Study labours over sleep apnoea causes

Posted March 06, 2012 10:34:26

Pregnant women in south-east South Australia will be part of an Australian-first study into the causes of sleep apnoea.

Naracoorte's Kincraig Medical Clinic, in partnership with the Australian National University, will test 100 pregnant women in the south-east and 100 women in Canberra.

Dr Jeff Taylor says sleep apnoea can impact both the mother and baby, including pre-eclampsia and growth restriction.

He says it is hoped the study will show if a woman's height and weight contribute to the onset of sleep apnoea.

"We have no national, in fact there's no world guideline to guide doctors to when we should recommend the sleep study and so by comparing women in the city with the country we may well be able to see if women put on more weight in the country versus the city or vice a versa," he said.

"There may well be geographical differences."

Dr Taylor says women will be tested at 13 weeks and then again at 36 weeks.

He says it is hoped the study will uncover a common link between women who develop sleep apnoea in the later stages of pregnancy.

"Just because you're thin and you might put on a small amount of weight doesn't mean you won't get sleep apnoea," he said.

"So hopefully we'll be able to pick up, there might be something about the BMI [body mass index], looking at the height and the weight, it might be certain women of a certain height should always be screened, some women may well actually have it before they get pregnant, so that's why we're doing the study at 13 weeks as well."

Topics: sleep, medical-research, pregnancy-and-childbirth, naracoorte-5271, mount-gambier-5290