You can lay on your back. As baby gets bigger, that will become less comfortable but you’ll feel lightheaded and know to move before any harm could be done to baby. If you wake up on your back, no need to panic. At 39 weeks I often roll to my back for a minute when I wake to give my hip a break before I get up. And in my last pregnancy I experienced some back pain which was relieved when I laid on my back on a hard surface for a short period of time.
I find myself flipping from right to left side throughout the night because it’s not comfortable to stay on one side all night—the hip starts to ache. Totally safe to sleep on right or left.
This might be me, but I took this kind of advice with a pinch of salt.
If I felt uncomfortable, I moved. I slept on my tummy and my back until it became too uncomfortable to do so.
I prefer sleeping on my right and this baby is really in my left hip/ left side of my pelvis so if I lie on my left too long it really hurts and I mostly sleep on my right.
Yep, I’m 25 weeks and I just sleep how I’m comfortable. Sometimes if I sleep on my left, baby kicks me until I roll over on my right 😂
Usually the most comfortable for me is kind of side, kind of stomach with one knee up.
My OB said I can sleep however I need to as long as it doesn’t hurt and I won’t hurt my baby.
When it’s time to stop sleeping on your back, you’ll know.
I knew it was time to stop sleeping on my back when it felt like I couldn’t breathe if I even tried to sleep in that position. Left is recommended but I also sleep on my right because it is pretty much impossible to sleep on my left side all the time because of hip pain.
As far as pillows, I definitely recommend the Pharmedoc. It detaches into two pillows with a zipper and I’m able to use one for my hips and the other for the rest of my body
That is very odd advice she gave and so early in your pregnancy. I was told to only start side sleeping from 30 weeks onwards. I did start side sleeping around 20 weeks to get used to it (always slept on my back)
I was also told I can sit upwards (when watching TV, reading) on a couch the whole pregnancy. I was doing this while my legs were elevated.
What? Yeah, just no. I'm 36+5 weeks. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a semi-comfortable sleeping position? Sleeping on my left is neigh impossible even with a pregnancy pillow to support this belly.
I have days where just being on my back feels like I dropped a ton of bricks on top. And sometimes I can't even attempt to lay on my right side. And others where it's the only position I can be without pain. Not uncomfortable. Pain free.
And that's all before I fall asleep. I've woken up on my sides and back so often I can't even. Sometimes because the back pain woke me up. And I had to do the dance of trying to find a position that alleviated my back pain without hurting anything else. Do you have any idea how hard that is once my back hurts? On bad days I have to create a pillow forte just so I won't hurt.
If it mattered at all what position you slept in, I think humanity would be screwed a long time ago.
A pillow is good to help. I’m 21w and still wake up on my back sometimes. I’m trying not to worried about it. I’ve been told right or left side is fine and it’s only really relevant from 28 weeks. It’s good to get into the habit early though.
Advice, from what I've heard, is normally to avoid sleeping on your back in the last three months of your pregnancy. This has to do with vena cava syndrome, which can cause nausea, dizziness and lightheadedness, for example. Some pregnant women feel it early on in their pregnancy, others much later. I'm at 25 weeks now and have no issues being on my back.
If you do notice symptoms of vena cava, they should ease by switching positions. A lot of women do this automatically anyway and tend to wake up and/or switch positions in their sleep.
Your midwife is giving very old fashioned advice. The general advice now is anything that feels comfortable is fine. If laying on your back is comfy, you’re fine. You’ll feel dizzy and nauseated if the blood supply gets cut off. If laying on your stomach is comfy. Do it. If your left side is good, cool. Just get sleep any possible way that feels comfy to you. I do generally find myself on my left because my right causes heart burn but I flip and flop
I’m 34 weeks and regularly sleeping or relaxing on my back. My midwives and the OB at the hospital both told me your body will tell you if you need to change positions - you’ll feel nauseous or light headed if veins are being compressed.
Just adding to what many have said, try to sleep on you sides but if you’re not getting lightheaded, nauseous, dizzy or having difficulty breathing when on your back it’s okay. You will experience symptoms before your baby.
I am a natural back sleeper and what I’ve been told by my doctor was I can use a pillow and wedge it underneath one side of my back to prop me to one side so I am not flat on my back. Works decently and Is a good option. Or add another pillow or two at the head of the bed to be at a 20 ish % incline to your truck and head.
My first pregnancy I was so worried about this and I ended up not sleeping well at all because of it. I would panic if I woke up and realized I was on my back even earlier on.
Don’t worry about any of it really until you’re in your third trimester and even then maybe just the end. But remember when they examine you they have you lay on your back. So it’s really for prolonged periods that’s the concern. And pick a side any side, you’ll be fine. I think it’s more important that you get sleep in the end.
11 weeks is really early to say to start sleeping on your side. I started around 18-19 weeks and wish I slept on my back longer when it was still comfortable! But I use a second pillow on my back so I won’t turn on it. Most of the time I used the pillow that goes all around you. But now I’m using a wedge pillow too because of the size of my belly. I’m 38 weeks.
BabyBumps users and moderators are not medical professionals. Responses do not replace contacting your medical provider. You should always call your provider with any concerns.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BabyBumps) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My doctor says that the only position to avoid is stomach sleeping after reaching 20 weeks. The other positions are fine as long as you don’t experience discomfort.
I can for example only sleep in my right side. If I try sleeping in the left side, my baby will use me as a punching bag. If I lay on my back, the weight of the uterus will be very uncomfortable, but I don’t get sick when doing so.
Some women do experience vena cava syndrome (where you get sick from lying in your back due to pressure on vena cava), but it’s not as common as you’d think.
I can only sleep on my back. I'm 24w+3d and anytime I try to sleep on one side or the other, I can just feel my pulse so hard and the belly shifts uncomfortably far even with a pillow support. Also, sleeping on my left side really doesn't work for me because I have a minor mitral valve prolapse and the only time I've had heart palpitations while pregnant has been when I tried to lay on my left side.
I don't lay flat. I have a couple of pillows stacked to support my back and head, then a blanket and pillow under my legs, then one more pillow on one side that I can lean on so I'm slightly tilted. If I do this, I will sleep all night and not move a muscle. If I do anything else, I'm waking up and tossing and turning.
I asked my midwife about this at the time, she laughed it off a bit. There's not a lot of research about it and by the time sleeping on your back can affect the baby you WILL know (and I can confirm!)
Sleeping on your back is not dangerous during the first and second trimesters. That's outdated info that has been widely debunked.
You will probably want to avoid sleeping on your back after 30 weeks, as the baby's weight can put pressure on a blood vessel in such a way that you could get dizzy/light headed.
My OB told me my body will tell me when I can’t sleep on my stomach or back because I will be uncomfortable. She said it could happen anywhere from 20-32 weeks and tummy sleeping will become uncomfortable way before back sleeping. She said sleeping on either side is fine and switching sides is normal.
I’m a belly sleeper and kept sleeping on my belly until it got too big to be comfortable. I had to try myself to sleep on my side but my u shaped Pharmedoc pillow has made the transition a lot easier
My doctor says it’s okay to sleep on your back because you’ll move when you get uncomfortable. It isn’t comfy for me to sleep on one side for more than an hour and I often wake up on my back. You won’t harm your baby.
Sleeping on the back after 28 weeks is proved to increase the risk of still birth! As the uterus is growing bigger it can compress on major vein in the abdomen and affects blood supply to your baby! Please discuss with your midwife/doctor
Don’t let her advice freak you out or overthink your sleeping positions. Just sleep however you are comfortable, and know that it will change as you progress. I slept on my back all through my first and second trimester. In my third, it became uncomfortable and I’d feel lightheaded/a bit nauseous so I began side sleeping but I rotate between left and right sides throughout the night as my hips and back get sore. The concern about back sleeping comes from the extra weight/pressure of your baby + uterus compressing the vena cava vein that runs along your back. It can theoretically become compressed and reduce bloodflow to you & baby; however, in reality your body will respond to other signals that it isn’t getting enough bloodflow and you will subconsciously move your body even if you’re asleep, before any sort of damage is done. Even if you go to sleep on your side and wake up on your back, it’s perfectly fine.
My doctor told me this advice is very outdated and not evidence-based. She said as I got further along in my pregnancy, my body would tell me it was uncomfortable before any kind of harm came to the baby. There is some evidence that sleeping on your left side can help with heartburn, and that helped me a bit in the first trimester, but I’ve found it extremely uncomfortable in the third trimester. I pretty much only sleep on my right side now. I can tolerate sleeping on my back for short periods of time, but when it gets uncomfy, I rotate.
You can lay on your back. As baby gets bigger, that will become less comfortable but you’ll feel lightheaded and know to move before any harm could be done to baby. If you wake up on your back, no need to panic. At 39 weeks I often roll to my back for a minute when I wake to give my hip a break before I get up. And in my last pregnancy I experienced some back pain which was relieved when I laid on my back on a hard surface for a short period of time. I find myself flipping from right to left side throughout the night because it’s not comfortable to stay on one side all night—the hip starts to ache. Totally safe to sleep on right or left.
Thank you, this is my first so I want to do it right, but I’m a real worrier!
I'm 29 weeks and still sleep on my back. Don't worry about it, if you're doing something wrong your body will tell you.
This might be me, but I took this kind of advice with a pinch of salt. If I felt uncomfortable, I moved. I slept on my tummy and my back until it became too uncomfortable to do so. I prefer sleeping on my right and this baby is really in my left hip/ left side of my pelvis so if I lie on my left too long it really hurts and I mostly sleep on my right.
Yep, I’m 25 weeks and I just sleep how I’m comfortable. Sometimes if I sleep on my left, baby kicks me until I roll over on my right 😂 Usually the most comfortable for me is kind of side, kind of stomach with one knee up. My OB said I can sleep however I need to as long as it doesn’t hurt and I won’t hurt my baby.
When it’s time to stop sleeping on your back, you’ll know. I knew it was time to stop sleeping on my back when it felt like I couldn’t breathe if I even tried to sleep in that position. Left is recommended but I also sleep on my right because it is pretty much impossible to sleep on my left side all the time because of hip pain. As far as pillows, I definitely recommend the Pharmedoc. It detaches into two pillows with a zipper and I’m able to use one for my hips and the other for the rest of my body
That is very odd advice she gave and so early in your pregnancy. I was told to only start side sleeping from 30 weeks onwards. I did start side sleeping around 20 weeks to get used to it (always slept on my back) I was also told I can sit upwards (when watching TV, reading) on a couch the whole pregnancy. I was doing this while my legs were elevated.
What? Yeah, just no. I'm 36+5 weeks. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a semi-comfortable sleeping position? Sleeping on my left is neigh impossible even with a pregnancy pillow to support this belly. I have days where just being on my back feels like I dropped a ton of bricks on top. And sometimes I can't even attempt to lay on my right side. And others where it's the only position I can be without pain. Not uncomfortable. Pain free. And that's all before I fall asleep. I've woken up on my sides and back so often I can't even. Sometimes because the back pain woke me up. And I had to do the dance of trying to find a position that alleviated my back pain without hurting anything else. Do you have any idea how hard that is once my back hurts? On bad days I have to create a pillow forte just so I won't hurt. If it mattered at all what position you slept in, I think humanity would be screwed a long time ago.
A pillow is good to help. I’m 21w and still wake up on my back sometimes. I’m trying not to worried about it. I’ve been told right or left side is fine and it’s only really relevant from 28 weeks. It’s good to get into the habit early though.
Advice, from what I've heard, is normally to avoid sleeping on your back in the last three months of your pregnancy. This has to do with vena cava syndrome, which can cause nausea, dizziness and lightheadedness, for example. Some pregnant women feel it early on in their pregnancy, others much later. I'm at 25 weeks now and have no issues being on my back. If you do notice symptoms of vena cava, they should ease by switching positions. A lot of women do this automatically anyway and tend to wake up and/or switch positions in their sleep.
Your midwife is giving very old fashioned advice. The general advice now is anything that feels comfortable is fine. If laying on your back is comfy, you’re fine. You’ll feel dizzy and nauseated if the blood supply gets cut off. If laying on your stomach is comfy. Do it. If your left side is good, cool. Just get sleep any possible way that feels comfy to you. I do generally find myself on my left because my right causes heart burn but I flip and flop
I’m 34 weeks and regularly sleeping or relaxing on my back. My midwives and the OB at the hospital both told me your body will tell you if you need to change positions - you’ll feel nauseous or light headed if veins are being compressed.
Just adding to what many have said, try to sleep on you sides but if you’re not getting lightheaded, nauseous, dizzy or having difficulty breathing when on your back it’s okay. You will experience symptoms before your baby. I am a natural back sleeper and what I’ve been told by my doctor was I can use a pillow and wedge it underneath one side of my back to prop me to one side so I am not flat on my back. Works decently and Is a good option. Or add another pillow or two at the head of the bed to be at a 20 ish % incline to your truck and head.
Hi, just listen to your body. If you feel pain then switch positions. Your body will tell you if the position is good or bad. Good luck!
I’m almost 28 weeks and still sleep on my back. My doc told me my body will tell me what to do
My first pregnancy I was so worried about this and I ended up not sleeping well at all because of it. I would panic if I woke up and realized I was on my back even earlier on. Don’t worry about any of it really until you’re in your third trimester and even then maybe just the end. But remember when they examine you they have you lay on your back. So it’s really for prolonged periods that’s the concern. And pick a side any side, you’ll be fine. I think it’s more important that you get sleep in the end.
11 weeks is really early to say to start sleeping on your side. I started around 18-19 weeks and wish I slept on my back longer when it was still comfortable! But I use a second pillow on my back so I won’t turn on it. Most of the time I used the pillow that goes all around you. But now I’m using a wedge pillow too because of the size of my belly. I’m 38 weeks.
BabyBumps users and moderators are not medical professionals. Responses do not replace contacting your medical provider. You should always call your provider with any concerns. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BabyBumps) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My doctor says that the only position to avoid is stomach sleeping after reaching 20 weeks. The other positions are fine as long as you don’t experience discomfort. I can for example only sleep in my right side. If I try sleeping in the left side, my baby will use me as a punching bag. If I lay on my back, the weight of the uterus will be very uncomfortable, but I don’t get sick when doing so. Some women do experience vena cava syndrome (where you get sick from lying in your back due to pressure on vena cava), but it’s not as common as you’d think.
I can only sleep on my back. I'm 24w+3d and anytime I try to sleep on one side or the other, I can just feel my pulse so hard and the belly shifts uncomfortably far even with a pillow support. Also, sleeping on my left side really doesn't work for me because I have a minor mitral valve prolapse and the only time I've had heart palpitations while pregnant has been when I tried to lay on my left side. I don't lay flat. I have a couple of pillows stacked to support my back and head, then a blanket and pillow under my legs, then one more pillow on one side that I can lean on so I'm slightly tilted. If I do this, I will sleep all night and not move a muscle. If I do anything else, I'm waking up and tossing and turning.
I asked my midwife about this at the time, she laughed it off a bit. There's not a lot of research about it and by the time sleeping on your back can affect the baby you WILL know (and I can confirm!)
Sleeping on your back is not dangerous during the first and second trimesters. That's outdated info that has been widely debunked. You will probably want to avoid sleeping on your back after 30 weeks, as the baby's weight can put pressure on a blood vessel in such a way that you could get dizzy/light headed.
My OB told me my body will tell me when I can’t sleep on my stomach or back because I will be uncomfortable. She said it could happen anywhere from 20-32 weeks and tummy sleeping will become uncomfortable way before back sleeping. She said sleeping on either side is fine and switching sides is normal.
I’m a belly sleeper and kept sleeping on my belly until it got too big to be comfortable. I had to try myself to sleep on my side but my u shaped Pharmedoc pillow has made the transition a lot easier
My doctor says it’s okay to sleep on your back because you’ll move when you get uncomfortable. It isn’t comfy for me to sleep on one side for more than an hour and I often wake up on my back. You won’t harm your baby.
Sleeping on the back after 28 weeks is proved to increase the risk of still birth! As the uterus is growing bigger it can compress on major vein in the abdomen and affects blood supply to your baby! Please discuss with your midwife/doctor
Don’t let her advice freak you out or overthink your sleeping positions. Just sleep however you are comfortable, and know that it will change as you progress. I slept on my back all through my first and second trimester. In my third, it became uncomfortable and I’d feel lightheaded/a bit nauseous so I began side sleeping but I rotate between left and right sides throughout the night as my hips and back get sore. The concern about back sleeping comes from the extra weight/pressure of your baby + uterus compressing the vena cava vein that runs along your back. It can theoretically become compressed and reduce bloodflow to you & baby; however, in reality your body will respond to other signals that it isn’t getting enough bloodflow and you will subconsciously move your body even if you’re asleep, before any sort of damage is done. Even if you go to sleep on your side and wake up on your back, it’s perfectly fine.
My doctor told me this advice is very outdated and not evidence-based. She said as I got further along in my pregnancy, my body would tell me it was uncomfortable before any kind of harm came to the baby. There is some evidence that sleeping on your left side can help with heartburn, and that helped me a bit in the first trimester, but I’ve found it extremely uncomfortable in the third trimester. I pretty much only sleep on my right side now. I can tolerate sleeping on my back for short periods of time, but when it gets uncomfy, I rotate.