Snoring mothers-to-be linked to low birth weight babies

Experts say snoring may be a sign of breathing problems that could deprive an unborn baby of oxygenMothers-to-be who snore are more likely to give birth to smaller babies, a study has found. Snoring during pregnancy was also linked to higher rates of Caesarean delivery.Experts said snoring may be a sign of breathing problems that could deprive an unborn baby of oxygen.Previous research has shown women who start to snore during pregnancy are at risk from high blood pressure and the potentially dangerous pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia.More than a third of the 1,673 pregnant women recruited for the US study reported habitual snoring.Scientists found women who snored in their sleep three or more nights a week had a higher risk of poor delivery outcomes, including smaller babies and Caesarean births.Chronic snorers, who snored both before and during pregnancy, were two-thirds more likely to have a baby whose weight was in the bottom 10%.They were also more than twice as likely to need an elective Caesarean delivery, or C-section, compared with non-snorers.Dr Louise O'Brien, from the University of Michigan's Sleep Disorders Centre, said: "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."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 ...
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