New Study on Sleep Positions and Still Births

Many pregnant women err on the side of caution when it comes to their pregnancy, rather than proven medical science, which is why many will take a new study on the connection between sleep position and stillbirth to heart.

The study, conducted out of New Zealand, concluded that sleeping on the left side during pregnancy decrease their risk of stillbirth by approximately 50 percent. It’s believed this may be due to restricted blood flow to the baby that can occur when the mother is laying on her back or her right side.

Conducted via interviews, the study consisted of roughly 500 women, including approximately 150 who experienced still births. The women were asked about their sleeping habits, such as position, fatigue during the day, whether they snore and more. Women experiencing pregnancy were also interviewed with the same questions, and the findings showed that women who sleep on their back or right side, have less sleep interruptions to go to the bathroom and who sleep more, were at greater risk to experience a still birth. The risk seemed especially prevalent in women who were late in their pregnancy.

While that sounds alarming, researchers in the study and other medical professionals are saying there is no reason to get overly distressed. The small size of the study and the minimal increase in risk (from 1.96 to 3.93 out of every 1,000 women) are keeping researchers from jumping to conclusions just yet.

"It's a new hypothesis and means we should start to look at this problem much more closely,” lead researcher Tomasina Stacey said. “It's really a starting point for future research.” If a link was found, however, it could help lower the number of still births that occur every year around the world, which is reported as high as 2.6 million.