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The seat belt is good enough, or is it?
The existing seat belt system was never designed or tested to provide optimum safety for a pregnant mom, making pregnancy and seat belt danger an unfortunate combination.
Yes, you read that right! Never designed or tested to provide optimum safety. This certified car seat technician is wearing the seat belt “correctly” as low as possible which does not equate to “under” the pregnancy. The seat belt is still crossing over her baby bump.
We agree wearing the seat belt is important and life-saving, even during pregnancy. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an inherent danger from the seat belt to the pregnancy and the unborn baby.
Seat belt design
The seat belt was designed to grab onto or engage the hip bones and secure an occupant in the seat. For the expecting mother prior to the end of her first trimester, this isn’t a big deal. During that time, baby is still pretty well protected down inside your pelvic structure.
But toward the start of the second trimester, baby moves up above and in front of your hip bones. When you’re driving or riding during your second and third trimesters, the “lap” part of the seat belt is held out in front of your hip bones.
If suddenly engaged — like in a car crash or sudden stop — the belt will compress with extreme speed and force right through the tummy area into the pregnancy. This can potentially compressing the baby in the narrow space between the seat belt and the spine.
A review of studies looking at pregnancy and driving over the past 20 years indicates there is a potential pregnancy and seat belt danger. (Download the guide, click the link to the right. >>>)
Engineers designed the seat belt for the most common driver at the time, a mid-size male. Over the years, car engineers made little improvement to the design. With all the testing required for seat belt, cars, car seats; there are no required tests or standards for the seat belt specifically for how it affects pregnant women.
This video explains pregnancy and seat belt danger
The seat belt has pretensioners located on both sides of the occupant. The moment a car detects a crash, they fire and the seat belt braces the occupant into the seat. This is important. An occupant who is not restrained and gets thrown from the vehicle will suffer much more detrimental Injuries.
According to research, car crashes are the most common reason for pregnant women being hospitalized. For the fetus, car crashes are the most common cause of fatal injury. The studies offer varying predictions of how many pregnancies are lost every year, from a few hundred to 5,000. We typically use an average of 3,000 taken from numbers in all the studies.
Professor Ian Milson, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynecology Sahlgrenskan University Sweden, says “I think the most important thing to remember is that we know so little about what happens to pregnant women in car accidents.” In the US there are indications that more pregnant women die from car crashes than complications associated with pregnancy.
Be in protector mode. Learn the risks of driving during pregnancy and how to mitigate the risks.
Is Seat belt design safe for Pregnancy?
“This is obviously something that is important for us to study closer,” Milson said.
“Car crashes, potentially, can pose a danger to the baby at all stages of pregnancy,” said Laura Thackray MSc Biomechanics & Computer Simulation Engineer VCSC. It’s important to wear the seat belt as low as possible and with the shoulder portion mid-chest/mid-shoulder.
The challenge with the recommended way of wearing the seat belt is studies show it is common for the belt to lift during a crash, coming out of position. Or the crash energy forces the woman to submarine under the seat belt. This again puts the lap portion out of position. And, even when worn as “recommended”, on some pregnancies, the belt still crosses in front of the baby because the pregnancy is so low there is no way to get “under” it.
Be in protector mode. Learn the risks of driving during pregnancy and how to mitigate the risks.
According to Consumer Reports, “independent experts acknowledge that more needs to be done to protect pregnant women and fetuses in car crashes, and say that seat-belt adjusters might eventually play a role.” The problem is NHTSA hasn’t developed testing standards for pregnancy seat belt positioners yet either. So there are positioners available that could do more harm than good.
However, there is an innovation to help parents-to-be protect their unborn babies while mom is in the car. This pregnancy seat belt positioner is the Tummy Shield.
The Tummy Shield is the only crash-tested car safety device for pregnant moms. The seat belt still properly does it’s job restraining the occupant. But the Tummy Shield redirects the seat belt away from the pregnancy. As the body continues to move forward in a sudden stop or crash, the crash force is no longer pushing the bump into the locked lap belt.
By Amie Durocher, Creative Director at Safe Ride 4 Kids and certified CPS Tech since 2004
Copyright 2024 Safe Ride 4 Kids. All rights reserved. You may not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material without permission. You are welcome to link to Safe Ride 4 Kids or share on social media.
We originally published this post in February 2017. We updated the article for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
