sleeping positions!! forgive me for sounding stupid!!

[BelleRomford74]

Silly question particularly as this is baby no.3 but I keep reading that it is dangerous for the baby if you sleep on your right hand side...I try not to, I try to switch between my back & left hand side but have woken a few times on my right hand side & lay there worriedly waiting for a kick!!!! Is this indeed something to lose sleep over? & anyone got any tips for not slipping into that position when in a deep sleep!!
Honestly I am not usually this stupid just a bit neurotic due to previous history with dd2!!!! ;)

I sleep mostly on my right and didn't know it was dangerous. Why is it dangerous? I naturally sleep on my front and have a dodgy hip so a bit limited as to comfortable sleeping positions during pregnancy.

I don't really know as I had'nt heard of it until recently but apparently it is safer to sleep on left or back!!!

I thought back was a no no in later pregnancy as the weight presses down on a major vein?

I was told this by a few mums when I was pregnant (ds now 4mths). After that I kept waking up on my right thinking Oh god! and turning over. Didn't make for a good night's sleep. My midwife just rolled her eyes when I mentioned it to her and told me not to worry about it.

Here's what the NHS says:
www.nhs.uk/news/2011/06June/Pages/mothers-sleeping-position-and-risk-of-stillbirth.aspx

I thought left was best, then right and back was a no no.

God this is getting silly. Is there any thing left you actually can do whilst pregnant. It will be bed rest (on your left side only) whilst wrapped in cotton wool, from day one soon! What rubbish.

Cheers for the link. :)

So having read the link not really something to get obsessed over!!! Guess I am lucky that I am sleeping so well at the moment well until about 5am when I need a wee!!! Thank you ladies x

I think perhaps we should all hang upside down like bats. (Don't joke it will be the next advice) I had two healthy babies and only ever lay on my right side. (rest too uncomfortable) I used to wedge bump with a pillow and one between knees or I couldn't sleep.
The detail suggests they can't say whether sleeping on one side or on back causes stillbirth.
If it makes you feel better my mum says she could only sleep on her front and was forever waking up to find little baby feet kicking the living daylights out of her! (Before you say it I am aware that may explain a lot!)

:o

I seriously doubt the human race would have survived if most people couldn't sleep on their right or their back....everyone was fine for generation upon generation without having a clue about which veins were where and did what. I would be gobsmacked if any amount of lying in any position affected the baby but not the mother. If the position affects the mother - she'll move! Before anything adverse happens to the baby.

Stillbirth study aside, I was told this for reasons of my own health, not babies as I have naturally low BP. The idea being lying on your back can restrict bloodflow, thus making you more vulnerable to pins and needles, dizzy spells on getting out of bed etc...basically, be careful if you're prone to dizziness during pg. If you do wake up on your back, switch positions, give your body a little time to get blood pumping everywhere again.

oh ffs some people will literally believe anything.

what the actual fuck: ?Women who got up to go to the toilet once or not at all during the last night of pregnancy were 2.42 times more likely to experience stillbirth as those who got up more.

I dont get up to pee more than once a night because I DONT need to pee. How on earth is this valid? I am not going to start getting up voluntarily and swanning around NOT peeing in the night to lessen this "risk"

And ?Women who reported regularly sleeping during the day in the last month of pregnancy were 2.04 times more likely to experience stillbirth as those who didn?t

What heavily pregnant woman DOESNT sleep in the day, should the opportunity present itself.

I was worrying about this too, especially at the start nd had loads of half awake nights turning over. now i'm further on i find that i don't care so much, i sleep on my back a bit and each side. I've heard other things that say listen to your body and also this is new advice and there are plenty of babies born over the last few centuries. that said, I am trying to turn to my left side if I wake up...

Yes, the research was very inconclusive and didn't help to prove anything. It's really irresponsible for newspapers to translate this sort of thing into panic inducing headlines.

I'm a big sleeping mover and I'm totally unable to sleep on my left side for the whole night as my hip starts to hurt, so feeling extra guilty I lay down on my back for a couple of minutes and turn again to the left. I have noticed that it's really uncomfortable for me to sleep on my right side.
LikeACandleButNotQuite my sister slept during the day through out most of her last trimester because she was bored as hell and just a month ago gave birth to a beautiful, chubby and extra healthy girl, so much for that theory :D

The advice in America is to sleep on your left hand side because sleeping on your right hand side can restrict the blood flow to the placenta. I'd heard over here they advise you to do it from around 28 weeks but my midwife has never told me this.
I used to be a stomach sleeper so started sleeping on my left hand side as soon as I found out I was pregnant to train myself. Now I can sometimes get a dead hip so I alternate between sleeping on my left hand side and sleeping on my back but the pillow my head is on is angled under my right hand shoulder so I can't lie absolutely flat (although I've never had the dizziness issue that some have with lying flat on their back during pregnancy).
My mum said she read a recent study that suggested that sleeping on your left could decrease the risk of cot death later on but I haven't read that study and I don't know where it came from.
I read the information on why you shouldn't sleep on your right and it made sense to me so I do it, but it isn't the official advice for this country.

OMG, thank you so much for posting about this. I thought I was the only one driving myself crazy worrying about it. Last night I woke up and realised I'd been asleep on my back and in a slightly mental sleep deprived manner convinced myself something awful had happened. Have been feeling at my bump for kicks all day like a mad woman. Grr, am sure these studies/stats mean well but the worrying they cause gets ridiculous...

I think the issue here is correlations don't prove cause ...and journalists are often incapable of differentiating between the 2.
There's a good chance that all the women who got up only 2 times a night also drank less water the hour before they went to bed, or had larger bladders than women who get up more frequently, doesn't mean drinking less water, or having a larger bladder leads to stillbirths.
I asked about sleeping on my back/right with about 5 different MWs, different venues too, none of them mentioned the research stated, but they all did say it would be advice they gave women that got dizzy on standing or that had back pains, or issues with PGP/SPD (but would depend where pain was). What is more important is to get a decent night's sleep as a tired, stressed Mummy is going to have more issues over a well-slept, relaxed Mummy.
If worried, when you wake during the night, turn on to your left. If you get dizzy, don't rush out of bed and fall over because of it.