When going for gorilla trekking while pregnant, you should inform the park wardens or the tour operator you are using in advance so that they will arrange for you a good driver, allocate a gorilla family and do many other things for your advantage.
During the morning briefing when they give you guidelines of gorilla trekking and start allocating groups, make sure you let them know your condition because during allocation they consider age, physical abilities, pregnant women and so much more. Youthful tourists can be allocated to a challenging group to hike while old and vulnerable people will be allocated to easy groups to find.
When the trekking gets very hard you are advised to use sedan seat stretchers, you will be carried all the way to see mountain gorillas and back to the starting point and the cost is $400. You will only be put down during gorilla observation time. When trekking gorillas while pregnant, you will also need to communicate to the lodge so that they offer you special services on meals, bed arrangement and so forth or you can also tell your tour operator and they will communicate to the lodge.
If one is trekking mountain gorillas while pregnant it is advisable for them to board a flight to the park especially if your trekking in Uganda because Bwindi impenetrable forest national park and Mgahinga national park are about 10-12 hours drive on bumpy roads from Entebbe international airport and that is a very long distance for a pregnant woman to travel by road. The flight takes about only 2 hours.
Upon arrival to Kisoro or Kihihi airstrip, you must try to book a land cruiser to drop you to the hotel because they are more comfortable though costly. While booking your gorilla permit you should do so in Buhoma or Rushaga sector because they have gorilla families which are easy to find.
Mountain gorilla trekking can be done while pregnant but one should be very cautious with the risks involved and enough planning must be done before engaging in gorilla trekking while pregnant. Below are some of the risks involved with trekking gorillas while pregnant.
Mountain gorillas live on higher elevations which can be very steep in most cases, trekking mountain gorillas will require physical fitness which a pregnant woman might not have this might cause a miscarriage due too much exercise involved in the trekking.
Mountain gorillas also live in tropical and sub tropical rain forests which weather sometimes can become unpredictable, you might just lose your pregnancy after a heavy rain during trekking or you might miss a step and fall because the trails become muddy and slippery when it rains.
In conclusion gorilla trekking while pregnant is not a good idea it’s better to wait until after birth or if you insist then inform the park authorities or your travel agent about you situation in advance so that they will organize for you better options for gorilla trekking.
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