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Reduce supine sleep in late pregnancy may promote maternal and fetal health. Results show that median time spent sleeping supine was reduced significantly from 48.3 minutes during the control night to 28.5 minutes during the intervention night. Improvement was observed in both maternal and fetal parameters during the intervention night, with an increase in median minimum maternal oxygen saturations, fewer maternal oxygen desaturations, and fewer fetal heart rate deceleration.
Women can comfortably sleep wearing a device around their waist that effectively stops them from sleeping on their back. Using positional therapy to keep the pregnant mother off her back may reduce supine sleep in late pregnancy and may be beneficial for maternal and fetal health with minimal impact on maternal perception of sleep quality and sleep time.
Spending sleep time in the supine position may be a risk factor for stillbirth and low birth weight, this relationship may be due in part to an exacerbation of sleep-disordered breathing and deprivation of oxygen to the fetus when sleeping on the back. While positional therapy is a well-accepted way to reduce supine sleep time and increase side-sleeping in adults with sleep-disordered breathing, no prior studies have examined its use in pregnant women.
Wearing a device that minimizes back sleep which is comfortable and doesn’t impact the mother’s sleep length or quality may be a simple way to reduce stillbirth incidence, especially if the mother is at increased risk due to other factors. The study involved 25 healthy women during late pregnancy (between 32 and 38 weeks gestation). For two consecutive nights they were evaluated while sleeping at home: one night with no intervention as a control, and one night while wearing the PrenaBelt, a positional therapy device designed specifically for use in pregnancy.
Maternal heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and sleep and breathing parameters were assessed using a finger-based plethysmography device. Sleep position was recorded with a body position sensor that was inserted in the PrenaBelt. Fetal and maternal heart rate also were recorded using a device that monitors the electrical signals on the mother’s abdomen.