Breathing problems during pregnancy may be linked to more serious ailments – diabetes and high blood pressure.
A new study of more than 3,000 women found that sleep apnea during pregnancy led to higher chances of women developing the two conditions. Sleep apnea is a disorder in which breathing stops and starts repeatedly during sleep. It’s a treatable yet serious condition.
Results from the study show that women with sleep apnea were twice as likely to develop preeclampsia, a type high blood pressure seen in pregnant women, and up t 3.5 times more likely to develop gestational diabetes, according to Reuters.
Between six and 15 weeks, according to the study, 3.6 percent of the 3,000-plus women studied had apnea. After weight gain, between 22 and 31 weeks, 8.3 percent of the women had apnea.
This led to 6 percent of the women having preeclampsia, 13 percent having other pregnancy hypertensive issues and 4 percent having gestational diabetes.
The report can be found in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“Although we found an association with sleep disordered breathing preceding the development of both pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes, we cannot conclude that universal screening for, and treatment of sleep disordered breathing in pregnancy would reduce the risks of these adverse outcomes,” said lead researcher and author Dr. Francesca Facco, of the University of Pittsburgh’s Magee-Women’s Hospital.
Facco told Reuters that there isn’t conclusive evidence that treating apnea can reduce the risk of pregnancy-related hypertension or diabetes.
“We do not know if treating sleep-disordered breathing in pregnancy will improve clinical outcomes in pregnancy, and our study cannot answer that question,” Facco said.
Other factors that could play a role in developing certain disease during pregnancy are initial weight entering pregnancy and weight gain over the course of the pregnancy, experts say. Sleep apnea is commonly associated with obesity.
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