Wellness & Fitness

Sleep upset good for pregnant women

pregnant

Pregnant woman unable to sleep. FILE PHOTO | NMG

People like peaceful and restful sleep. As a result, many find it bothersome and inconveniencing when they are startled out of sleep. However, a new study led by scientists at the University of Michigan shows that sleep disruptions are beneficial and should be encouraged among women in late pregnancy.

The findings of the research, which are published in the latest issue of the Birth Journal show that sleeping for more than nine hours per night during pregnancy may be associated with stillbirths.

A stillbirth is the death or loss of a baby before at, or after 28 weeks of pregnancy. The term is in contrast to miscarriage, which is an early pregnancy loss; and live birth, where the baby is born alive, even if it dies shortly after.

In Kenya, statistics from The Ending Preventable Stillbirths report shows that about 23 out of 1,000 children die daily at birth. This translates to 96 stillbirths per day as opposed to just three out of 1,000 in Europe. The Kenyan statistics are below the developing world’s average of 27 and the third highest in East Africa after South Sudan ( 37.9 ) and Burundi ( 24.2 ). During the study period, researchers analysed online surveys involving 153 women who had experienced a late stillbirth within the previous month, and 480 women with an on going third-trimester pregnancy or who had recently delivered a live born baby during the same period.

The results suggested an association between lengthy periods of undisturbed maternal sleep and stillbirths that were independent of other risk factors.

However, researchers caution that further research is needed to better understand this relationship and what it means for pregnant women. "Pregnant women often report waking up and getting up in the middle of the night.

“While multiple awakenings during the night may concern some women, in the context of stillbirth it appears to be protective,” said Louise O'Brien, lead author of the study, from the University of Michigan’s Division of Sleep Medicine. She noted that blood pressure usually reaches its lowest point during sleep. However, when someone is awakened there is a surge in the nervous system activity that causes momentary increases in blood pressure.

“It's possible that these brief increases in blood pressure are able to prevent long periods of relatively low pressure. This is important because low blood pressure has been linked with foetal growth problems, pre-term birth and stillbirth.”

O'Brien however calls for moderation and cautions that pregnant women should not be waking themselves up at night. This is due to the fact that disruptive sleep has also been associated with poor pregnancy outcomes, including growth restriction.

She notes that while there is already evidence that very disrupted sleep and clinical sleep disorders are associated with poor pregnancy outcomes, few studies have looked at the opposite end of the spectrum, such as long periods of undisturbed sleep "Our findings add to research indicating that maternal sleep plays a role in foetal well-being. Studies aiming to reduce stillbirths should consider it, as this is a potentially modifiable risk factor.” O’Brien stated: “Many risk factors for stillbirths cannot be modified once pregnancy has begun. But we should be looking at every possible intervention that may prevent poor outcomes.”

He added that maternal sleep has been overlooked as a potential area for maternal and newborn health interventions even though it is related to many of the major, well-established risk factors for poor pregnancy outcomes.

The new study follows other research that looked at possible ties between maternal sleep and foetal well-being, including studies suggesting that women who report that they sleep on their backs have an increased risk of stillbirths.

Other causes of stillbirths include childbirth complications, post-term pregnancy, birth defects, foetal growth restrictions, maternal infections in pregnancy, as well as maternal disorders especially hypertension, obesity and diabetes.

Smoking, diabetes, obesity and drug abuse can also increase a woman’s chance of getting a stillbirth.

According to the World Health Organisation, 75 percent of stillbirths globally occur in South Asia and sub-Sahara African countries. The most affected (60 percent) are women living in rural areas, which are characterised with low skilled health professional attendants.

Based on statistics from the health body, the stillbirth rate in sub-Saharan Africa is about 10 times that of developed countries mainly due to challenges that the continent’s health sector faces.