Hello mammas and papas,

My husband and I are planning a tour in Florida over Christmas, when I'll be 18-20 weeks pregnant. Just wondering if anyone has any experience touring while pregnant and any advice to offer. I haven't come across many cyclists in the normal pregnancy forums and websites I visit, so thought I would check here.

Many thanks!

The mother of my son rode her bike the mile or so to the maternity hospital after her water broke. They were both fine
That's all I know about bikes and pregnancy.

Have a great tour!

That's amazing [MENTION=154351]imi[/MENTION] !

In nursing school I had a patient who at 6 months her water broke and she was in bed for 3 months with her cervix sewn shut. I think she got away with no infection. Every pregnancy is different. Be safe, don't lose your pregnancy.

Sorry, I'm not much help, but I thought you might get a kick out of this picture of a young Dutch women who rode into the market with her 3-year old son, also on the bike. Good luck, and enjoy your ride.

Are you on Facebook? If you are, look for the groups Bicycle Traveling Women and Seattle Family Biking (which is not limited to people in Seattle.) I've not ridden while pregnant but there are plenty of women in those groups who could give you great advice.

Seems like baby would be pretty happy with warm temps, smooth roads etc! Plus most areas in Florida fairly close to medical help if necessary. Some medical research suggests that moms who exercise & eat well give babies benefits that last for decades.

Definitely NOT ultralight touring !

Looks like the typical spread of advice for pregnant ladies - from "you'll be fine" to "you'll kill your baby." It's a wonder they don't all die of cognitive dissonance.

My wife and I did a tandem tour in Europe when she was about three months pregnant. She definitely had way less energy than normal, so we kept the days shorter and just set our expectations accordingly. Obviously she wasn't as far along as you'll be, but I'll ask her if there were any other issues that she can recall.

Food and drink was an issue, as 1) she wasn't drinking alcohol and we were riding through Czech beer country and Austrian wine country, which was frustrating!, and 2) she had a new-found, pregnancy induced revulsion to any sort of grilled meat, and that's basically all we were finding in the small Czech towns we rode through.

My wife and I toured the Pyrenees cycle camping (20 years ago!) and loved it. I had No1 (18 months) on a babyseat with front panniers and No2 was safely in his mum's tummy (at 20 weeks). It cured Kate's morning sickness and she felt wonderful afterwards - the best of her three pregnancies. The only downer was that she did get a bad dose of thrush and the cycling probably helped provoke it, so hygene and some cream would help a lot.

Guessing from the OP's screen name, you're Canadian? I'd strongly suggest that you investigate what your provincial health insurance covers when outside Canada. You don't want to be in a situation where some health issue arises and you face direct billing from a U.S. health care provider directly. The costs can be shockingly high in that situation.

Ditto on being extremely extremely certain of your health travel insurance details. As a Canadian who has heard just too many stories of unfortunate Americans and fine print issues....

My wife and I did some biking, day stuff, when she was about 3 months, and probably did more later but I honestly don't remember the details.
Off the top of my head, I'd say being extra careful of being hydrated and common sense with road dangers etc are the main issues.
Of course, medical advice from a bunch of internet strangers is never really ideal, so if possible, advice from a woman pediatrician who did outdoor stuff when pregnant and can evaluate you personally is always going to be the best route.
I'll ask my wife about her memories of those weeks of pregnancies.

Just in my very small experience. We had a very nice male GP who really liked delivering babies. He was great. But her water broke early and we were sent to the female Dr. at the regional hospital. She was a jerk. Did not bother to look up our names. Totally focused on the male med student, not us. She pulled out this massive collection of equipment for an episiomoty, without asking. Being a female physician does not exclude her from very, very, bad bedside manners. She even reached in and pulled out the placenta by hand, because of her impatience.
Sorry for the soapbox!!

Just be safe, be careful, enjoy your baby.

from a purely practical point of view, are you still riding now? I'm in Montreal and still am commuting to 0c and below--but more importantly, I am on the bike regularly, ie my tush is still used to being on a bike seat.
So if you dont ride much, or havent ridden in a while, plus throw in lady parts when pregnant stuff, you may find it tough being on a bike for X hours, just as if you weren't pregnant but still hadnt ridden for a long time. Same with legs, wrist, neck....the usual suspects.

things to consider, pregnancy aside.

**just remembered a neat womans biking forum, I think it was Team EStrogen. I went on it once to get some good recommendations for frame sizes for similar sized , height, women as my wife (short, 5' and bit), so this would probably be a much better resource for getting first hand experience, and things to consider (though of course, like all internet stuff, highly subjective and personal to each person).

good luck with getting more info, not to mention the whole baby production thing and end result.

Yes Canadiens have bought Medical insurance coverage for travel in the US.. it seems wise when visiting a Backwards Country.

My wife rode until she was about 6 months pregnant. Her doctor was all for it but he did advise her to remain hydrated and keep a heart rate of 140 bpm. That's the exercise end. She's a real trooper is she's up for camping.

So canada floyd what did you decide??

When I raised sheep we had a few carrying triplets. We called them double wides.