Pregnant women refuse seatbelts - Introduction

The lives of more than 55,000 unborn babies could be jeopardised each year as many pregnant women refuse to wear seatbelts.

A survey of 1010 expectant mothers by road safety group Brake and insurer Direct Line found that one in 12 didn’t buckle up when they travelled by car. Of these unprotected women, 21% said they didn’t belt up because they worried that it would harm their baby.

Overall, one in five of all the women surveyed said they didn’t know for sure whether it was safer to buckle up or not.

Research shows that the safest option is always to wear a seatbelt. An unborn child is more at risk if the mother is injured or killed in an accident. Injuries to unborn babies from seatbelts are highly unlikely.

A quarter of the women surveyed said they had never been given advice always to wear a seatbelt, but four out of five said they would always do so once presented with the facts.

Brake is calling on the Department for Transport to launch year-round advertising campaigns highlighting the risks of failing to buckle up to parents and prospective parents.