Safety belt best for unborn baby

DESPITE some pregnant women’s concerns that seat belts or airbags could harm an unborn baby in an accident, expectant mothers who are not wearing a seat belt during a car crash are more likely to lose the baby, according to a US study.

The results, which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, reinforce the findings of other studies that link seat belts with better chances of keeping both mother and baby alive.

Senior author Haywood Brown, the chairman of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Duke University Medical Centre, said: “One thing we’re always concerned about is educating patients on seat belt use.

“Nonetheless, like all individuals, some choose and some do not choose to wear their seat belt.”

To get a better sense of which women don’t use seat belts and how that affects the outcome of their pregnancies, Brown and his colleagues searched through a trauma registry at Duke University Hospital.

They found 126 cases of women in their second and third trimesters who had been in a car crash and cared for at the hospital between 1994 and 2010.

Three foetuses, or 3.5 percent, died among the 86 mothers who were wearing a seat belt during the accident. Another three – 25 percent in this case – died among the 12 mothers who were not wearing a seat belt.

“The worst thing you can do is have the mother get hurt.”

Kathleen DeSantis Klinich, a researcher at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, who wasn’t part of the study, agreed: “The best way to protect the mother and protect the baby is to have the mother wear a seat belt.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that seat belts should be worn at all times, and the lap belt should be fitted low across the hip bones, below the belly.

Women without a seat belt were more likely to be first-time mothers than those who wore a seat belt. Brown said it was possible that the habit of buckling in children might prompt mothers to put on their own seat belt.

Airbags came out in 17 of the accidents, and in those cases the mother was more likely to experience the placenta separating from the uterus – a condition that can be fatal for the mother or the child.

Catherine Vladutiu, a researcher at the University of North Carolina who was not involved with this research, said it was likely the airbag itself was not to blame for such serious consequences.

She said: “The airbag is a function of how severe the crash was, so it’s hard to work out whether that had any direct effect.”

“I would err on the side of considering it an indicator of crash severity.”

Brown said some women disarmed the airbag for fear that it would damage the baby in case of a crash, but “it’s not the smart thing to do because it will save your life if the airbag comes out”.

Klinich agreed, noting that her research had found that airbags, if anything, were beneficial because they protected the mother.

“The bottom line is, you’ve got to wear your restraint because it decreases the risk not only for your injuries but injury to your child,” Brown said.