It is most commonly recommended that pregnant women sleep on their left side. This increases the blood flow and nutrients to the placenta. It also helps your kidney efficiently remove fluid from the body, which will allow you to side-step some of the swellings in your feet and ankles.
During the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, it is 'okay' to sleep on your back. After that though, you should try not to. That's because the weight from your uterus could press the arteries that carry blood from your leg to your heart, resulting in reduced blood flow. You can also sleep on your right side of your stomach.
By the third trimester, most women would rather sit up than lie on their bellies. Regardless of the position you sleep in during the night, if you are cold in the night, it's okay to use an electric blanket. Just be careful not to allow your body temperature not to rise above 100 degrees. It can harm your baby.
Take a look at this video where pregnancy exercise expert, Lorraine, shares a few tips on how sleeping correctly during pregnancy can help reduce lower back and hip pain:
Here are a few tips to remember:
- If you are a side-sleeper and slept on your sides before pregnancy, you can continue doing the same during pregnancy, albeit with a few minor additions. During pregnancy, your pregnancy hormones progesterone and relaxin start to lengthen and loosen the ligament on your lower back and hips. So this position now needs to be changed. Because the hormones lengthen the legs and you will feel pain in the lower back.
- The easiest thing to do is to prop a pillow underneath your knee. That automatically raises the angle of the leg. What you are trying to do is keep your leg and your femur above the usual level.
- You could also use a pregnancy pillow which will reduce the pain. Prop your leg on top of it and inflate the pillow. Don't forget, the bigger your bump grows, the more you'll have to inflate the pillow. It keeps the angle at the same level throughout the night.
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