Sleeping on my back - when to give up

[negrilbaby]

I know it's not recommended to sleep on your back in later pregnancy but was wondering when should I give up on it. I'm 16 weeks now and find sleeping on my side very uncomfortable - have suffered from carpal tunnel and side sleeping seems to bring on pins and needles very quickly.

[MummyElk]

tbh i slept on my front for the first 20 wks too..so not the best person to ask?! but if it's still comfy, i wouldn't worry too much up till about 20 wks? depends on your size bump as well..... i think your body would tell you if it's definitely not a good idea....
once you do have to do sideways sleeping, i've found the only comfy way (i also don't like it much) is the old pillow through the legs trick...and one to place your hands on....
have you been referred for CTS? the splints are supposed to work pretty well....

[Mistymoo]

Why can't you sleep on your back????

That's a new one to me.

[Phoenix]

I think as long as you don't get breathless or anything you should be ok. I was comfiest on my back and slept like that up to the end of both pg's

[blushes]

I slept on my back until I felt uncomfortable doing so (tbh most of the time I'd fall asleep on my side and wake up on my back- I figured that my body wouldn't do it if it was that bad for me!). From about 30 weeks or so I started feeling breathless and my back and insides felt strained and squished when I lay on my back. It felt very uncomfortable so was a natural time to stop doing it.

[Bexybear]

im sure its fine if you are able to do it. I havnt been able to since about 20 weeks - completely cant breath - but not everyone gets this or not so early. I cant sleep on my left side either as it makes me feel really sick. This means i'm stuck on my right side which also isnt recomended, but to be honest i dont have any sleep options left so its tough

Pregnancy seems to be all about being given a hell of a lot of advice about what you should and shouldnt be doing when in reality your body gives you very little choice.

[ahedgehogisdueinMarch]

I am 33 weeks and although I start off sleeping on my side with a pillow between my legs I normally wake up on my back, with really bad cramp in my calves but like others if I wasn't able I don't think my body would let me.

I am looking forward to being able to sleep on my front again.

BTW I think the reason you are not supposed to sleep on your back is that your main artery can get squashed by the weight of the bump ( and mine feels really heavy at the moment)

[tobago04]

Think i read recently that you should stop from 24wks,think it's something to do with blood flow to the placenta[don't quote me on that]
With dd2 i always woke up on my back though and she turned out fine

[tobago04]

OMG really pregnantpeppa ?
DD2 was back to back!
Am pregnant with no.3 so will definitely do my best not to sleep on my back this time then

[Southwestwhippet]

I really hate this... the advice seems to state that you shouldn't sleep on your back as you will restrict blood flow to the placenta, that you shouldn't sleep on your right side (don't know why, jsut that it is BAD) and obviously you just can't sleep on your front... so that means you are officialy only allowed to sleep on your left hand side.

But even a non-pregnant person can't sleep in the same position all night long without discomfort so what the hell are you supposed to do when you wake up at 2am with cramp in your hip and an aching back and need to change position?

On top of that, personally I find sleeping on my left hand side really really difficult and repeatedly end up on my back which then fills me with middle of the night guilt and angst thinking I am starving baby of oxygen. Can't get back to sleep because am stuck on left side...

I really really think it is completely unfair to put women under so much pressure as to how they sleep when being pregnant is stressful and demanding enough. (disclaimer am 40+2 and very hormonal and miserable so may possibly concede that I am over-reacting to this)

[MumNWLondon]

my nct teacher said the same - sleeping on back (or using reclining chairs at all, or slumping on sofa) means more likely to have posterior baby. probably only an issue for last couple of months though?

sleeping on either left or right side is fine - left slightly better as encourages baby into ideal position for birth, apparentlyly position for easiest birth is baby on left. but sleeping on right side is ok too.

re: southwest's comments - no guilt, its personal choice as to whether you'd rather your baby was in the best position for birth.

[bearcrumble]

I do my best to sleep on my left hand side with a long pillow under the bump and between my legs but it does cut off the circulation in my left arm and I wake up and have to rub it to get it going again.

What I tend to do is spend a couple of hours in the middle of my sleep time propped up, almost sitting and then when I wake up again I go back on to my left for the rest of the night.

I do find when I get up in the morning my hips are very stiff and I have pains in my top inner thighs.

[mawbroon]

It is to do with the weight of the baby and the uterus pressing on to some nerve or artery and making your blood pressure drop.

I slept on my back right to the end of my pg with ds with no trouble.

However, this time, I am almost 35 weeks and have just been in hospital for surgery on a broken ankle and had a couple of incidents of low blood pressure.

The first was when i was going into theatre. The anaesthetist had already propped me onto my left hand side, but I started feeling faint and dizzy. This passed when he propped me further up on my left side.

The second incident was about 24 hours after surgery. My blood pressure dropped to 90/50 and I felt sick/dizzy/faint/clammy. My leg had been so sore, that there was no way I could tilt it to lie on my side, so I had spent 24 hours either on my back, or sitting with my leg up in a kind of squashed position. By this time, the pain was less, and I had a better plaster cast on, so I was able to turn on to my side and relieve the symptoms.

So, in my case (and in my case only, won't speak for everyone), yes, it did cause a problem, but it was an extreme circumstance.

[AKMD]

Sleeping on my left hand side is actually leaving me with bruising on my hip, it's so painful. I didn't know that it helps the baby with positioning, I thought it was about not squashing your main artery/restricting blood flow to the placenta sleeping on your back, and not putting pressure on your liver by sleeping on your right hand side.

[Southwestwhippet]

re: southwest's comments - no guilt, its personal choice as to whether you'd rather your baby was in the best position for birth.

Personal choice whether I would rather my baby was in the best position for birth? What a bizzare comment, as if I am going to say "actually no, I am hoping for a footling breech baby thanks very much".

Yes actually for me there IS guilt because I fall asleep and end up on my back without realising and wake up thinking "oh shit, I am a) restricting blood supply to baby and b) encouragin him/her to lie back to back thus making birth likely to be more difficult and increasing risk of intervention".

So I spend nights uncomfortable, miserable and not getting enough sleep as I am trying desperately hard to do what is best for baby which is to lie all night in one position despite the fact it leaves me crippled during the day with hip/lower back pain and awake during the night with cramp. There just doesn't seem to be (or I haven't been given at any rate) a practical solution to this problem and it is actually causing me some distress.

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Ah, southwest, it's probably most important that you get as decent a night's sleep as you can manage and get your stress-levels down about it too - both those things are bound to be better for you and your baby than all the worry.

Personally, I've been switching positions between left, right and back during the night. Lying in any of them becomes uncomfortable after a while, so when the discomfort naturally wakes me up, I just turn over and drift off again in the new position until THAT becomes uncomfortable and so on. I figure that even though back and right side sleeping positions aren't optimal, if I'm not in any one position for too long, it can't do too much harm one way or the other.

My LO's breech at the mo, so I should probably be trying to sleep on all-fours or with my pelvis high in the air (!)

[LuckyC]

I sleep on my left side until my entire right arm goes numb/achey/numb from weird carpal tunnel thing.

Then I effortfully and swearily heave myself over onto my right side until both left and right arms are numb/achey.

Then I prop myself up on four million pillows and sleep on my back until I snore so loudly that I wake myself up .

Then I get up and read MN or lie awake and have freakish thoughts about Things That Could Go Wrong with the Baby etc.

Rinse and repeat.