Driving is a high risk activity during pregnancy

Car accidents happen. But when they happen to Moms, the timing is not completely random. More crashes happened in the second trimester of pregnancy.

You’re pregnant…….. so you’re BEING careful, avoiding the obviously “high risk” activities, such as flying and horse riding.

BUT, you’re still driving.

You zoot around town, nipping here and there in the car, as you go about your business. You know car accidents happen, but you’re a good driver. Driving is not something that is typically considered a “high risk” activity during pregnancy.

But maybe it should be.

The odds that you’re involved in a serious car accident when you’re pregnant, go up precipitously. Canadian researchers estimate the risk of a crash is 42 % higher than normal. Ouch !

Moms and car crashes

To reach this rather disturbing conclusion, the team started with a list of all the ladies, who had given birth, in the city of Ontario, during the period between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2011. Well maybe not every lady, the team could only track ladies who had given birth in a hospital setting.

Next, the team identified a sub-group of women, who had also been involved in a serious car accident, during the same period. The team’s definition of a serious car accident – was a car accident that warranted a visit to an emergency department of a hospital, so this data does not consider innocuous bumper bashes.

Filtering through this data, the team identified 7679 crashes, in which the Moms were hurt and the Mom was driving. That is a lot of serious crashes.

But, we all know………… serious car crashes happen, so what ?

Bumps in cars

The team crunched the numbers a little more and discovered that the odds of such a car crash happening, was not completely random.

More crashes happened in the second trimester of pregnancy.

In fact, when they averaged things out, they found in the three years before pregnancy they found Mom’s were involved in around 177 crashes per month, but during the second trimester of pregnancy, the crash rate for Mom’s shot up to 252 per month.

Baby to blame

This is a big increase……

Since it is happening before the belly really balloons, the problem cannot be attributed to difficulties reaching the steering wheel.

It must be something that baby is doing – “baby brain” ?

Scientifically speaking, there is not a lot of evidence to suggest that babies genuinely cause their Mom’s brain’s to misfire, but their presence, does cause changes in physiology

Intermittent nausea
General fatigue
Sleep disruption

And these are enough to leave a future Mom, a little distracted. Driving while distracted make one more likely to make…….

A little mistake

Stats suggest, little mistakes i.e. human errors are the main reason why car accidents happen.

A small “mistake”….

A missed stop or yield sign
A corner taken too fast
A misinterpretation of another driver’s intent
A phone conversation

That small mistake, is all that it takes to end up being involved in a car accident. Something that is never pleasant…….. but when you’re pregnant, the risks are multiplied, because

two lives and two futures hang in the balance and
the presence of a baby, complicates emergency medical care.

You should always….

Drive carefully

But if you’re pregnant, especially during the second trimester of your pregnancy, be a little extra vigilant, you have got a very special package on board. And your special package has super powers that can be a little distracting.

Pregnancy and the risk of a traffic crash. Canadian Medical Association Journal (2014) DOI:10.1503 /cmaj.131650. Donald A. Redelmeier, Sharon C. May, Deva Thiruchelvam, Jon F. Barrett.