Trying to sleep on my side instead of my back

M

Monica11

Cathlete
Hi all. I am trying really hard to sleep on my side, but I can't do it. I position myself that way and even put the recommended pillow between my knees before I fall asleep. Inevitably, I wake up on my back. I dutifully re-position myself, and fall back asleep. Of course, I wake up a few hours later on my back. At 12 weeks, this probably isn't a problem (or is it?), but pretty soon it will be. How dangerous is it to sleep on your back when pg? What if I can never train myself to stay on my side?

 
Hi Monica,

I can't speak to how serious it truely is to lay on your back, but I know from my personal experience that there comes a time when laying on my back makes me feel physically ill. It feels harder to breathe, and I get nauseas within a minute or two. So for me, it's easy to stay off my back. At night time, these symptoms will wake me up really quick, and I'll roll over. I don't know if everyone feels like this, though.

What if you put a pillow behind you, so that when you roll onto your back while you're sleeping, the pillow will keep you on a bit of a raised angle, and allow continued blood flow through that big vein that everyone's so worried about.

Cheers,
Sandra
 
My midwife told me go ahead and lay I my back if I want, just to change positions if I start to feel dizzy or weird. She wasn't referring to during exercise, which you aren't of course either. Of course if you are asleep would you realize if you were dizzy? That I don't know.

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Due 7-10-05
 
I think you will be okay if you lay on your back, too. I do believe that our bodies are amazing creations that let us know when things are wrong. If you are sleeping on your back and you are on that vein, your body will tell you, just like Sandy. You will feel dizzy and sick and it will wake you up.
 
I'm 12 weeks too, and I asked about this at my last appoinment! I'd read everywhere that lying on the back causes pressure on the vena cava. My question was "So how do I stop, since I usually sleep on my back?"

The nurse practicioner told me that it may be 14 or 15 weeks before this is a problem, and "Your body will tell you when you shouldn't sleep on your back."
 
I do this too..favor the back..my doc said it was fine..he said it'll naturally become uncomfortable later on...right now he said to sleep however i'm confortable..
 
My doctor said not to worry about it until 20 weeks or so and that by then, it would be uncomfortable to sleep on my back. She also said there are wedge pillows you can buy where if you begin to roll, it keeps you off of your back.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I suspected that there'd be some sort of bodily signal (in the form of discomfort) if it's a problem. Just seems like if there weren't some cue to get you to change positions, this would be a huge problem for lots of people since we can't control what we do when we're sleeping. But in a few weeks, I may get some extra pillows just to hedge my bets.

 
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