Climbing whilst pregnant.

Hi,
Do any of you have any idea if going above 3000m (French Alps) will have any adverse effects on my pregnancy? I will be around 18 weeks by then and obviously don't want anything to go wrong. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Heidi.

Hi Heidi, I googled this because I was interested generally in what came up. There doesn't seem to be a lot of detailed info out there. One or two articles on the web saying that pregnant women should avoid high altitudes because of the lower oxygen content of the air, other saying simply that there isn't much info out there and you should consult your doctor, who, I guess, will probably tell you that there isn't much info out there, but if you're worried, you shouldn't do it.

Then again there's a difference between being at 3000 metres and high altitude mountaineering at say, 6000 metres and above.

It might, apparently, make morning sickness worse as well. The biggest concern though seems to be the lack of oxygen, though this seems to be considered more of a problem in the last third of pregnancy.

In short, it seems to be one of those things that no-one's sure about. Have a look though at:
http://www.pregnanttraveler.com

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OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

More specifically this article, which seems balanced and worth a look:
http://www.pregnanttraveler.com/Articles/Altitude.htm

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OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

From what I read it didn't seem to affect Alison Hargreaves that much.

Didn't she "do" the Eiger whilst in the early stages of pregnancy?

Thanks Alex, its put my mind at rest a bit.

The GP was useless but the midwife looked into it for me and was not sure. I have spent many summers at altitude and know how my body normally copes with altitude, so I should be able to judge how things are going.

Thanks,

Heidi. x

Thanks to Jon too...I missed your name off the post above (It's my hormones! LOL). Sorry!

Heidi. x

Heidi - my advice is to talk to a GP who is also an experienced climber - maybe the BMC will be able to refer you to one. It isn't something you really want to take a risk on.

My experience: I had a suspected first degree 'bend' once after a dive and I was advised to consult a doctor when I got home; I was administered O2 at site. Trouble is that most GPs know absolutely nothing about diving and Medical Journals don't cover it. I went to the nearest big Dive Shop and they gave the the name of a GP in the next town who is also a PADI Divemaster and has studied diving medicine. For a payment of £20 he saw me privately and wrote a report for my own GP.

Maybe this is an idea you could follow - but not the diving part LOL.

Hi Heidi

I'm not sure about the altitude bit, but if it helps to put your mind at rest at all, I remember Catherine Destivelle soloing the Old Man of Hoy when she was 3 months pregnant! There is a programme floating about on satellite of this climb....

Chris

Hi Heidi,
I went up Mount Teide in Tenerife when I was 16 weeks pregnant and felt fantastic. I was on my own and walking fast. Teide is 3,700 metres and I started from 2,300 metres. Six weeks later it was a different story. I was on Raise in the Lake District and I started getting noticeable contractions. This was quite scary and I had to go down very slowly & carefully. The contractions carried on for several hours after I got back to our B&B. The midwife said it was a known phenomenon and the baby would be fine, which she was, but I didn't do any more hillwalking after that. I took it to be a warning sign that maybe the baby was getting short of oxygen when I was puffed out. Hope this helps.

I remember going to Robin Hoods Bay when the good Mrs F was pregnant with Sam. She'd have been about 5 months 'gone'

We got down to the pub easy enough haveing walked along the headland just a little way. We even went out for a paddle as the tide went out.

But poor old Mrs F just couldn't make it back up the hill after. She got about as far as the shop on the left (as you go up the hill) and had to sit down outside it whilst waiting for me to go and fetch the car.

I got loads of grief from one of the locals who don't let you take a car down there till I showed him Mrs F sitting panting away.

I think the moral of the story is that it's all down to each woman and how they feel "on the day". I said Alison Hargreaves didn't suffer any problems when climbing, but that doesn't mean that the next woman to do it will be ok. I think that this is probably the reason that the Doctors and midwifes (midwives?) are cagey.

My first thought was 'ask your doctor' but obviously that's no good.

My second was to search the BMJ and Lancet for any studies; none. Not suprising really, I don't suppose many pregnant womengo to altitude so it's hardly worth studying - in fact it would be hard to get a big enough sample, I reckon.

My third was to imagine what could happen. Presumably any problems would stem from the baby recieving less oxygen in the blood stream. The results would be the same for the baby as for an adult, but I'd imagine the young, immature and rapidly developing brain of a baby is much more susceptible. An example of the effect of reduced oxygen levels on a baby include the increase in cot death among smoking parents, though of course smoking is something which occurs throughout pregnancy, rather than just for a few hours. But the decrease in blood O2 concentration from a trip to 3,000m is much more than that from smoking a cigarette. Not the best example, but you get the idea - reduced O2 can have serious effects on an unborn baby.

My gut instinct says don't do it. What's the point? Why risk your baby's health - if, god forbid, any brain injury was to occur, it would ruin it's entire life - for one trip? Sorry if that sounds harsh but I really don't think you should do it.

I wouldn't go so far as to say don't do it. If you're feeling fit and comfortable and you're used to climbing at altitude, then it's down to you. But I would say take it easy, listen to your body, choose a route that is not very committing, and be ready to turn back if you're at all worried or uncomfortable.

I'd agree with Alison.

Heidi, I know you are after advice, and I am certainly NOT qualified to give you medical help, but...well, it's up to how you feel on the day. It's fairly easy to get down to a lower altitude quite quickly should things feel wrong.

So far Heidi hasn't actually said she'll be climbing. She just said she was going above 3000m. Maybe she'll just be wandering about in tourist mode, maybe she'll be trying to do some e7 nasty evil route up there, who knows!

It doesn't matter what you're doing, going high decreases the amount of oxygen available to the baby. Exertion is pretty much irrelevant; it's a known fact that altitude begins to have an effect on the body once you're above 2,000m regardless of activity. It doesn't matter how *you* feel either, you can't tell what stress the baby is under.

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but wait until next year for your trip, Heidi.

Heidi

I have a friend who is a sherpa guide in Nepal and has taken groups of trekers including pregnant ladies on the Annapurna circuit and the base camp trek.

I have emailed him to ask him what he recomends and what his research into this has shown.

As soon as he gets back to me I will mail you the response, but in the mean time I suggest you ignore the informed & ill informed guesses of some and contact the Alpine Club and the BMC (the medical one not the climbing one !) for some background research.

Goodnight

Sorry, but this doesn't make sense Dan. The baby is effectively a parasite and will draw off what it needs at the mother's expense; that's why a pregnant woman gets tired so much sooner. In general, she can expect that the baby's needs will always be met first, and she will feel breathless well before the baby has a problem. When I had the conctractions I think it was an indication that I had pushed myself too far and ignored the fact that I was breathless, so my body was bringing in the next level of safety valve, which was to contract the womb and increase the blood flow and therefore the oxygen to the baby. This is obviously not a good thing, and that's why I think it's a good idea to take it easy and listen to your body. But it's important for a woman to feel that she is in control of her choices and that they are based on proper scientific evidence.

Heidi, I agree with some of the sentiments above (Guy and Alison) - in other words ignore the ifs buts and maybes and see the BMC to recommend you a doctor who specialises in mountain medicine.

(I got told off by my new neighbour for climbing a tree to prune it when lightly pregnant, but I was/am used to climbing so I wasn't doing anything that would have exerted any new stress on my body. I made sure that I was extra-safe when doing so.)

There is no reason when pregnant to sit down, drink tea and take up embroidery - that way madness lies - but some well-meaning men and 'old wives' feel that that is the correct thing - they are wrong. If you do aerobics every day for example, the professional advice is to keep it up to help keep the body supple for birth, just avoid anything which feels uncomfortable.

Thanks everyone, especially Alison.
The story so far is that my GP was useless (as expected) and the midwife has e-mailed a colleague in Aberdeen to see what their department thinks (lost of climbers in the teaching staff apparently).
I won't be doing any climbing on this trip, just going with friend who will be. As I am not the type to just sit around at home whilst everyone else "goes out to play" I still want to go to Chamonix with them. I have been to the Alps every summer since I was 17, so I can pretty much judge how my body is coping and how the “parasite” – Alison! Is coping. Its just nice to talk about these things as pregnancy is a testing time with every little thing becoming a major worry (it’s my first BTW), so I don’t know if the comments so far are helping or not!

I was mailed this link which I found interesting:

http://www.timeoutdoors.com/Climb/Women/3CLMLYP01090202E.htm

I have sent a mail to the BMC - so I will have to wait and see.

Heidi. x

Speaking as someone who has gone through two pregnancies successfully, I can understand your concerns, Heidi. As for your comment above "I don’t know if the comments so far are helping or not" - which ones do you mean?

Believe me, folks, when you are pregnant, you DO feel the baby's stresses in your own body. Whether it is a sudden overwhelming tiredness and the need to sit down for a rest for half an hour (then you're full of energy again!) or else what feels like a minor contraction - which is rather scary at the time but when you've felt the real contractions you'll realise what a massive difference there is. There are others but this is maybe not the arena to discuss them.

REAL medical / fitness advice says that you should carry on with WHAT IS NORMAL FOR YOU with a few notable exceptions - scuba diving, horse riding, parachuting - that was what I was advised to stop doing. Pregnancy is not an illness.

Have a lovely holiday :)

It's a good question, and one I suspect you're unlikely to get a straight answer to because the evidence isn't clear at that altitude. Certainly at considerably higher levels (>4000m) there are a whole raft of problems that occur more frequently - delayed growth and more jaundice in the newborn, and high blood pressure for the mother - but at lower levels I can't find much useful data. Most people would agree that at these altitudes whilst the pregnancy may be entirely unaffected the risk of problems - and also the difficulty in reaching medical attention if they occur - is considerably greater.

As Alex says, Alison Hargreaves climbed the Eigerwand whilst about 18 weeks pregnant but according to her biographers had significant misgivings about doing so after the event - and certainly got a lot of flak for choosing to do so, mostly from uninformed media commentators.

At 3000m, the air pressure will have dropped from about 760mmhg at sea level to 560mmhg - ie about 25% - and oxygen pressure in the lungs will have dropped by about 40%. The air pressure in the plane on the way to your holiday is kept equivalent to 1800m (or up to 2400m in the real skinflint airlines like Quantas). Pilots aren't allowed to fly at higher than this equivalent cabin pressure without using additional oxygen, but then they don't have the advantage of slow acclimatisation.

The fetal circulation is designed to cope with lower oxygen pressures - using a different type of haemoglobin - and so has a degree of protection from lower oxygen levels that could occur during labour, but even so it will be starting from a lower level, and it isn't clear what the effects of this could be on development. As Jon says, the risk is probably greater at the early and late stages of pregnancy rather than the more stable growth phase in the middle. I suppose the question that you have to ask is if - heaven forbid - the baby is born with problems that could have been caused by lack of oxygen during development, would you blame yourself?

Overall I would suggest sensible precautions like slow ascent and a relatively low maximum altitude - by which I mean 2500 - 3000m max - would be safest, but it's your choice.

I'll try and find out if the Expedition Medicine centre is still going at Barts (Dr Charles Clarke, an old friend of Sir Christian B usedd to run it). Otherwise you could also contact the Royal Geographical Society Expedition Advisory Centre.

Goood luck!