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Becoming a snorer while pregnant is not uncommon. About 4% percent of women snore before pregnancy while as many as 30% (depending on the study you read) are snoring by the end of their pregnancy. For women who don’t usually snore but start pregnancy snoring, they usually find that it increases as the pregnancy progresses especially in the third trimester.

Snoring is associated with various more serious health issues as outlined below so eliminating your snoring using snoring aids without drugs or more drastic measures is desirable.

The results from the Swedish study of more than 500 pregnant women found:

• Twenty-three percent said their pregnancy snoring had become habitual during the last week before delivery.
• Sleep apnea was observed in 11 percent of habitual snorers compared with 2 percent of the non-frequent snorers.
• The habitual snorers also had a more pronounced weight increase during pregnancy.
• Fourteen percent of the women who snored habitually had pregnancy-induced hypertension as compared with 6 percent of the non-frequent snorers.
• Ten percent of the women who habitually snored met the definition of preeclampsia with hypertension (high blood pressure) and proteinuria (protein in the urine) compared with 4 percent of the non-frequent snorers.
• Daytime sleepiness increasingly grew among all women during pregnancy, and no marked differences were observed between the habitual snorers and the non-frequent snorers.
• Daytime sleepiness started earlier in pregnancy than did snoring.
• Edema (swelling) was reported as being greater among women who snored habitually.
• Edema of the face, hands, legs, or feet occurred in 52 percent of the habitual snorers compared with 30 percent for others.
• Infants born to mothers who were habitual snorers more frequently had lower birth weight and lower Apgar scores.
• More than 7 percent of mothers who were habitual snorers delivered an infant with growth retardation at birth compared with 2.6 percent among non-habitual snorers.
• After adjusting for weight, age, and smoking habits, snoring remained as a significant predictor of growth retardation.
• In addition to snoring, smoking was also found to be an independent predictor of growth retardation.
• An Apgar score of less than seven was more common in infants born to habitual snorers as compared with infants born to occasional or non-snorers.
• The researchers noted that all of the subjects who snored habitually and had preeclampsia, started to snore before any sign of hypertension or proteinuria was present.

Additionally research at the Edinburgh Sleep Centre found that upper airways narrow when women are in their third trimester of pregnancy. Using a technique called acoustic reflection they found that upper airways in pregnant women with preeclampsia were narrower than non-preeclampsia pregnant women who in turn had narrower airways than non-pregnant women.

The cause of preeclampsia is unknown. From the research reported above, there does appear to be a link between snoring, preeclampsia and consequently lower birth weights. Snoring is a predictor of preeclampsia in that increased snoring is typically noted before increased blood pressure and increased protein in the urine. The accepted medical approach is closely monitor the mother and to deliver the baby as soon as possible.


Although the cause is unknown there is another school of thought that links the condition to changes in breathing patterns. How people breathe has a direct effect on many different bodily systems. Their is a proven correlation between poor breathing and high blood pressure, increased liver workload, fluid retention, constriction of the smooth muscles including airways and snoring. These are all symptoms associated with preeclampsia.

It makes sense that as a pregnant woman progresses through the pregnancy there maybe effects on her breathing. There is increased pressure on the primary breathing muscle, the diaphragm, as the uterus expands to accommodate the growing baby. There are hormonal changes, fluid retention and diet changes that can all effect how the pregnant woman breathes and promote pregnancy snoring.

Keeping control of your breathing while pregnant maybe as easy as doing some breathing exercises or looking at your diet and lifestyle in general . In many cases the pregnancy snoring is only temporary and once the child is born the snoring disappears. But in some cases the breathing pattern is changed forever and snoring becomes a habit. It is better to take control of incorrect breathing as soon as the snoring starts before any long term undesirable breathing patterns are developed.

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