Pregnant mum’s sleeping position can cut oxygen flow to her unborn child, research shows Friday, January 15, 2021 IWK Bureau
Women who go to sleep on their back in late pregnancy are more likely to have stillbirths. Now, research from a University of Auckland-U.K. collaboration helps to explain why, showing a decreased supply of oxygen to the fetus. “Sleep on side when baby’s inside,” is New Zealand’s official advice to women in late pregnancy, based largely on University of Auckland research that helped to spread that message around the world over the past decade.
In the latest study, women with healthy pregnancies underwent MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans at Auckland City Hospital lying on their backs and their sides. The scans showed the reduction in blood flowing to the uterus when mum lies on her back. On average, oxygen delivery to the fetus fell 6.2%, the paper just published in the Journal of Physiology showed.