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Irish Wedding News

21/11/2017

Women 'Advised To Sleep On Their Side'

Pregnant women are being advised to sleep on their side in the last trimester to help prevent stillbirth.

According to the MiNESS study, which has been published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG), involved just over 1,000 women and found that the risk of stillbirth doubles if women go to sleep on their backs during the last three months of pregnancy.

The research looked into 291 pregnancies that ended in stillbirth and 735 women who had a live birth.

However, those behind the findings have said that it is the position in which women fall asleep is most important, and that they should not worry if they are on their back when they wake up.

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Professor Alexander Heazell, Clinical Director at the Tommy's Stillbirth Research Centre at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, and who led the research, is quoted as saying: "What I don't want is for women to wake up flat on their back and think 'oh my goodness I've done something awful to my baby'.

"The question that we asked was very specifically what position people went to sleep in and that's important as you spend longer in that position than you do in any other.

"And also you can't do anything about the position that you wake up in but you can do something about the position you go to sleep."

It is not certain why the risk of stillbirth is increased, but there is data to suggest that when a woman is lying on her back, the combined weight of the baby and womb puts pressure on blood vessels which can then restrict blood flow and oxygen to the baby.

In the UK, around one in 225 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. The authors of the study feel that around 130 babies' lives could be saved a year if women went to sleep on their side.

(JP/LM)

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"Pregnant women are being advised to sleep on their side in the last trimester to help prevent stillbirth."