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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Our last 18 hours in Thailand...

So one thing we hadn't mentioned before is that our airline (Etihad Airways) asks that when flying after 28 weeks pregnant, we provide letter from a doctor to say Sarah was 'fit to fly'.
 We had gone to the local hospital in Pattaya the week before departure to get a check-up from a doctor. After explaining our situation and telling her what we needed, she told us that she could not legally write such a letter after 28 weeks. No matter our protest, she wouldn't be swayed. We left the hospital worried, but by God's grace we met an American woman an hour or so later who said she flew at 31 weeks with no problem. We hoped for the same...

On Thursday morning we arrived at the airport around 5am. We checked in our bags and were about to be handed our boarding passes and passports when the lady peered down and noticed Sarah's now pertruding bump! "Oh, I see you're pregnant". She then asked how far along she was and went on to explain the airline's policy on flying after 28 weeks.

We explained the whole situation, telling her the due date and that we had no letter.  She then went and spoke to her supervisor...

(At this point Sarah was trying her best to suck in her belly to look the least pregnant she could... lets just say its not exactly do-able! :)

When the lady came back from her supervisor, she said that Sarah would not be able to fly until she did get a letter approving it. Luke saw the look of complete panic in Sarah's face and began re-telling the story and asked to talk to the supervisor. At this point Sarah let Luke do the talking.. She thinks she would have just begged through tears!

The supervisor asked to see any documentation proving the due date. Thankfully we had bought that with us! He then took a photocopy of the form and even though all it said was who the midwife was, the address of the health centre, and the due date, somehow this made everything okay! He handed us our passports and told us to have a safe flight!! WOW, talk about a trial! Sarah began breathing again, and actually had aching stomach muscles from sucking in so long ;)

Well, we made it on both flights, and after 20 hours of travelling, we were greeted at Heathrow airport by six lovely familiar faces :). thanks 'Woods'!

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