![]() ![]() ![]() Most recently, a study published earlier this year in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found that women who had a stillbirth after 28 weeks gestation were 2.3 times as likely to have slept on their backs the night before the stillbirth than women with a healthy continuing pregnancy. The evidence for this connection is mounting. "A number of studies have suggested that sleeping on one's back during late pregnancy may be associated with a higher risk for stillbirth," Pien said. When conditions like these are coupled with the reduced blood flow that comes from supine sleeping, the effects could magnify each other in a dangerous way. (Mom's blood carries oxygen to the baby.) Most healthy women and fetuses should be able to compensate for a slight reduction in cardiac output, Pien said, but IVC compression can become a bigger risk for pregnant women who already have blood pressure problems or breathing complications.įor example, pregnant women with asthma or sleep apnea (a condition in which breathing repeatedly starts and stops at night) may already have trouble delivering the optimal amount of oxygen to their bodies or their babies. Why is this compression bad? Less blood being pumped into the heart means less blood being pumped out of the heart - and that means a drop in blood pressure for mom, and a drop in blood oxygen content for both mom and baby.
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