"Diving" in the Pool while Pregnant?

[TSandM]

As with so many things in diving, it comes down to risk tolerance. As the study quoted above shows, there is no good evidence that diving -- even "real" diving to depth -- has a powerful deleterious effect on pregnancy. But no one knows where the line should be drawn, and NO ONE is willing to accept ANY increased risk of a problem with a pregnancy. There is a baseline rate of birth defects, so even a pregnancy conducted entirely within what we now consider the "rules" has a chance of ending abnormally. If one had been diving during the pregnancy and the baby was abnormal, one would always wonder and perhaps carry guilt about it. Better to avoid the issue. And I hate saying that, because at heart I'm really a rational person and would like to be able to offer good data to show that what you propose is dangerous -- which it probably isn't.

 

[Rhone Man]

I think this generally gets filed under the "why would you?" heading. Unless there was a drowning relative or a million dollar bill at the bottom of the pool I'd suggest skipping. But in truth the reality is that the risks, albeit not perfectly studied, are almost certainly nil to nominal. Back in the 1990s I had several friends who used to dive well into their second trimester. Today the kids are all happy and normal and a total PITA like normal teenagers.

There is a tendency in society to be enormously over reactive potential risks to unborn children, even in the absence of any serious liklihood. I'll never forget when my wife was pregnant with our first child she was diagnosed with lymphoma, and they needed to stage the disease. But the oncology team were very nervous about about doing either CAT scans or (less understandably) MRIs on a pregnant woman. In the end we saw about a zillion pediatric and ante-natal specialists all of whom advised "there is not even the remotest risk to your unborn child from doing these scans." So we went in for the scans, and in the end the technicians just did head, arms and legs. We asked them why they didn't do the abdomen when all the specialists had said it was fine and they all said: "Yeah, we just decided we couldn't risk it."

To be honest, part of me was hoping that my unborn son would eventually develop superpowers like Spiderman, but we will never know.

 

[toddthecat]

and NO ONE is willing to accept ANY increased risk of a problem with a pregnancy.

I believed that until 2005. I lived in ****hole, USA...I mean Albuquerque, NM...and went to Olive Garden. As we got out of the car we saw a very pregnant woman in the parking lot smoking a cigarette. Blew my mind. I especially love hearing about kids being born and exhibiting withdrawal symptoms after 12 hours because they aren't sharing a bloodstream with an idiot that does heroin or meth while pregnant.

Sorry about the

You can go on with your normally scheduled programming...

 

[Rhone Man]

I believed that until 2005. I lived in ****hole, USA...I mean Albuquerque, NM...and went to Olive Garden. As we got out of the car we saw a very pregnant woman in the parking lot smoking a cigarette. Blew my mind. I especially love hearing about kids being born and exhibiting withdrawal symptoms after 12 hours because they aren't sharing a bloodstream with an idiot that does heroin or meth while pregnant.

Sorry about the

You can go on with your normally scheduled programming...

Sure it wasn't in Roanoke?

 

[toddthecat]

 

[skankpile]

Pre WWII German DR's gave us plenty of information on hypothermia, twins, radiation studies, but I guess they did not pursue female pregnant u-boat enlisted in the Lebensborn program.

If your female decides to pursue her diving while pregnant please document this to benefit the rest of society. Without people willing to endure the cost this knowledge will be lost.

 

[redacted]

How does the pressure effects of diving in a 6 ft pool compare to similar pressure effects that occur in commercial flying?

EDIT: I did a little research.

At 8000 ft (cabin pressure) the air pressure is about 11 psi.

At 6ft U/W the pressure is 18 psi.

So the changes in pressure are quite similar. Why is flying safe during pregnancy but we seem to believe shallow diving is not?

 

[toddthecat]

Who talked about commercial flying?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Maybe it's just me, but as the parent of a special needs child that no one can offer us an explanation for I would not take a chance on doing something that could/might/possibly harm the child. Maybe nothing would happen.
But if it did would you want to try to live with that question of whether or not it was indeed a result of such a decision? It's bad enough when you do everything right and it happens. Because every time something is said about how this or that effects a developing fetus you do look at the other person and a little part of you says what if? Even when it comes from crackpots and snakeoil sales people.
Those of us with kids who have problems know that. But it still feels like sh!t when your mind goes there.
And I may have lost some respect for people who posted certain things in this thread. I'll have to re think some things over the next few days now.

 

[uncfnp]

A couple of questions:

1) Is it even possible to form any bubbles at less than 10 feet of depth for a short duration dive?

2) And is there a nitrox blend that would equalize the partial pressure of the nitrogen to surface equivalent, negating any possible bubble risk?


Just theoretical interest