Sleeping on your left

[lucielooo]

Just wondering if the position of the placenta makes a difference to whether you should sleep on your left? I thought but am slightly confused so could be wrong you were supposed to do this so blood flow travels more easily from the placenta to the baby - and for some reason I assume the placenta is usually on the right side of the womb. Is this all rubbish? I have an anterior placenta so is it pointless?

I find it really hard to sleep on my left (depsite (DP) moving all the bedroom furniture around) so just wondering really!

As far as I know its so you aren't putting ll the baby's weight on the major blood vessels (inferior vena cava) draining blood back from your legs. rather than the blood vessels to/from the placenta. I might have this wrong though.

I am 37+2 today and I sleep wherever the hell I can get comfortable never mind which side!!!!

I too have an anterior placenta.
I caan't sleep on my back as I feel sick and as though someone is sitting on my chest.

My left hand side is OK for short periods so I generally lie on my right hand side and occasionally switch when my body seizes up.

I had read all that stuff about lying on your left, but I recently went to the physio at the hospital and she said it doesn't matter which side you lie on as long as you get some sleep.

when you think about it, it is fairly recent thing that women have been told to do and women have managed to sort out their own sleeping habits for many years prior to this.

If you have no problem sleeping on your left then do it, but it doesn't affect anything.

I was told sleeping on the left made it more likely that baby would end up in the right position for birth (i.e. baby's back against your front as opposed to back-to-back). I had an anterior placenta last time round and slept on the left all the time, and it made no difference in my case, baby was still back to back. This time round I am just sleeping however I can get comfortable!

xMrsSx - that makes sense, and might be what I've heard actually. So presumably as I'm only 13 weeks and baby weighs very little I don't need to worry too much at this point.

daisystone - interesting what the physio said! I'm inclined to agree that it probably doesn't make that much difference but still a bit confused about what I am trying to achieve by it!

BarrelOf Monkeys -So does an anterior placenta mean you're more likely to end up back to back??

All a bit complicated this!

Thanks for your help :)

Lucielooo I've heard the same as xMrsSx that they advise you to sleep on your left because of the pressure on the veins in your legs and in the later stages, to help the baby position itself.
I also have an anterior placenta and a back to back baby so I think there's definitely some truth in that.

I wouldn't worry at 13 weeks though, the baby isn't big enough to put any weight on your veins, so just sleep normally. You will find later on that your body will tell you if you are doing something it doesn't like - I feel breathless when lying on my back and baby hates me lying on my right and I get pulling pains all along my side (37 wks) so it's on my left for me, although it's done nothing to shift my baby from it's posterior heaven!!!

Ok thanks.. I shall sleep in comfort while I can then!! And do some more research about anterior placentas... Does back to back mean delivery problems (first time mum can you tell?!)

Back to back can make the labour longer and cause the pain to be in the back. My problem is that baby isn't engaging at all, so when I go into labour I've been told it will take longer as baby's head isn't pressing on the cervix. They are also a little trickier to deliver as the natural curve of their bodies goes against the curve of yours.
But reading peoples experiences on here, it doesn't always mean a horror story, and my midwife herself has had 3 back to back, and was fine.

just to reassure you though, an anterior placenta doesn't mean a back to back baby, and there are things you can do to try and turn it later on. Keep an open mind for now, and enjoy your pregnancy!

Thanks Sarahlou8 - and best of luck with your labour! At least your midwife has experienced it herself :)

Back to back labours can be a bit longer, and the pain is more in the back, but as Sarahlou says, people's experiences vary. I personally think if baby wants to be back to back, it will be - pregnant with number 2 at the moment, and I haven't really made an effort on positioning, and baby seems happier at the front this time around. Hadn't realised you were only at 13 weeks, in which case don't worry about positioning until much later on, and then there's websites like SpinningBabies if you do need to try and get baby to shift position. On the sleep front though, I'd just go for whatever gets you most rest!