Postpartum sleepiness and sleepy driving in Australian mothers

Abstract

This paper reports on a prospective study investigating the prevalence of maternal postpartum fatigue and sleepiness and highlights the potential increased crash risk faced by mothers when driving in the postpartum period. Twenty-four mothers from across Australia completed a sleep and driving diary for seven consecutive days at three time points; when their baby was 6, 12 and 18 weeks old. The results showed that the mothers’ sleep varied within the sample; however, on average sleep disruption and lack of sleep consolidation was experienced. A high proportion of the mothers reported fatigue and sleepiness impacting their functioning early in the postpartum period, with sleepiness being more enduring throughout the period. Of concern, a high proportion of driving journeys undertaken by the mothers were during high levels of sleepiness, particularly early in the postpartum period and during late night and early hours of the day. These findings have highlighted the need to educate mothers about the potential increased safety risk of driving during the postpartum period and identified key information that should be conveyed.

Keywords::

• postpartum
• sleepiness
• sleep
• driving
• Karolinska Sleepiness Scale

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Associate Professor Simon Smith and Dr Patricia Obst for their contribution towards the establishment of the materials used in the collection of data. The authors would also like to thank Dr Ashleigh Filtness for reading an earlier draft of this manuscript and providing valuable feedback.