Pregnancy and Travel: The Risks of Hepatitis and Scuba Diving

To the Editor.—  I enjoyed the excellent article by Drs Barry and Bia¹ entitled "Pregnancy and Travel," but as a hyperbaricist and scuba diving instructor/ trainer, I am concerned about their discussion on pregnancy and scuba diving. Their statement that "scuba diving to depths greater than 18 m (60 ft) is not considered safe" could be construed to imply that diving to lesser depths is safe for the pregnant diver, a position that is questionable.Though the studies they quoted on sheep fetuses showed no decompression sickness, sheep are often more resistant to decompression sickness than are humans, and studies involving other animal models have shown the fetus to be more sensitive to decompression sickness." Bolton and Alamo⁵ have shown severe damage to animal fetuses exposed to pressurization, even when the mother did not develop decompression sickness. Human survey data indicate that though the respondents dove to an