Night shifts during pregnancy up miscarriage risk
Women who do two or more night shifts a week during pregnancy are likely to have an increased risk of miscarriage, says a new study.
This is because women working at night are exposed to artificial light which disrupts their circadian rhythm or body clock and decreases the release of melatonin — a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles and helps in maintaining a successful pregnancy, according to the study published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal.
The findings showed that after the eighth week of pregnancy, women who had worked two or more night shifts had a 32 per cent higher risk of miscarriage compared with women who had not worked any night shifts.
