A study in the May issue of the journal SLEEP shows that pregnant women with obstructive sleep apnea are five times more likely to die in the hospital than those without the sleep disorder. OSA also was associated with increased odds of pregnancy-related morbidities including preeclampsia, eclampsia, cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary embolism. According to the authors, this is the largest study in the U.S. to assess the temporal trends in OSA diagnoses during pregnancy, and the only one to analyze the associated perinatal morbidity using nationally representative data.
