Pregnant Women Should Wear Seat Belts

July 31 -- Ask many pregnant women why they don't wear a safety belt when driving and you're likely to hear a number of reasons — discomfort, forgetfulness, the inconvenience. One other reason many expectant mothers choose to avoid seat belts? Fear they may cause injury to the fetus or themselves.

But according to experts, this is a common misconception. And new research suggests pregnant women should be urged to wear safety belts throughout pregnancy.

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found pregnant drivers who do not wear a seat belt when involved in a car crash are nearly three times more likely to experience a fetal death and twice as likely to experience excessive internal bleeding, compared to pregnant drivers who wore safety belts.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center at the University of Utah School of Medicine and the Center for Injury Research and Control at the University of Pittsburgh.

"The take-home message is that pregnant women should still wear safety belts even if it's uncomfortable, because it's safer for the baby and the mother," said Lisa Hyde, lead author of the study, which looked at statewide motor vehicle crash, birth and fetal death records in Utah from 1992 to 1999.

A Need to Dispel Misconceptions

One significant difference with previous studies is that belted pregnant women in crashes were not significantly more at risk for adverse fetal outcomes than pregnant women not in crashes. "In other words, wearing a belt doesn't make you any higher risk than other women," explained Hyde.

The authors added many pregnant women still do not wear seat belts despite substantial research on the overall protective value of seat belts. Since motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of traumatic fetal death in the United States, the researchers suggest strategies be developed to improve seat belt usage among pregnant women.

Further exacerbating the misconception, the authors add, is that foreign countries such as Japan, Spain, Poland and Greece have exceptions in place for pregnant women, who don't have to use safety belts if they choose not to.