last minute, unfortunately, just forget it. (Unless your wife is incredibly young and incredibly fit.) It's absolutely impossible to know how your good wife will feel at that time and she understandably has absolute priority; she may just quite reasonably say "Who the heck wants to fly anywhere, let's relax at home," all the nicer!

Hope these generalizations help.

Footnote - note that, indeed, it appears you want to fly at "28 weeks".

In fact, coincidentally, that is indeed the "nominal cutoff" for airlines. Up to 28 weeks they couldn't care less and don't even ask, you're just a human being who happens to be pregnant.

I say "nominal" because .. who ever knows? Your doctor only just estimates the two dates.

It's very likely you could just fly with this never being an issue or even being asked about it.

Hint: many women who are expert at flying around while heavily pregnant, and know what they're doing, just rock up to the counter, and if even asked, they will say "why yes, I'm 27 weeks pregnant!"

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How close to pregnancy Can you fly?

Generally, commercial air travel before week 36 of pregnancy is considered safe if you have a healthy pregnancy. Still, if you're pregnant, check with your health care provider before you fly.

What month of pregnancy should you stop flying?

An curved arrow pointing right. Pregnant women should avoid flying after 36 weeks of pregnancy. The best time to fly is during the second trimester because pregnancy symptoms are less severe and there's a lower risk of an obstetric emergency.

Why pregnant ladies should not travel in flight?

When you are pregnant, sitting in one spot for a long time can cause blood to pool in your legs. That can raise the risk of blood clots. The recirculated cabin air and low humidity add to the risk.

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