Wearing Seat Belt in Pregnancy Avoids Poor Birth Outcomes

Wearing seat belt during pregnancy does not pose any risks to the unborn baby; on the other hand, it protects the baby and the mother during a car crash, new research reveals.

Health experts always recommend pregnant women to wear seat belts during pregnancy to avoid many severe complications like miscarriage and preterm birth. According to march of dimes, a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that stands for the welfare of babies and mothers, more than 170,000 pregnant women are involved in car crashes every year. They urge women to follow seat belt safety rules to lower the risk of severe injury and save the lives of the mother and baby during the accident.

However, some women unnecessarily concerned about the babies' safety, hesitate to use seat belts after conceiving.

Shedding more light into the importance of wearing seat belt during pregnancy, Dr. Haywood Brown from the Duke Medical Center and colleagues found that pregnant women who do not fasten seat belts are at higher risks of losing their child during a car crash than pregnant women who are restrained.

To analyze the role of restraints in pregnancy, the researchers consulted trauma registry at Duke University Hospital between 1994 and 2010. Nearly 126 women were admitted to the hospital due to car crashes during the period. They found fetuses' death more among women who were not restrained (25 percent) compared to those who were using a seat belt (3.5 percent) during the car crash.

"The bottom line is, you've got to wear your restraint because it decreases the risk not only for your injuries but injury to your child," Brown told Reuters Health.

The study has been reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

As very little data is available to prove the importance of seat belts in pregnancy, efforts have been going on in different parts of the world to educate pregnant women and encourage them to use their seat belt while traveling.

Citing the increased number of pregnant women being admitted to Mayo General Hospital in Ireland, a campaign was launched in County Mayo in 2012 to spread the awareness about seat belts among pregnant women.

"You can take almost identical collisions and the baby will be injured and the mother will be fine, or vice versa. The feeling is that during a collision there are strong shear forces that separate the uterus and placenta, reducing the amount of oxygen and blood flow to the baby," consultant obstetrician Dr. Ulrich Bartels, Mayo General Hospital, said the aim of the campaign to the journal.ie.  "You can have partial or severe separation, and babies can continue to have healthy gestation with partial separation. But with any separation there is some foetal distress and the closer it is to full term the greater the chance of premature delivery, as the shock releases hormones prompting birth; any baby born early is at risk of breathing problems."