Still birth less likely for pregnant women who sleep on left: Survey

Women who sleep on their left side on the last night of their pregnancy are half as likely to have a stillbirth than those who sleep in any other position, Auckland University research suggests.
The study of 465 women by PhD student and midwife Tomasina Stacey was thought to be the first stillbirth study to look at maternal sleeping patterns. Of those surveyed, 155 had given birth to a stillborn baby.
It found women who slept on their left side during the last night of their pregnancy had a much lower risk of stillbirth -- 1.96 per 1000 compared to 3.93 per 1000 for those who slept in any other position.
"This is a new observation and given that stillbirth rates in New Zealand have not changed in 20 years, it is a dramatic result," Cure Kids child health research chairman Professor Ed Mitchell said.
The study's participants were asked detailed questions about their sleep position during the last month, week and night of their pregnancy as well as snoring, daytime sleepiness, duration of sleep and frequency of night-time toilet visits.
The research found that women who went to the toilet once or not at all on their last night of pregnancy, and those who slept for longer were more likely to have a stillborn baby.
A correlation was also found between regular day-time sleeps and longer than average night-time sleeps with late stillbirth risk.
Auckland University head of obstetrics and gynaecology Professor Lesley McCowan said the findings could be explained by restricted blood flow to the baby when the mother lay on her back or right side for long periods of time.
"If confirmed through future studies we may be able to reduce the number of still births by up to a third which is incredibly exciting. We are now trying to obtain funding to conduct this further research," she said.
Otago University Associate Professor Bob Hancox described the study and "important and thought-provoking".
"It suggests that sleeping on the left side during late pregnancy may be associated with a lower risk of stillbirth. It also suggests that getting up to go to the toilet frequently during the night and not taking daytime naps during late pregnancy may also reduce the risk of stillbirth," he told the Science Media Centre.
"None of these observations have been made before and these are therefore new and potentially important findings. Both the researchers and commentators agree that they need to be confirmed in other studies before we will know whether these are real effects."
Prof Hancox said pregnant women should not be concerned and advised them to do "nothing at the moment".
"We just don't know for certain yet, and the absolute risk of stillbirth is very small. We do need other researchers to confirm or disprove this association before we can make recommendations to pregnant women."