Traveling While Pregnant – Blanka Celej from Safari_Mustang

The devil is not as black as he is painted – a few words about pregnancy and traveling with a roof tent! 

For many of us, pregnancy means saying goodbye to certain activities for health reasons, although very often it is also a simple inconvenience caused by a growing belly. In fact, our bodies change quite dynamically during this period and despite many difficulties, I decided not to give up my previous activities during pregnancy. Is it possible to travel and use a rooftop tent while pregnant?

Of course it is possible! But remember – this is an individual decision for each woman! First of all, assess your physical abilities. While in the first trimester, when the belly is not yet making itself felt, using a roof tent and traveling in a vanlife style seems easy, the end of pregnancy is a much more demanding period. However, the most important thing is the attitude and observing your body, so as to best understand what it needs at a given moment! From my own experience, I know how important it is to take care of comfort and rest throughout pregnancy. My body allowed me to enjoy the charms of spending time in a camper, but there were days on our trips when instead of a comfortable sleep in a tent, I had to use a car seat 😉 Unfortunately, there are times during pregnancy when you can only sleep in a sitting position! Here are my tips to make traveling with a belly much less burdensome:

• The most important thing on the route is to stop and warm up your limbs. 
• Be sure to check the length of the routes you choose – we have postponed long journeys for the future 🙂 
• Try to look for places to stay with good access to toilets. 
• Prepare your sleeping area so that you are always ready to go to the toilet 😉
• Remember that you can easily fit a pregnancy pillow in a roof tent. However, if you don’t have room for it at all, your partner can be a good substitute 🙂

My pregnancy was easy, so at first I could afford longer trips, but only around Poland – we even managed to get to the first edition of OFFLANDER CAMP, where we integrated and explored the charms of beautiful Karpacz. Of course, while driving and sleeping in a tent were no problem, Kuba went off-roading alone. Unfortunately, this is quite a risky pastime for pregnant women. In the last trimester, we managed to meet up with friends for small trips in Wisła and the area around Kazimierz Dolny. At that time, we also organized a local edition of Regional Overlanding. Although I was not able to go on the scenic route then either, I still tried to make the most of the time spent with the teams on a joint camping trip. I encourage you all to spend your time actively during pregnancy – remember that limitations are only in our heads!

photo authors: Maciek Surgiel Slowtravelerpl, Patrycja Wróbel Hit-on-the-road