Pregnant women should wear seatbelts

I remember when my children were young, there were a few horrific car crashes that stayed in my mind. One of them was of a pregnant woman who was in a bad accident on one of the bridges into Montreal. She was heavily pregnant and had been thrown from the car. She died. However, the doctors were able to keep her alive long enough to deliver her baby.

I remember thinking that I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. I know that many people think that a seatbelt may be harmful to a fetus in an accident, but even if that was true, I’d rather take that chance over death. After all, the doctors saving that woman’s baby were very lucky. It doesn’t usually work out that way. And, the findings were that the seatbelts helped prevent injury and save lives – they didn’t cause harm.

Researchers in the United States studied over 2000 pregnant women who had been in car accidents. According to a press release issued by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, “Women wearing a seat belt, having an air bag, or both were significantly less likely to have pregnancy-related complications than women with neither a seat belt nor an air bag. The combination of a seat belt and air bag resulted in the lowest rate of complications.”

So, please wear that seatbelt. It’s such a simple thing to do to help save your life – and your baby’s.

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