Treating Sleep-Disordered Breathing during Pregnancy Crucial for Baby’s Health

Sound sleep during pregnancy is essential to having a healthy baby and to avoid many pregnancy-related complications. However, many women experience sleep disturbances after becoming pregnant.

According to a new study, continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP, a machine that delivers air at a predetermined pressure through a mask placed over the nose) is effective in treating sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) among pregnant women with preeclampsia. Researchers found the therapy helping in improving fetal movements.

Preeclampsia is a condition that triggers hypertension and will have a negative impact on both pregnant women and their babies. Women suffering from preeclampsia will have high blood pressure, fluid retention and protein in the urine, leading to an adverse impact on the growth of the unborn baby in the uterus.

"What would otherwise have been considered clinically unimportant or minor 'snoring' likely has major effects on the blood supply to the fetus, and that fetus in turn protects itself by reducing movements," Dr. Colin Sullivan, the study's principal investigator, said in a news release. "This can be treated with readily available positive airway pressure therapy and suggests that measurement of fetal activity during a mother's sleep may be an important and practical method of assessing fetal well-being."

For the study, Dr. Sullivan and colleagues confirmed effectiveness of fetal activity monitor among 20 normal pregnant women. Later, they included 20 pregnant women with preeclampsia and 20 pregnant women as the control group. Fetal movements during maternal sleep were monitored. Researchers found a considerable difference in the number of fetal movements among the preeclampsia group (289) and the control group (689). During the last stage of the study, researchers measured fetal movements in 10 women with preeclampsia, before and after subjecting them to nasal CPAP therapy.

They found fetal movements improving from 319 to 592 with CPAP treatment.

"Maternal SDB represents a unique opportunity to study the effect of in utero exposures on postnatal development and future risk. This has major implications for public health," Louise M. O'Brien, associate professor at the University of Michigan, said. "It raises the possibility that a simple, noninvasive therapy for SDB may improve fetal well-being."

The study will be published in the journal SLEEP.