Is it okay to go on a roller coaster while you're pregnant?
There are no studies out there that say amusement park rides, including roller coasters, bumper cars, the Whip, etc., are dangerous during pregnancy but not many women are willing to be in a study to see if repeatedly riding Kingda Ka at Six Flags will cause them to miscarry.
The concern is with the rapid starts and stops and jarring motions that occur with these types of rides which could lead to premature separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus.
Honestly, from everything I've read, it seems pretty hard to knock something loose that wasn't going to knock loose anyway but amusement parks and doctors aren't willing to risk giving you the green light then have you sue them if you miscarry.
So until we get a bunch of women saying "Sure, I'll ride the bumper cars for a week straight to see if my baby survives" you're SOL on the side lines holding everybody's bags while they ride the Tower of Terror.
Might I suggest picking through their wallets and getting yourself cotton candy? It's not an amusement ride but it is amusing.
search: amusement park pregnant, carnival rides pregnant, roller coasters pregnant, bumper cars pregnant
11 Comments
Reader Comments (11)
This reminds me of an episode of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" where a woman rode a bunch of roller coasters during her third trimester and ended up going into preterm labor and delivering her baby (that she didn't know she was expecting) in the amusement park bathroom stall. I think it just like fell in the toilet or something. It was quite the episode!
I am always blown away by people who don't know they are pregnant AND who don't know they are giving birth. How is this possible?!?
I'd give them an eye roll but I'm just too jealous.
I went to Disneyland at about 3 months into my pregnancy, it was a big planned family trip, with my parents and siblings and all of my nieces and nephews. We had a great trip. I rode whatever I wanted... but did spend time taking it easy too meaning I didn't ride all day and I didn't ride rides over and over again. I am chubby so I figured the baby had plenty of padding. I was delivered at 39 weeks... no problems in my pregnancy. So who knows.
My husband's office had a Six Flags outing when I was 2 months pregnant. Everything was paid for and we'd been looking forward to it for months, so I decided what the hell, I'll try at least one ride. After test-riding the first coaster and finding out that it made me neither nauseous or uncomfortable, I decided to ride every single roller coaster at the park that day (luckily for us there were no crowds). I'm now 7 months pregnant with a healthy baby girl... Would I ride heavily pregnant? No, but I would do it again in my first trimester.
Oh....I LOVE rollercoasters and would ride them all day if the lines were so darn long. Unfortunately the thought of riding one right now makes me nauseated. Of course, moving at all makes me nauseated these days. Even talking sometimes makes me gag.
I've watched that show "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" and part of me gets a bit jealous but then I figure that they had to be in pretty bad shape to begin with if pregnancy signs were just part and parcel of their everyday lives.
I rode my Harley in my first trimester (against DR.s orders) and had a healthy, 9 lb baby at 41 wks, I'm pretty sure a bunch of men come up with all this crap.
I road all the rides at dollywood when I was a few weeks my son is three years now
I'm a big fan of kingda ka, having ridden it 10 times in a row some days. I once knew a person who was 4 months pregnant, went on it, and was fine. So who knows....
So...if you ride BEFORE you're placenta is formed...then theoretically you should be fine right?? lol
At 3 months along, I went to Disneyland with my big brother and his wife for his 40th birthday (the husband isn't really a Disney kind of guy, but didn't want to keep me from going). The only rides I sidelined out of caution were, yes, the Tower of Terror, California Screamin', the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. With just the three of us "adults" having the kid-free freedom to essentially run through the parks for two days unencumbered, I had absolutely no feelings of insecurity about the rides I made the choice to go on - my brother is also a military trained RN working nights in the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital where we live. A better amusement park companion there isn't. I have always been very athletic and simply held my body weight off certain seats so that I was in control of my body movements a little more than intended for the average rider. Frankly, the running around was harder on my bod than any ride I ventured. A bit of sitting around in line did my back plenty of favors on that trip.
Of course, I guess I hadn't had the last of my pre-kid amusement park trips because my husband wanted to visit friends of ours in Florida so we planned two days at the Universal Studios parks in Orlando just last weekend. Needless to say, other than leaving just the roller coasters alone, there wasn't a single ride I didn't feel was safe. That Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride was worth the price of admission all by itself. Totally great. We had our big 20 week ultrasound just a few days after arriving home (which was just a few days ago now) and found out that we have a perfectly perfect little GIRL in the hopper. I suppose that if I did not get pregnant while already in very good physical shape, I might make different choices. For my personal situation, however, I remained well within my comfort zone. She's all set to be my little roller coaster buddy one day!
I have to say I was one of those women who did not know they were pregnant until very late in their pregnancy. I was pregnant all summer and went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Worlds of Fun Kansas City, and Adventureland Des Moines often. Fortunately, I only experienced any kind of problems on spinning rides (who knew that spinning around while pregnant will make a woman throw up:-P). My son was born the following January and has had no problems. I didn't have any issues throughout the pregnancy and he is a happy, wild two year old.