Diving after pregnancy

Octopusprime · Oct 21, 2014

My sister and dive buddy is currently pregnant and due in May... She knows she can not dive while pregnant but she plans to breast feed and was wondering if there is any known problems with diving while breast feeding? We are thinking there could be nitrogen transferred to Breast milk, breast pain caused by pressure, etc but interested in hearing from people that have dove after being pregnant.

LeadTurn_SD · Oct 22, 2014

Octopusprime:
My sister and dive buddy is currently pregnant and due in May... She knows she can not dive while pregnant but she plans to breast feed and was wondering if there is any known problems with diving while breast feeding? We are thinking there could be nitrogen transferred to Breast milk, breast pain caused by pressure, etc but interested in hearing from people that have dove after being pregnant.

I believe that the infant will need to be certified to at least AOW level if the mother plans to dive while breast feeding....

Sorry, I could not resist!! I'm sure serious responses will follow.

I have not heard of any issues from the diving mom's I've known over the years, other than fatigue from lack of sleep and possibly being a bit de-conditioned.

Best wishes.

boulderjohn · Oct 22, 2014

Let's say the breast milk has increased nitrogen soon after diving and the baby feeds then. What would that mean for the baby? I am having trouble thinking of a problem with that.

The problems during pregnancy are mostly theoretical, but they are serious. We are talking about bubbles passing though the fetus, including going directly from the venous side to the arterial side because the lungs are not involved and blood passes directly from the venous side of the heart to the arterial side. We are talking about the possibility of new bubble formation in the fetus. These present potentially serious problems, at least in theory.

What would be the theory behind potential problems of elevated nitrogen in breast milk?

t4e · Oct 22, 2014

your best source of information is DAN

DAN | Medical Frequently Asked Questions

DAN | Medical Frequently Asked Questions

jwelburn · Oct 22, 2014

It's recommended that there be no swimming or other water sports for six weeks after giving birth. My wife cheated that a little and went diving after five. How soon she feels up to it will be entirely up to how well her body recovers. As far as the breastfeeding goes, my wife also breast fed and we had no issues with gassy babies post-dive. The one breastfeeding consideration for her was to pump in the car right before getting to the dive site because otherwise she got too full and that was painful. While she had no issues during the dives, her breasts were tender all the time so she was just a little more gentle about getting them into her wetsuit.

susiw · Oct 22, 2014

I dived while breastfeeding. My baby didn't have an issue from it but it wasn't comfortable for me. The pressure from the water was an issue. Maybe it's because I wear a drysuit and prefer it to be snug to avoid runaway ascents. All I'm saying is that there's no reason that I'm aware of why she shouldn't try diving (I'm not a doctor) but she may not want to.

MB NZ · Oct 23, 2014

boulderjohn:
What would be the theory behind potential problems of elevated nitrogen in breast milk?

zero. babies swallow lots of nitrogen all the time!

i'm sat next to my fiancee and 3 week old right now. they've both been asleep for the past few hours. fatigue and recovery time for new mothers should not be underestimated.

RJP · Oct 23, 2014

AndrewRawlingson:
zero. babies swallow lots of nitrogen all the time!

i'm sat next to my fiancee and 3 week old right now. they've both been asleep for the past few hours. fatigue and recovery time for new mothers should not be underestimated.

Yeah, I'm thinking that potential nitrogen in breastmilk is pretty far down the list of reasons why the OP is gonna need to find a new buddy for a while.

Mscdex · Oct 23, 2014

My wife's doctor approved her to dive up to 60' while 5 months pregnant. She also went on 4 dives while breast feeding with no issues. One thing to keep in mind is that she will need time between dives to breast pump

BugHunterNY · Oct 23, 2014

Nitrogen is narcotic with increased PPO2 (while submerged) and is only harmful in the body as growing bubbles on ascent. Theoretically, any nitrogen absorbed, ingested, inhaled, etc at surface would be for all intents and purposes inert [I would think].

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Diving after pregnancy

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Octopusprime

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LeadTurn_SD

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t4e

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susiw

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MB NZ

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RJP

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