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Is It Safe to Wear a Seat Belt during Pregnancy
Aug
8
2010
I wanted to know that is it safe to wear seat belts during pregnancy. Well, not wearing also would not be so good for traffic rules too. Are pregnant women exempted from wearing seat belts while driving when it comes to traffic rules.
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Answer #1
It is important to continue wearing a seat belt while traveling by car. Automobile accidents can happen when you are pregnant, after all. The risk of dying in an automobile accident is around 1 in 3 for pregnant women thrown from the car (not wearing a seat belt) and just over 1 in 20 for those not ejected (wearing a seat belt). The risk of the unborn baby being killed is around 50:50 for women thrown from a car and around 1 in 10 for those not ejected. As seat belts will usually restrain drivers and passengers, they reduce the risk of death and major injury, whether in pregnancy or not.
The correct positioning of the seat belt is to place the lap belt as low as possible beneath your bump, so that it rests on the upper thighs. The diagonal shoulder strap should be placed above your bump lying between your breasts. A three-point restraint is still necessary in pregnancy. It used to be considered that a lap belt was sufficient, but in fact research has shown that this is worse for the unborn baby. The risk of the unborn baby dying is less with a three-point restraint than with a lap belt because both mother and child are less likely to sustain internal injuries.