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Maternal activity restriction to reduce preterm birth: Time to put this fallacy to bed
Author(s) -
Walsh Colin A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1479-828X
pISSN - 0004-8666
DOI - 10.1111/ajo.13212
Subject(s) - bed rest , rest (music) , medicine , pregnancy , obstetrics , low birth weight , psychosocial , premature birth , cervix , gestational age , surgery , psychiatry , biology , genetics , cancer
Activity restriction has traditionally been recommended to pregnant women, especially high‐risk patients, to reduce preterm birth. However, there is no scientific evidence that bed‐rest reduces preterm birth and, in many studies, women on bed‐rest had higher rates of delivering preterm. Bed‐rest in pregnancy is associated with significant physiological and psychosocial sequelae and reduced neonatal birth weight and be cannot be endorsed, even in women with a short cervix. The practice of prescribing bed‐rest in pregnancy is outdated and should be abandoned.