Scuba diving in second trimester

[doctormike]

As others have said, if my wife had chosen to dive, and something went wrong with the pregnancy or baby's development I don't think we could live with ourselves. It's just not worth the risk.

That's another good point. I deal with a lot of children with congenital anomalies, and the first question that almost everyone asks is "why did this happen?". For the vast majority of cases, there isn't a good answer, we simply don't know enough about all of the interactions between environment, genetics and development to make a confident statement about that (with a few exceptions). And minor congenital anomalies are actually pretty common; there is a non-trivial chance of this, diving or not.

So this is more of a psychological point than actual medical advice. I certainly have no idea how the OP would react to any sort of congenital anomaly - major or minor - and it would be patronizing of me to tell her in advance how she would feel.

However, I can certainly imagine that if someone had a lot of people cautioning them about doing an activity that was completely elective and only done for fun, and then there was a problem with their child, even if there was no definitive proof of causality I would think that it would be VERY hard for that person to keep telling themselves that the activity had absolutely no contribution to this outcome.

 

[Imla]

Now... This is merely beacause I am curious.
I work in medical dispatch. We sometime have transports of pregnant women to the local chamber after being exposed to smoke.
My question is...

What makes hyperbaric exposure OK in this instance, but not for diving?

 

[rhwestfall]

likely precisely controlled gas concentrations as well as "perfect" atmospheric (pressure gradient) control.....

 

[danvolker]

Now... This is merely beacause I am curious.
I work in medical dispatch. We sometime have transports of pregnant women to the local chamber after being exposed to smoke.
My question is...

What makes hyperbaric exposure OK in this instance, but not for diving?

My assumption would be that there would be no concern of nitrogen bubbles in a 100% O2 recompression chamber....even if the O2 did somehow form a temporary bubble on the return to surface pressure, the O2 would metabolize almost immediately, rather than become a point of vascular constriction or blockage.

As to the pregnant woman doing 30 foot dives on pure O2...this would be unwise due to the chance for enzymatic imbalance caused by O2 toxicity---however unlikely, there would be potential for it in a population, and there would be the risk increasing if the woman went significantly deeper than 30 feet by accident.....

Snorkeling without long breath holds, makes the most sense to me....as I said earlier.

 

[doctormike]

Now... This is merely beacause I am curious.
I work in medical dispatch. We sometime have transports of pregnant women to the local chamber after being exposed to smoke.
My question is...

What makes hyperbaric exposure OK in this instance, but not for diving?

Because with a chamber ride after smoke exposure, you are performing a lifesaving procedure on a patient exposed to carbon monoxide which binds with hemoglobin and is often immediately fatal, both for the mother and certainly for the child. So yes, there is a theoretical risk of hyperoxia (too much oxygen) to the fetus, which we don't know much about (although infants on long term O2 are at risk for blindness). But this theoretical risk is far outweighed by the immediate and well known risk of hypoxia (too little oxygen in the tissues).

With diving, you are risking the chamber ride for a completely elective activity that you are doing for fun. So the cost-benefit analysis is completely different.

Sort of how you can always find a story about a person who was thrown clear of an accident because they weren't wearing a seatbelt, landed in something soft, and then the car caught on fire. But if you conclude from that that seat belts are dangerous, then you are missing something!

 

[aussie_shark_bait]

Not a single company in QLD or Cairns will allow a pregnant woman to dive with them.

You must sign a waiver that you are not pregnant or they will refuse your right to dive with them.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

As a dive centre, we would not allow you to dive with us whilst 5 months pregnant under any circumstances - regardless of additional waivers. From a risk assessment perspective, its just not worth it. As the many other posters have said, there just is not enough evidence from previous studies to come up with a conclusive answer as the the effects of diving whilst pregnant. One could say that this is a direct result of a lack of willing test subject participants to play Russian Roulette with the health and safety of their unborn child. If you are happy to use yourself as a guinea pig to provide more statistics on this matter, thats your call - it could be fine, but maybe not. And you may not like the results....

Another factor to consider - does your diving insurer agree to cover you? Call me a sceptic but I'm not sure this is something DAN - or any other dive insurance company for that matter - would be willing to back.

 

[scubagramps]

There is an organization known as DAN like as in Divers Accident Network or something like that. They are the experts in the USA on diving medicine. I think they would have the best answer if you would contact them.