Sleep practices and risk of late stillbirth

January 01, 0001

Sleep practices and risk of late stillbirth

These New Zealand researchers examined whether aspects of sleep, including snoring, position, and daytime sleeping are linked with late stillbirth. They performed a population based case-control study in Auckland, New Zealand involving women with a singleton late stillbirth (=28 weeks’ gestation) without congenital abnormality (n=155) compared to 310 matched matched controls. Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for confounding factors.

The researchers found: "The prevalence of late stillbirth in this study was 3.09/1000 births. No relation was found between snoring or daytime sleepiness and risk of late stillbirth. However, women who slept on their back or on their right side on the previous night (before stillbirth or interview) were more likely to experience a late stillbirth compared with women who slept on their left side (adjusted odds ratio for back sleeping 2.54, and for right side sleeping 1.74). The absolute risk of late stillbirth for women who went to sleep on their left was 1.96/1000 and was 3.93/1000 for women who did not go to sleep on their left. Women who got up to go to the toilet once or less on the last night were more likely to experience a late stillbirth compared with women who got up more frequently (adjusted odds ratio 2.28). Women who regularly slept during the day in the previous month were also more likely to experience a late stillbirth than those who did not (2.04)."

The researchers concluded: "This is the first study to report maternal sleep related practices as risk factors for stillbirth, and these findings require urgent confirmation in further studies."

This case-control study has the novel and concerning finding of risk of late stillbirth with sleep practices including sleeping position.

For the full abstract, click here.

BMJ 342:d3403, 14 June 2011 © 2011 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
Association between maternal sleep practices and risk of late stillbirth: a case-control study. Tomasina Stacey, John M D Thompson, Ed A Mitchell, Alec J Ekeroma, Jane M Zuccollo, and Lesley M E McCowan. Correspondence to T Stacey: [email protected]

Category: W. Pregnancy, Family Planning. Keywords: stillbirth, sleep, position, snoring, daytime, pregnancy, case- control, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Paul Schaefer, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 5 July 2011

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.

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