Snoring Moms at a Higher Risk of Bad Pregnancy Outcome

Almost half of the pregnant women develop snoring by the final trimester. But, snoring during pregnancy is a bad sign for babies. According to a new study, snoring during pregnancy is liked with poor delivery outcomes such as a smaller baby.

The latest study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System, claims that pregnant women who snored three or more nights a week had poor delivery outcomes like delivering a smaller baby or having Cesarean births. This study, which included 1,673 pregnant women who were recruited from prenatal clinics between 2007 and 2010, is the largest of its kind to associate maternal snoring to baby health by observing moms right from pregnancy till delivery. Out of the total participants, only 35 percent of the women reported 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," lead author Louise O'Brien, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor at U-M's Sleep Disorders Center said in a statement.

Chronic snorers- those moms who snored before and during pregnancy, are more likely to have babies that are smaller than 90 percent of the other babies of the same gestational age, when compared to the other non snoring moms. Apart from this, the snoring moms are twice as likely to undergo a C-section delivery, researchers found. 

"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," said Louise.

The outcome of the delivery also depended on the timing of snoring pattern. Chronic snorers who snored before and during pregnancy suffered the highest risk as they were more likely to have smaller babies and also elective C-sections. Those moms who started snoring during pregnancy had a higher risk of both elective and emergency C-sections.

Snoring is a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, which is a sleep-related breathing problem that lowers the blood oxygen levels during the night. Previous studies have associated snoring with serious health hazards. But using CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure, pregnant women can be treated for obstructive sleep apnea.

"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. 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," O'Brien, who is also an associate research scientist in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, concluded.

The findings were published in the journal Sleep.