NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters Health) -- Pregnant women who snore are more
likely than non-snorers to have pregnancy-related high blood pressure and are at
increased risk of having an infant who is considered small for gestational age,
researchers report.
Overweight women may be at particularly high risk, according to Dr. Karl
A. Franklin of University Hospital in Umea, Sweden, and colleagues.
"Women who reported habitual snoring were heavier before pregnancy and
gained more weight during pregnancy," they report in the January issue of the
journal Chest.
Snoring is a common problem in pregnancy. The study of 502 women who had
just given birth found that 23% snored during pregnancy while just 4% snored
before they became pregnant.
Fourteen percent of women who snored had high blood pressure compared with
only 6% of non-snorers, while preeclampsia developed in 10% of snorers compared
with 4% of non-snorers, the researchers note. Preeclampsia is a dangerous
condition characterized by elevated blood pressure, swelling in the hands, feet
and face, and the presence of protein in the urine.
Examining the weight-for-gestational-age of babies born to women in the
study, the authors report that fetal growth was slowed in 7.1% of infants born
to snoring women compared with 2.6% born to non-snoring women.
Overall, habitual snoring during pregnancy was associated with double the
risk for high blood pressure, and nearly 3.5 times the risk for slowed fetal
growth, compared with non-snorers.
It is not clear if pregnancy-related high blood pressure leads to snoring
by causing fluid build-up in the throat that narrows the airway or if snoring
itself can actually lead to complications.
The investigators point out that snoring can be an sign of sleep apnea --
an intermittent blockage of the upper airway that can cause individuals to stop
breathing for a few seconds at a time dozens or even hundreds of times per
night. Sleep apnea has been linked to a rise in blood pressure in both men and
women, and in the study, occurred in 11% of snorers compared with just 2% of
non-snorers.
The finding suggests that "upper airway resistance during sleep may affect
the fetus and supports the previously suggested relationship between sleep apnea
and intrauterine growth retardation," Franklin and colleagues write.
