Flying With Morning Sickness: A Survival Guide

Are you considering flying with morning sickness? I suffered terrible morning sickness when I was pregnant with both of my children and had to fly several times when suffering. For me, not travelling during pregnancy was not an option. I have to travel regularly for work and if I was doing that I was sure going to travel for pleasure! This meant I was going to have to learn to deal with flying and morning sickness. Here our my top tips for flying with morning sickness.

Flying with Morning sickness

Note: I’m not saying you should travel while suffering from morning sickness and a doctor should always be consulted.

But if like me you have no choice but to travel while morning sick here are my top tips for surviving  flying and morning sickness.

I do mean surviving because when flying with morning sickness, this is the best outcome you can hope for:

Top 10 Tips for flying and morning sickness survival!

Flying with morning sickness – traveling with morning sickness

 I never had that lovely pregnancy glow – just the morning sickness sweats! There wasn’t a toilet within a ten mile radius that I hadn’t stuck my head down.

You see I was one of those unfortunate people that suffered morning sickness until my third trimester. I had a brief period of restate before it had an encore.

On top of that, my morning sickness was more a morning, noon and night sickness having more oral expulsions than Krakatoa!

So when flying I really learnt all the tricks for dealing with morning sickness – here are the top 10 things you should consider if you are worried about having morning sickness on a plane:

1. Fly Business or First

Qatar Airways Business Class while pregnant

If at all possible fly business or first. I did both of these while pregnant and these journeys were far more pleasurable than when I was back in economy. But let’s face it – this is an option many of us can’t afford when travelling on our own dime.

2. Check out the seat configuration of the plane and choose your seat wisely. 

Flying with morning sickness – traveling with morning sickness

There is an art form to picking the perfect seat while suffering from morning sickness. An aisle seat is a must!

It’s better anyway to help prevent deep vein thrombosis. It will help for all those joyous trips to the bathroom that pregnancy gives you.

If for some reason you can’t get one, it’s always worth asking fellow passengers. In my experience, no one wants to be vomited on!

You definitely want to be close to the toilets in case your body gives you a five second warning about impending vom! But if bad toilet smells – yep we’ve all been on that flight – or toilet chemicals are your trigger then maybe give yourself a couple of rows leeway. Fortunately for me, neither of these were my triggers.

I always opted for an aisle row seat just in front of the bathroom next to the galley. It is always worth checking these seats, as on many planes these are in a two person configuration, which means if you have a midair-seatbelt-sign-on incident, only your partner is going to have to suffer watching you hurl in a little paper bag

3. Hoard the barf bags!

Thankfully present on all flights, these little bags will become your best friend. It is always worth having more than one with you, just in case and these always feature on our babymoon packing lists. 

Now the biggest tip I have, which was given to me by an ex-stewardess friend, is always carry a good supply of ziploc bags. These are great for times when you have no sick bags .

But they are also great for those midair-seatbelt-sign-on incidents. You can put away your lovely bag of vomit discretely and trap in all those lovely aromas at the same time. Your fellow passengers are definitely going to thank you for that one!

Don’t forget to grab a couple of unused barf bags on your way off. I always kept a healthy supply of these in my handbag!

4. Bring on your own food. 

For me, food smells were my biggest trigger for morning sickness so I always carried on food for me and my hubby to limit the amount of airplane food odours around me and make sure I had something with me I knew I could stomach.

For me, this meant a healthy supply of salt and vinegar crisps in the early days and some mints for breath freshener.

5. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate! 

traveling with morning sickness / morning sickness on a plane

I always informed the stewardess at the beginning of the flight about my pregnancy and asked for them to bring me a bottle of water. They never said no and I was always given a large bottle as it would save them time during a flight.

For more tips on how to stay hydrated on a plane check out this dedicate post. 

6. Sleep, sleep and more sleep

Easier said than done I know but if at all all possible try to rest. Travel can be exhausting anyway, let alone travelling while pregnant but I found the better rested I was, the more I was able to deal with the sickness.

7. Extra clothes and tie that hair up  

I doubt this one needs extra explanation but in case it does …

Be sure to pack yourself extra clothes in case there are any accidents on the plane and I find when suffering from morning sickness whether you are traveling or not you should tie your hair up to prevent getting any vomit in it. Eww I know! 

8. Remember your meds or any remedies doctor has prescribed

Sometimes depending on the severity of the morning sickness too will be prescribed medication to deal with your morning sickness.

If you have them be sure to pack them in your hand luggage along with any other medication your doctor has prescribed and any vitamins you may be taking to ensure you have them to hand on the flight

Flying with Morning Sickness Conclusion

So these are my top tips for flying while morning sick. During my pregnancy I travelled to 10 countries. I did a few long haul flights all with success.

Flying and morning sickness is never going to be a pleasurable experience but I hope, that if you have decided to or need to travel while suffering from morning sick, these tips will help.

Other Traveling with Morning Sickness Tips

As you have probably gathered from this guide the thought of having morning sickness on a plane didn’t stop me traveling with morning sickness. Actually we covered some serious ground when I was pregnant so why not check out some of our other babymoon or pregnancy travel guides:

• Babymoon Tips & Ideas 
• Winter babymoon ideas
• Cruising While Pregnant
• Babymoon in Dubai Guide
• Zika Free Beach Destination
• Best US Babymoons
• Best UK Babymoons

Do you have any tips for surviving flying and morning sickness?