Can You Go Tubing On A Boat While Pregnant?

Pregnant women have lots of questions regarding what they can do and what not when pregnant. Thus, they want to know if they can boat? Go tubing? While pregnant. What are the risks or precautions to be taken, and so on?

First and foremost, one needs to understand that pregnancy is not a disease, and thus it should not be treated like one. Hence, pregnancy does not mean giving up all the activities. Instead, it is something that must be celebrated, but in the right way.

Though it is not a disease, but neither is it a regular physiological state. Making things further complicated are the many changes that occur during the pregnancy, both in the womb and in a female body.

As a result, it is a very dynamic process. So, let’s say a pregnancy of 20 days differs significantly from a pregnancy of 200 days.

Can you go tubing while pregnant?

The answer here depends on the kind of tubing that is under discussion. Tubing is a recreational activity loved by many. Some may do it regularly, especially if they live near the river, lake, or sea.

Others may do it casually during holidays. Tubing is about sitting on a tube and being towed by a boat or other kind of watercraft.

Tubing may be slow, like that on a lazy river. However, in most cases, when people talk about tubing, they mean tubing at high speed, perhaps being towed by a speed boat. So, the answer there would be “No”. Most kinds of tubing would pose a significant threat of miscarriage, trauma, or preterm birth.

Tubing is a very dynamic activity, and traumas during tubing are not rare. However, pregnancy is not a condition when one wants to expose her body to such a risk, even if the risk is minimal.

Tubing and early pregnancy

Here it is vital to understand that the risk would depend on many factors, but it would particularly depend on the length of the pregnancy.

Women tend to be quite careless in the early stages of pregnancy. It is true that, for many, the first few weeks are tough due to pregnancy-related toxicity. However, that is not always true.

Many women learn about their pregnancy only with the help of a pregnancy test, as they do not have many other signs. Thus, many women tend to be careless during the first few weeks.

If there is no early toxicity, one may ask that could be a possible risk for a person just a few weeks pregnant and a fetus is just a size of a pea? In such a case, one should remember that early days are the high-risk days. Studies show that almost 80% of all miscarriages occur in the first trimester.

It means that one should start taking precautions from the very early days of pregnancy. It means avoiding jerky motions, lifting heavy weights, traveling at high speeds, participating in adventure sports, and so on.

One needs to be careful from day one. Thus, tubing at high speed is a big no, even if someone has learned about pregnancy just a few days back.

Tubing and later stages of pregnancy

In the second stage of pregnancy, many women are likely to become careless. Most things might be going well at this stage, and early signs of toxicity are over. However, during this period fetus is growing fast, and thus, swift motion is still not allowed.

Finally, in the third-trimester bump is already quite large. It means that there is a significant risk of trauma due to a direct hit. Moreover, many women struggle to stay steady due to increased body weight. Thus, it is very important to avoid jerky motions and falls at this stage. This may cause many complications or preterm birth and other issues.

Additionally, the third trimester poses another challenge as maternity life jackets do not exist. It means that those who are not good at swimming should better stay away from such activities in which the risk of drowning is relatively high.

Of course, what pregnant women can do during most of the pregnancy is they can just enjoy boating. But, of course, one should still get a green light from a doctor.

In some high-risk pregnancies, extreme precaution needs to be practiced at almost every stage of pregnancy.

Generally, during pregnancy, one can also enjoy sailing and kayaking, but again, one should take all the safety measures, including wearing a life jacket.

Final thoughts

To sum up, pregnancy is not a reason to give up physical activities. On the contrary, studies show that women who stay active during most of their pregnancy are less likely to have issues during the later stages of pregnancy.

In addition, physically active women are also less likely to have problems when giving birth, as they have stronger pelvic muscles.

However, not every kind of physical activity is good during pregnancy. Any activity which involves speed, risk of accidents, and jerky motion, must be avoided.

Thus, one can engage in slow tubing, but if a power boat is towing the tube, then it should be avoided. Hence, lazy tubing at a slow speed is safe, but not if the tube is being towed at high speed.

So, if you love water activities or water sports, you can still enjoy most of these activities. However, one just needs to practice some cautions. One needs to give up some of the activities like white water rafting, tubing using a speed boat, and so on.

But, one can enjoy swimming, sailing, boating, kayaking, going on a cruise, and other water activities. But, of course, one must take some additional precautions.