Lying on your back

[jellybelly85]

I'm aware of guidance which says after 16 weeks you should avoid lying on your back for long periods of time as it puts pressure on the placenta.. however:

• What happens if you have an anterior placenta? Does the advice still apply?
• Why do they instruct us to lie down for 30-40 mins for the 20 week anomaly scan, if lying down is to be avoided?

Ive not heatd this advice so I'm going to trust my body... its comfiest on my back therefore that's the position I sleep in at the moment (18weeks) if the midwife or consultant tells me otherwise then ill obviously try a different position however I have no control over my body when I'm asleep.

I think this advice is rubbish, personally. The idea is to avoid compressing the main vein that supplies blood to the baby and the lower half of your body, but unless you had twins or an 11lb baby, I think you'd want to move yourself before any damage was caused. I wouldn't worry.

I slept on my back till recently (I have an anterior placenta) midwife just said put a pillow under my right side so I am slightly angled instead of flat!
I don't sleep on my back anymore as this is now the position that makes me want to wee all the time

There's also a higher chance of a back to back baby if you lie on your back for extended periods of time.

I had a back to back baby last time and I'm doing everything I can to avoid it this time.

I was quite worried about this Jelly when it appeared on our antenatal thread a few weeks ago. The NHS advice is here www.nhs.uk/news/2011/06June/Pages/mothers-sleeping-position-and-risk-of-stillbirth.aspx relating to an article in the Mirror. It's not a hard cut off at 16 weeks, thank goodness!

It's lying flat on your back which you are supposed to try and avoid. For the scan you are propped up. I usually sleep on my side but sometimes I wake up on my back, nothing I can do about it in my sleep really!

I slept on my back until it just became too uncomfortable-now I naturally sleep on my side. I wake up feeling very uncomfortable if I'm on my back (30 weeks).

I find I sometimes move onto my back when I'm sleeping but it usually wakes me up so I guess that's my body telling me it's not comfortable and I move.

After reading that article I'm even less worried. Small scale studied based on self reporting that found a correlation. Correlation does not equal causation.

Exactly Frickadela!

I spoke with my midwife about this, since I'm a back-sleeper. She said not to worry about how you sleep, just try to get enough of it!

I found that I could still lie in my back without any discomfort after 16 weeks - the midwife said I'd know if it was causing any problems and I think she was right. At 23 weeks now I can't lie on my back any more because it makes me dizzy, so I think your body will let you know.

I found from about 20 weeks that if I lay on my back for too long then I would start to feel very faint, so my body just turned itself onto my side.

I'm 34+6, and until quite recently I found it quite comfortable lying on my back; I have an anterior placenta. Now, though, it seems to make my heart rate go up and it's uncomfortable, so sleep on my side, or propped up - depending on how the baby's lying.

I would think it's more uncomfortable with a posterior placenta, perhaps?

Believe me, your body will let you know. 38 weeks and there isn't anything comfortable anymore.

I'm 35 weeks and whilst I sleep on my side when I first get into bed, I always wake up on my back. Not a lot I can do about that I suppose!

I'm 35 weeks and can't be on my back in bed for a couple of minutes, soooo uncomfortable. I trained myself to sleep on my sides. As above, nothing much is comfy now lol!

Eh. I figure getting a good night's sleep is more important than the minuscule chance of something going wrong from sleeping on your back. This is my third pregnancy, and at 24 weeks I'm still sleeping on my back. I did right through with the other two. I'm most comfortable on my back, especially when I have a cold.

I'm the same, I have all intentions of sleeping on my left but I quickly creep to sleeping on my right and then on my back and I also seem to throw out the v cushion onto the floor during the night?! All of this is whilst I'm sleeping so goodness know what I can do!

38 weeks here and although my legs get pins and needles after laying on my back for a while, it's still often the comfiest position! It was last night as my ribs were killing me! I read all the info about this and worried about it for a while but figured that pregnant women must have been sleeping in all sorts of positions to get comfy, over the years! I'm just happy if I can sleep. Trying to make the most of it till baby arrives.