(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa study finds pregnant women and new mothers report wearing seat belts regularly, but many say they routinely unbuckle their belts while the vehicle is moving. Study co-author Cara Hamann, director of training and education at the U-I’s Injury Prevention Research Center, was asked if there are circumstances where it’s safe to take off your seat belt while moving, pregnant or not.
“No, I don’t think it ever is because, anytime you’re unbuckling, you’re increasing your risk of injury if a crash were to occur,” Hamann says. “I think also the unbuckling itself could cause distraction in the vehicle, and increase the chance of a crash happening.” National research finds motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of pregnancy complications and maternal death. Hamann, who’s also a professor of epidemiology at the U-I College of Public Health, says the survey asked women why they’d unbuckle their seat belts while in a moving vehicle.
“Things like when the baby’s crying or to feed the baby, and we found that a lot of people did say the reason they were unbuckling were those types of things,” Hamann says, “or to reach for items for the baby, or even things like moving between seats, like going from the front to the back, for example, or to use a breast pump.” Seat belts can also be quite awkward and even painful for an expectant mother, Hamann says, and she knows first-hand.
“I have been pregnant before — I have two little boys,” Hamann says. “It can be uncomfortable, pregnancy itself can be uncomfortable for many reasons, but the cost-to-benefit ratio is always better to wear the seat-belt than not.” While there are educational campaigns about things like how to install a child’s car seat and the extreme dangers of shaking a baby, Hamann says fewer than half of the women surveyed said they heard any warnings about their own seat belt use. She says safety messaging may need to encourage moms to wait until a vehicle is stopped before unbuckling whenever possible.
