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Avoiding Deep Vein Thrombosis When Flying

By RomanticHeart | July 24, 2010

“The best thing to do if you need to fly while you are pregnant is to consult your obstetrician sot hat you can be cleared of any kinds of complications. The fact is flying can start complications to both the mother and the life inside her. Aside from the potentially harmful effects of high cosmic radiation as a result of being in a high altitude, being in a flight may also make you immobile for a long period of time unless you are aware of what this can bring. Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT is one of the problems caused by being immobile for quite a long time.

This is characterized by coagulated or solidified volumes of blood in deep veins. DVT can be due to a lof of different factors but all of them can cause hypercoagulability or the tendency for blood to solidify even on instances when it’s not necessary. Platelets are components in blood that are responsible for blood coagulation which we need to stop the bleeding when we have cuts or wounds. But hypercoagulability becomes a problem because it can create those clots even when they are not needed.

When you’re in-flight, the tendency is for you to just sit through your flight. It’s relatively okay but it creates problems when you are pregnant. When you are pregnant, there are a lot of hormonal changes. These hormonal changes can promote over activity of your blood coagulation abilities. Also, because of the downward pressure exerted by your uterus, your veins, which carry blood back to your heart, you will find it more difficult to overcome this pressure and bring the blood back up from your lower extremities. This then creates an environment that will make unnecessary coagulation highly possible.

Therefore, it is important that you regularly stand up and move around through out the entire flight. This will promote blood circulation and will help those veins on your legs and feet push blood back to your heart where it goes into your lungs for oxygenation and then goes back to your heart again distribution to your different body parts. This is how a normal circulatory cycle works and if something like hypercoagulability stop it from continuing normally, it could create serious complications which can even include death when the coagulated blood portion is dislodged from the vein and goes into the lungs where it can cause pulmonary embolism (blockage in lung arteries).”

As long as your obstetrician gives you the go signal, go and get than dream vacation you’ve planned. If you’re looking for cheap flights to Asia or cheap flights to Aruba or wherever that dream holiday awaits you, check your resources online. You’ll be amazed to find just how many great choices you have.