Konga Travel and Tours, a 21st century lifestyle travel booking agency, has disclosed the best time to travel for pregnant women and intending mothers.

According to Konga Travel, choosing the best time to travel is essential owing to the need to avert complications in pregnancy which may harm the mother and unborn child. Further, the company has revealed that the first trimester and the end of the third trimester are associated with problems that a pregnant woman would do well to avoid, hence it has advised against heavy activities such as travelling during these periods.

‘‘The best time to travel during pregnancy is between week 14 and week 28,’’ Konga Travel disclosed in a knowledge-sharing piece circulated to its customer base.

Continuing, the piece, which references facts from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, affirms that: ‘‘Peak pregnancy problems occur in the first and towards the end of the third trimesters. During mid-pregnancy, your energy has returned, morning sickness usually is gone, and it is still easy to get around. Paying attention to the way you feel is the best guide for your activities.’’

Indeed, the advice from Konga Travel comes in handy for thousands of Nigerian women who usually engage in birth tourism. Equally important, birth tourism refers to the practice of traveling to another country for the purpose of giving birth in that country. The main reason for birth tourism is to obtain citizenship for the child in a country with birth-right citizenship.

Research indicates that as much as 23 percent of pregnant Nigerian women insist on having their children abroad. Consequently, birth tourism has become a big business, running into $28bn annually.

Equally important, statistics from the Medical Tourism Association holds that “23 percent of Nigeria’s population has access to a combined buying power in excess of US28 billion dollars, mostly made up of professional and middle-class Nigerians whose desire to seek privileges such as better health care services or simply dual citizenship options for their child/children is on the rise.’’

In addition, the Konga Travel advisory serves as useful information for women whose jobs involve a lot of mobility and who may find themselves having to travel a lot.

Konga Travel is Nigeria’s foremost omni-channel travel booking company.

Having emerged on the scene less than two years ago, Konga Travel, which was recently named the Most Innovative Agency by global airline, Virgin Atlantic, has distinguished itself. Within a short space of its existence, the company has grown nearly 25% on a month-on-month basis, acquired all the requisite and major travel certifications and rolled out multiple physical store locations nationwide.