Women who snore during pregnancy are at a greater risk of having C-sections and giving birth to smaller babies, a new study finds.
A study conducted by University of Michigan Health System researchers found that women who snore three or more nights a week during pregnant are at a higher risk of poor birthing outcomes like cesarean deliveries and giving birth to smaller babies. The study is the largest research linking snoring while pregnant to the baby's health and poor delivery outcomes.
Researchers found that women who snored both before and during pregnancy where 66 percent more likely to give birth to a child that is smaller than babies of the same gestational age. They are also twice as likely to need an elective C-section, researchers found. The study was conducted on 1,673 pregnant women who were recruited from prenatal clinics at U-M between 2007 and 2010, with 35 percent of the women reporting habitual snoring.
"There has been great interest in the implications of snoring during pregnancy and how it affects maternal health but there is little data on how it may impact the health of the baby," says lead author Louise O'Brien, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor at U-M's Sleep Disorders Center in the Department of Neurology and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the U-M Medical School.
"We've found that chronic snoring is associated with both smaller babies and C-sections, even after we accounted for other risk factors. This suggests that we have a window of opportunity to screen pregnant women for breathing problems during sleep that may put them at risk of poor delivery outcomes."
When a woman begins snoring also plays a vital role in these findings. Researchers noted that women who snored both before and while pregnant are at a higher risk of elective C-sections while women who began snoring while pregnant are at a higher risk of both elective and emergency C-sections.
"Millions of healthcare dollars are spent on operative deliveries, taking care of babies who are admitted to the NICU and treating secondary health problems that smaller babies are at risk for when grown," says O'Brien, who is also an associate research scientist in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. "If we can identify risk factors during pregnancy that can be treated, such as obstructive sleep apnea, we can reduce the incidence of small babies, C-sections and possibly NICU admission that not only improve long term health benefits for newborns but also help keep costs down."
