Less late pregnancy sleep and tough labour

First-time mothers who get little sleep during late pregnancy may have a longer labour and a high risk of a cesarean section.Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, USA followed 131 women who averaged less than six hours of sleep per night during their ninth month of pregnancy.They found that these women were four times more likely to have a C-section as compared to women who got more sleep. And women who had a tough time staying asleep for the night had a more than five-fold higher risk of needing a C-section. In general, poor sleepers had a longer labour.

On an average, women who slept for less than six hours a night spent 29 hours in labour, as compared to the 18 hours spent by those who slept seven or more hours per night.The findings suggest that adequate, quality sleep during pregnancy is important in labour and delivery. The doctors should give women a prescription for at least eight hours of sleep a night.

To assess sleep quality and quantity in the study participants, the researchers made the women wear a motion-recording wrist device for 48 hours and kept a sleep log for the two days, reporting the times they went to bed and woke up, and describing how well they slept. The women also completed a standard questionnaire on sleep problems. The researchers found that women who averaged less than six hours of sleep on the two nights they were assessed had a C-section rate of nearly 37 per cent, compared with just 11 per cent among women who got at least seven hours of sleep.Women who showed severe sleep disruption, meaning they were awake for more than one hour during the night after initially falling asleep had a C-section rate of 39 per cent, versus 10 per cent for women with little or no sleep disruption.
The reason for the relationship is unclear, and future studies should look at whether factors such as anxiety or stress hormone levels play a role.

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