Seatbelts help protect moms-to-be in crashes

Women expecting a baby may be tempted to avoid the discomfort of a seat belt when they're driving, but that could be a mistake. A new study has found that pregnant women who experience a motor vehicle crash and who are not wearing a seat belt have an increased risk of several adverse outcomes, including death of the fetus.

Nearly 3% of mothers experienced a motor vehicle crash during pregnancy. Compared with women not involved in a crash, women in motor vehicle accidents who used a seatbelt did not have a greater risk of damage to the fetus. However, Hyde noted that they lacked information on the severity of the crashes, "so it is possible that really bad crashes, even with belt use, produced adverse outcomes."

Not using a seatbelt was tied to a number of poor outcomes, the authors note. Non-belted crash victims were 30% more likely than women not in a crash to have a low birth weight infant. Moreover, compared with belted crash victims, non-belted victims were 2.1- and 2.8-times more likely to experience excessive maternal bleeding and fetal death, respectively. [via Reuters Health eLine]