soontobethin

Hello to everyone. Some friends and I are (were!) flying out to Auckland on Friday of this week. However, my friend was 36 weeks pregnant and fit for flying when all of a sudden....out pops baby!!! With only 3 days to the flight, obviously she has had to cancel her flights and is going to rebook as soon as possible. Her husband was due to start his new job next Monday. Of course everyone at this end is ecstatic to welcome the new arrival, however, my friend has a few concerns regarding the upcoming trip to NZ.

1) How soon after giving birth (healthy baby) should she brave the flight?

2) What kind...if any.... of visa will the new baby require? They are coming over on a work to residence visa.

As she is still in hospital, I have told her that I will find out as much as I can for her before I fly out on Friday, so speedy replies would be appreciated
Thankyou in advance
Lynda xxx

BEVS

There is no standard minimum age restriction for babies flying on aircraft. These restrictions are set by individual airlines

Some thought should be given to baby's very delicate earholes, as flying can cause pain in babies' ears due to pressure. Horrible to listen to a young infant in this type of distress.

Make very sure the babe is registered as a British citizen & has his/her birth cert. before he/she leaves British soil.


Do these folks have a Permanent Residence visa then or is this a temporary work visa?

From the NZIS website

For clarity this means that if the person has been granted the visa but has not yet arrived to activate the permit. So as your friend is still int he UK she should be looking at the above... and yes.. I know it's a bit mental for a babes photo in a UK passport as they change so quickly but them's the rules. LO

bourbon-biscuit

Yes, I've been on more than one flight with a young baby who was clearly suffering

scrubbedexpat094

As women in pregnancy & the post-partum period are at higher risk of having a DVT, I would certainly advise her waiting until she has had her 6 week postnatal check & has been given the all clear by the doctor. As the baby is slightly premature (we class term as 37 weeks), I would wait for this reason too. I vaguely remember some research on flying with babies & how it affects not only their ears but their immature lungs too! The recommendation was not to fly with a baby less than 1yr. However, that is somewhat impractical for your friend!!!!! I suggest she gets some guidance from the consultant paed at her hospital.

HTH. Congratulations to your friend BTW

JAJ

Could have been worse if child had arrived mid-flight. Medical risks aside, it would be no fun for child to go through life without a birth certificate or any official place of birth.

British birth certificate, British passport + probably the same visa as the parents.

scrubbedexpat094

I'm gob-smacked that any airline would accept anyone so late in pregnancy to fly, especially on a long-haul flight.

I always tell my OH not to mention I'm a midwife when we are travelling anywhere & we spot someone who's PG

Rustie

I believe she will also need to get the baby a passport of it's own.

LOHDYNA

I flew to New Zealand with my Baby Boy when he was 5 weeks old and i had a section. You can ask for assistance if you need it, The baby was fine and fed and slept most of the way. We had the most amazing help from the hostess's who seem to know exactly when i needed a drink of water or fresh wipes or flannels. This was 12 years ago so he was on my passport but i would think you need one for the baby now as the others said.
12 years later and we are now waiting for results on our ITA to go back to stay.
Good Luck and Congratulations

gvbjersey

Congratulations to your friend.
We were told to get a passport for our daughter even though we were travelling between Jersey and the UK so would assume its the same for longhaul to a different continent. 9 months later the photo doesn't resemble her anymore anyway but its still valid.

My wife was told that any flight travel after 32 weeks would require a doctors note (but that could be airline specific). We didn't want to travel with our daughter too young anyway but now at 13 months old, she has had 3 flights and was a little darling on all of them. Would suggest seeing what medical advice you can get, what the airlines position, is and take it from there.
Good luck.

TeamEmbo

This is what worried me about a recent poster flying at 36 weeks and having two stops (Dubai and Melbourne I think). It would be awful if baby arrived during transit at either of those, not because of the places themselves but the complications, delays and being somewhere so unfamiliar. My first pregnancy went swimmingly - not complications expected at all - till the last bit when baby got distressed and I had to have emergency c-section. It was bad enough in familiar hospital with family around.

BEVS

It concerned me too and I haven't had any children. As JAJ states,

kiwinow

Wow. I thought you weren't allowed to travel after 28 weeks, but obviously wrong. The good thing about little babies is that you can breastfeed them when descending in the plane and this does the same as sucking a sweet does for adult's ears. It might be an idea for your friend to get a doctor's opinion on when to fly, but I'm not sure a newborn is any more at risk than any other and probably more likely to sleep much of the way. They might need to book a cradle thing though, unless they plan to take turns holding the baby all the way, which might not be a bad idea.

strawbie

HI, we flew out to Nz with stops in dubai, singapore and brisbane when our 3rd child was 8 weeks old. Obviously you do need a passport, when you check in you can request a seat with a cot/basinette. I think its recommended any passenger is up to date with immunisations,etc so i spoke to the nurse practitioner at our surgery when i was still pregnant and she arranged that our baby could have its first lot of injections at 6-7weeks. I did breastfeed which makes things so much easier in that situation, she didn't bother at all on any flight with taking off, etc and i think we had 10 flights to contend with by the time we returned back home! of course all babies are different and i think we were fortunate she is very laid back and just fed and slept! Good luck to your friend, she'll be fine!

soontobethin

Thanks for all your replies and congratulations, and just for info purposes, she is the 'recent poster' who was intending to fly at 36 weeks. She and baby are fine and will be travelling out to NZ after her 6 week check. The chances are, the stress of the move brought on early labour. Lynda x

Am Loolah

Far better to have delivered a little early than en route! Glad mother and baby are well. Probably for the best to have happened like this really as she presumably still has friends and family there to support and celebrate with.

Give her BE's congrats.

Will her husband's work hold on 6 weeks for him to start or do they want him out earlier?