this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 2 days ago (3 children)

wtf do you need documentation for? god, fuck everything about flying

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's a health risk to the baby and the mother.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They also don’t want people giving birth on planes. Makes a bit of a mess and cleaning up delays the next flight

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Don't they need a special cleaning team, since it's a biohazard?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (4 children)

You get a bit of a dose of cosmic radiation while flying. It won't turn your baby into the Thing or give them the ability to catch on fire or turn invisible, but it could still damage the baby at a vital stage of their development.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I don’t buy that explanation. Why would that dose of radiation be more harmful to a more developed fetus?

The crew just doesn’t want to deal with a mother spontaneously giving birth, and the airline doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork of taking off with n passengers and landing with n+1. And no-one wants to find out the nationality of a baby born over the Atlantic.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Correct. As a father of four and who moved across an ocean when one of them was six months in utero it has more to do with concerns that changes in air pressure might induce early labor.

Edit: I realize this post reads like I abandoned my family when one of my kids was six months away from being born. I didn’t. But it’s a funny enough mistake that I’m not changing it.

[–] Scubus 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Eh. Should’ve got menthols.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Correct, has nothing to do with radiation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Nationality of somebody born on a plane wouldn't be a big deal as long as at least one of the parents comes from a country where lex sanguis applies. If lex solis applies (as in the USA) then they could in fact be stateless unless their parents have some other nationality.

And, if I remember correctly, the captain has the responsibility to record births and deaths on board an airplane. So you might be on to something with the paperwork.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

And no-one wants to find out the nationality of a baby born over the Atlantic.

That actually sounds incredibly fun, as a law nerd!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Bullshit. The dose is so minimal as to be inconsequential.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

after all that drama, an actual answer LOL

but still, fuck everything about flying

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Multiple people have given you actual answers that are all a part of it.

Do you thing the airline industry has no experience with this type of situation or something?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's not it at all. It's mostly the acceleration and turbulence that can potentially damage the fetus, the same reason they shouldn't ride rollercoasters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah but the cosmic rays tho

I mean have you seen what happened to the fantastic four?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In the US it depends on the airline. We went on a babymoon vacation when my partner was 30-something weeks and didn't need to provide any documentation (Alaska Airlines). She did run it by her providers first, but that wasn't an airline/TSA/FAA requirement.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How long was the flight though? Were you staying within say... three hours of travel or was it crossing the Pacific or going to like...Florida...which are both over 7hrs? The flight length and where you're travelling to can be a factor in whether they ask for documentation or not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

>2000 mile flight. Not crazy long but not short. (The state of Alaska was not involved, just the airline.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Oooh. Ok. Sorry, when I hear an airline with a specific place name my brain goes to somewhere within that place as one of the ends of the flight. It gives me an anchor point if I'm looking into flight lengths. :)

Regardless, I can see why some airlines have restrictions, especially on certain flight paths. They're not exactly equipped to handle labour if the pregnancy is high risk or something unexpected goes wrong and there's an increased chance of early labour later in pregnancy in that situation. (And it's higher if it's twins, triplets, etc. You can have multis 'on time', but you have a higher chance of going into early labour in that case to begin with.) And if you're say...halfway across the Pacific or Atlantic you don't really have a lot of options in any kind of emergency situation. Whereas if the flight is from LA to Toronto you have a lot of places you can land in a situation like that.

It never hurts to discuss and check in with your trusted medical provider(s) at that stage of pregnancy or if you're in the high risk category (or if you have other non-pregnancy conditions that might put you at an increased risk). Forearmed - with knowledge in this case - is forewarned, right! :)