Insomnia linked to premature birth in study of 3 million mothers
Source: Nature
Despite strides in maternal medicine, premature birth remains a vexing problem for obstetricians worldwide. But an analysis of medical records from almost 3 million pregnant women in California1 suggests that a surprisingly simple intervention — better sleep — might help to address the issue.
Researchers found that women who had been diagnosed with insomnia or sleep apnoea were about twice as likely as women without sleep disorders to deliver their babies more than six weeks early.
“It seems obvious, but strangely this study has not been done before,” says Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and an author of the research, which was published on 8 August in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology1. “Seeing this relationship is important because we are just starved for interventions that can make a difference.”
Cont’d.
LINK:
http://www.nature.com/news/insomnia-linked-to-premature-birth-in-study-of-3-million-mothers-1.22419