effect of relaxation therapy on fetal outcomes in pregnancies with preeclampsia and gestational diabetes suffering sleep disorders

background and objectives: muscle relaxing technique is an effective method in improving sleep quality. the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of muscle relaxation technique on fetal outcomes in complicated pregnancies who had sleep disorders. materials and methods: this study was performed as a clinical trial on 160 pregnant women who suffered from preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. the participants filled the pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi) in order to measure the quality and patterns of their sleep.  the participants with the total score 5 or more were included in present study. intervention group were asked to use muscle relaxation technique twice a week at home for 8 weeks alongside routine care. study variables included sleep quality, apgar scores, birth weight, levels of interleukin- 6 (il-6), as well as umbilical cord ph and po2. results: the mean score of psqi before intervention was 9.28± 4.16 and 9.18± 3.06 in intervention and control group without significant difference (p=0.6) respectively. however, after intervention a significant difference was observed between intervention and control group (p<0.001). two groups were significantly different for means of birth weight (p=0.04), apgar score (p=0.001), and umbilical cord blood po2(p=0.03), ph (p=0.01), and il-6 (p=0.04). conclusion: the results of this study showed that muscle relaxation as a simple, inexpensive and safe method can lead to improved quality of sleep in pregnant women with gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. improved mother sleep quality can increase birth weight, apgar score, and cord blood po2 and lead to  lower cord blood ph and il-6.  better fetal and neonatal outcomes.