AIBU to ditch my pregnancy pillow at 29 weeks?

[Secretlifeofme]

Sorry, I have posted before about this but I'm really struggling to sleep with my pregnancy pillow. I live in a hot country, we have air conditioning but it's still hot at night and it's horrible having something around my middle all the time! But I'm worried because I tend to roll onto my back when I sleep and I got the bastard pillow in the first place because I read that sleeping on your back is dangerous for the baby and I obviously don't want to take any risks. Views please! Can I ditch it or should I just suffer for the sake of the baby?

I think you should do what you can to sleep well.

Put it away until baby is born - they are great for breastfeeding.

I feel like that when I'm trying and failing to sleep (like now!) but then I read articles online about how sleeping on your back can cut off the blood supply to the baby and contribute to the risk of stillbirth

Put a normal pillow behind you to stop you rolling over?

@scratchbass I could try that but when I want to turn over I would have to move it? Sadly we have quite a narrow bed so I can't have one normal pillow in front and one behind.. plus I think I would end up with the same problem of getting too hot and feeling constricted!

I could never sleep with mine either and got rid. I found that if I rolled onto my back, I was too uncomfortable anyways and it woke me up so I would just roll back to my side. I also would sometimes just put a pillow at my back to keep me at tilted round a bit

I used mine to lift my bump up rather then stop sleeping on my back.
After 28 weeks there was no way I could sleep on my back anyway as I felt like I couldnt breath.

I use the dreamgenii and have got on really well with it, it has pillow on both sides but nothing goes over the top of you that would constrict you. I turn throughout the night, much less now that I'm 39 weeks! Maybe it's the type of pillow you have that is the issue. I wouldn't risk sleeping on my back.

Personally I think you should do whatever you need to do to get to sleep. But have a look at this: expectingscience.com/2014/08/19/it-is-safe-to-sleep-on-your-back-while-pregnant-or-maybe-not/ It's a great site, she analyses the science/research behind a lot of pregnancy advice, and I have to say it's much more authoritative than random people on the Internet... like me...

I asked my sonographer and midwife at 20 ish weeks about sleeping on my back because I brought a pregnancy pillow and at the time wasnt comfortable sleeping on my side. They both said that sleeping on your front was a major problem however not your back. They said in later pregnancy it may be uncomfortable but if you could sleep and it was comfortable it's fine.

I had a look at the research and it does appear to be only quite recent and on sites that are then advertising the pregnancy pillows. There doesnt appear to be much concrete research to support whether there is any truth in that we should avoid sleeping on our back.

32 weeks with twins here and didn’t bother buying a pregnancy pillow. I use 3 normal pillows and a V pillow behind me at night and sleep on my back. If I try lying on either side one or other of the twins takes exception to it and makes me so uncomfortable I end up back on my back after 5-10 minutes!!

The evidence, and therefore recommendation, is that it's safer if you go to sleep on your side. If you roll on to your back once you're asleep then 🤷‍♀️ have a look on the Tommy's website for a bit more information.

Pregnancy pillows, in my opinion, exist to attempt to make sleeping more comfortable. If it's making you less comfortable then definitely ditch it!

I never used one. Would sometimes wedge an ordinary pillow under me on one side for comfort, but that's about it. Do whatever gets you the most rest.