Skiing Niseko while pregnant?

[Jill5150]

Hi Ladies!

I am planning to visit Niseko for a few days mid-February as part of a "baby moon" to Japan. Sadly, I've pretty much written off skiing this season as I am pregnant (and live in FL so can't just hit the slopes on the weekend) but I have ALWAYS wanted to ski in Japan and really want to do some light skiing while we are there. I will be 27 weeks pregnant when we would be there.

As I have never been to Niseko, I am curious about how the terrain is and what challenges I might face there. For reference, we usually ski at Vail, Beaver, or Park City and I tend to stick to blue runs where I feel very confident. I have heard that Niseko isn't particularly steep but there can be lots of powder (and sometimes lots of crowds....but I guess that's relative?). We'll be there mid-week so hopefully less crowded than the weekend. Also bringing our own gear (hope my boots still fit!) so there will be a level of familiarity with that as well.

Anyway, I would love any opinions/advice on this plan. Great idea? Horrible idea?

 

[Jilly]

What does your medical team say? I know they may not be skiers and don't understand the need. But at 27 weeks how will you be for balance.

 

[Obrules15]

I've got to say that that is a remarkable bad idea on SO, SO many levels.

1. Trauma in pregnancy is a remarkable different and difficult topic. You can have permanent fetal harm and death from seemingly mild trauma's/falls.
2. Severe morbidity and mortality can occur from shearing forces with no direct abdominal trauma (sliding butt fall).
3. In emergent situations we usually say baby needs to be out in 30 minutes (and that's a stretch-in a massive placental accident you may only have 6-10 minutes), if you fall (that's a cause of massive placental accidents) do you really think you can get down the mountain and to the hospital in under 30 minutes.
4. In an area that far off the beaten path, even if you do go to the hospital they will not know what to do for you.
5. If you have to be delivered at that gestational age the morbidity free survival is only around 30%, and even if you do get to a hospital, the chance that they will have a level 3 NICU capable of resuscitating a 27 wk infant is very low.

From a skiing perspective your risk for a fall is increased because:
1. Your COM is changing daily because the size of the baby is changing daily.
2. Your boots will not fit.
3. Powder changes things and those runs will feel nothing like the blue runs you feel comfortable on.

No--just no! Not worth the risk.

 

[newboots]

Welcome, @Jill5150 !

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I’m a recent grandmother and reliving the joy right now.

Have you ever been pregnant before? If so, the idea of poor balance, fear of falling, and swollen feet will be familiar.

Whether you have or haven’t, listen closely to @Obrules15 if you haven’t guessed, she is an obstetrician and a skier. And knows her stuff.

Welcome to motherhood, where you learn all about making joy-filled sacrifices daily for this new little life inside you.

And welcome to the forum! We are so happy to have you here! Where do you usually ski?

 

[Kimmyt]

I skied during one pregnancy and not during another (well, I skied during another as well but the baby didn't make it due to unrelated issues). The one I didn't ski during was because winter was the latter half of the pregnancy, and I felt I would be ungainly and uncomfortable and therefore it could be dangerous to myself or the child. The second pregnancy, I skied, because it was a summer baby and so I was pregnant for the first half of the pregnancy. I told myself I would only ski if I felt physically comfortable on skis and if I felt off balance or just didn't feel right I would do something else. I did do some light solo touring and snowshoeing on the pregnancy that I didn't really resort ski, because I felt good getting outside in the cold. My concerns with your situation (and obvs I'm no OB, so take my opinion w a grain of salt) is that you don't ski often, and then to jump into skiing in unfamiliar and possibly dangerous terrain in the beginnings of the third trimester seems like a recipe for disaster. My balance and physical ability was very changed toward the end of each pregnancy, and if I were to do a sport I didn't do much the rest of the pregnancy, it would be really difficult I think, which would also make the risk of fall greater (and falls when pregnant suck because not only do you have the baby to think of but your ligaments are looser due to the relaxin in your body). My advice would be to go, enjoy the trip and culture, maybe find some snowshoeing in that beautiful scenery. Sit in one of those hot springs (check with ob, but my ob was fine with me going to hot springs as long as i didn't go in the very hottest pools and i wasnt so hot I was lightheaded).

 

[santacruz skier]

I would listen to @Obrules15.

 

[Pequenita]

A way to think about this is (1) would you ski in Colorado at 28 weeks if given the opportunity, and why or why not, and (2) do you have contacts in Japan/speak Japanese, etc., if something went very sideways and you needed immediate medical attention and an advocate.

 

[KBee]

I can't give medical advice, but, I do absolutely LOVE Japan, and can't recommend it enough. It's one of the nicest, sweetest places on Earth. That sounds trite, but it's just--so lovely. I hope you get to enjoy every moment either way!

 

[ilovepugs]

For what it’s worth, I read the subject line of this post and my trauma surgeon husband immediately reacted “that’s a terrible idea.”

 

[WaterGirl]

@Jill5150 I cant really give advice but we have a saying - The ocean isn’t going anywhere. If you miss a day of epic surf b/c of some issue, well there will be another day. Nesiko isn’t going anywhere either. However, you are only pregnant for less than a year - a realatively short period of time in your life. Enjoy your pregnancy. I do know women who have had great pregnancies keeping active in their respective sports. But they were not traveling and scaled things way back. Despite being in competitive athletic shape, I did not have an easy pregnancy.

 

[ski diva]

Okay, time for me to put my oar in the water.

We've had a few threads about skiing while pregnant. If you do a search, I'm sure you'll find them. In a nutshell, there've been a number of forum members who've skied while pregnant -- many of them proudly, and many who felt it was fine. And for them, it was fine.

I'd like to tell you my story.

I was pregnant when I was 25. I went full term, and the baby was delivered stillbirth. It was not because of anything that I did (there were heart issues). I know this, intellectually. But as you can imagine, it was horribly traumatic, and I felt guilty, emotionally, for many, many years.

A year later I gave birth to a daughter. With heart issues, which we did not discover til she was 9 months old. She was in and out of the hospital for years and had open heart when she was two (also again when she was 32, but that's another story). Again, it was not my fault. There were no heart problems in the family on either side, and it was just one of those things.

What does this have to do with skiing? Nothing and everything. I just know that I went through a terrible time because of things I could not control. If there was something I could control that would affect the health and safety of my child when I was pregnant -- and this is where skiing comes in -- I wouldn't do it. Skiing is a risk. We're aware of it while we're skiing, and it's one we're willing to assume because we're passionate about the sport.. But it's a risk to us, alone. When you're pregnant, it's a different story. We're risking someone else, too. My thinking: It doesn't hurt to sit out a season. It's just one in a lifetime of seasons. But right now, the things you're doing can have far reaching implications. Skiing will still be there when you're not pregnant.

I don't mean to scare the original poster. Things have changed a lot over the years in terms of detecting physical abnormalities, and I'm sure you'll/she'll be fine. And really, what you do when you're pregnant is your own business. But after going through what I went through, I wouldn't want to open myself to any additional risks. Pregnancy itself is enough of a risk, all by itself.

But that's me.

 

[Cantabrigienne]

If the OP has already booked this trip to Niseko, I'm pretty confident there are less strenuous options available now (and all in English - the place is overrun with Australians and Anglophone Hong Kongers & Singaporeans...but equally, that doesn't mean that emergency care is readily available in English.) Snowshoeing, hot springs....there's nothing more magical than being in a rotenburo while the snow is falling (the official caution against visiting hot springs while pregnant was lifted a while back)

I haven't skied in Niseko since 2006 but I'd offer up a couple of points about the resort:
- Activity levels are driven by holidays in China (and by extension Hong Kong & Singapore) + most critically, Australia, not by weekend traffic. If you go mid-week during the Lunar New Year period, I can only imagine it's like a zoo. In mid-Feb you'll miss the Aussies but might get the tail end of China etc visitors as Lunar New Year is Feb 5th & many people take their long holiday of the year then.
- The mountain is pretty small, even tho it's divided into 4 different operators (800 acres or maybe 1/7th of Vail..... my best guess is that it would all fit into the area covered by Mountaintop Express at Vail). It's mostly about the off-piste (or between-piste tree areas) tho, for the Aussies afaik - search out "Strawberry Fields Niseko" and you'll get an idea
- There seem to be 10x more international visitors than a decade ago, but without any corresponding increase in lift-serviced area so I can imagine it might be relatively crowded now.
- Most of the terrain is pretty gentle: You can find incredibly detailed information like average & steepest gradient of each run on the Niseko lift map (and then the only challenge is figuring out how that compares with the runs you know well at Vail, Park City etc!)

Other things to keep in mind:
- Is the OP going to adhere to standard western medical advice and not eat raw seafood while in Japan? That would be *such* a waste, it's seriously amazing and would just add to the pain - to not partake in bountiful powder AND not eat cheap excellent sushi. I guess you could eat a lot of good ramen but I'd still feel like I was missing out fully half the point of a trip to Hokkaido if I couldn't eat sushi.
- My sister reported an interesting chat with someone at Whistler (our home mountain) whose wife wasn't skiing while pregnant + he said her POV was *if* something happened, it would put her off skiing for the rest of her life and she didn't want to ruin skiing for herself.
- Go to Japan in the future with little ones in tow!!!! It's such an amazing place to visit with kids - so much less stressful because everything is clean, efficient, orderly + even the most humble little places have great service. Lift tickets are CHEAP (like US$50/day). Even public toilets make it easier - stalls have a safety seat where you can park your infant or toddler while you pee (in response to falling birthrate, small things they've put in place to make parenting easier)

 

[lisamamot]

@Jill5150 - congratulations on your pregnancy! A baby moon sounds wonderful. That said, from one who has experienced a late term loss (twins just shy of 23 weeks) due to an undiagnosed medical issue, my perspective is you do not want to put yourself in the position where you could potentially look back and blame yourself if something awful happened as a result of a preventable situation.