Newborns of
mothers with sleep apnea have higher chances of requiring resuscitation at birth,
longer hospital stay and 26% higher risk of being born with a congenital malformation
reports a study result presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), Boston.
This is
first of its kind study linking Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in pregnancy and its
effect on newborn.
The researchers
looked at data from more than 1.4 million linked maternal and newborn records
from National Perinatal Information Center over a period of 4 years from
2010-2014.
More than
17% of babies born to mother with OSA had congenital malformations. These
mothers were also more likely to be tobacco and drug user, older, obese, and with
pre-gestational hypertension and diabetes.
Only 10% of babies
born to mother with no OSA had congenital anomalies (P < 0.001).
Most common anomalies
were those related to circulatory system, nervous system and musculoskeletal.
Moreover, these
newborns also had 2.76 times the risk of requiring resuscitation at birth and
2.25 times more likelihood of being in hospital for extended period of time.
“Our results
have shown that babies born to mothers with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep
apnea are more likely to require resuscitative efforts at birth, be born
preterm, and to require a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit compared to
babies who were not exposed to maternal sleep apnea,” said principal
investigator and lead author Dr. Ghada Bourjeily, associate professor of
medicine at Brown University and the Women’s Medicine Collaborative at The
Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
“These
findings add to our understanding of the extent of morbidities of maternal
sleep apnea for the mother as well as the baby,” said Bourjeily. “The results
further highlight the importance of identifying this condition in pregnancy and
testing the impact of therapy on these complications.”
Dr. Bourjeily
opined that results of this single study do not prove causation.
“We know
that women who have sleep apnea also often have other morbidities, so we don’t
know what might have contributed to the congenital outcomes,” said Dr.
Bourjeily.
“We also
don’t know if treating sleep apnea can reverse or prevent birth complications
or even maternal complications, like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes.”
Studies are
underway to look at maternal continuous positive airway pressure therapy use
and neonatal outcomes.
Dr. Bourjeily
received research equipment support from Respironics.
