Snoring on 3 or more nights per week, older maternal age, and obesity—these are risk factors for sleep apnea in pregnancy, according to a National Institutes of Health-funded study. Checking for those factors is an easy, inexpensive way to rapidly identify women who may benefit from further testing, says Uma Reddy, MD, study coauthor.
In the study, 3,264 women in early pregnancy (6 -15 weeks) and 2,512 in mid-pregnancy (22- 29 weeks) responded to questionnaires about their sleep habits, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. Participants also used an at-home monitoring device to test for sleep apnea.
Nearly 4% of the women in early pregnancy and 8.3% of those in mid-pregnancy had sleep apnea. In an earlier study of first-time pregnancies, the researchers found that sleep apnea increases the risk of hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes. A clinical study of the link between sleep-disordered breathing and adverse pregnancy outcomes is underway, expected to be completed by 2019.
Currently there are no medical guidelines or treatment recommendations for sleep apnea during pregnancy.