Persistence and prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing after delivery: A scoping review of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies

While emerging literature has shown that sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in pregnancy occurs in up to ∼30% of women by the third trimester, it is less clear if SDB persists after delivery. In this scoping review, our main objectives were to summarize the evidence on SDB with respect to 1) its persistence from pregnancy to after delivery and 2) its prevalence after delivery. Searches in Medline (PubMed), Web of Science, and Scopus until February 2022 were performed. Of the 1591 studies initially identified, 13 studies met the eligibility criteria. Nine were longitudinal studies from pregnancy to postpartum and four were cross-sectional studies of postpartum only. Our review demonstrated that over half (53–65%) of women had persistent SDB after delivery, but that the overall severity of SDB improved. The prevalence of snoring was reduced by two-fold (62% vs 29%) from pregnancy to after delivery. In addition, the overall prevalence of SDB using objective sleep studies was ∼24% (range 13–83%) after delivery. Changes in body weight from pregnancy to postpartum did not reliably predict persistent SDB across studies, but increased postpartum weight was associated with a greater risk of having persistent SDB after delivery.