I wonder if a black cat crosses the road before boarding the spacecraft, will the start of the expedition be postponed? It's funny to you? Then think about how free you yourself are from such superstitions as "knock on wood" and "spit so as not to jinx it." However, are all folk signs so meaningless?
The wisdom of the people is the quintessence of centuries of life experience, and it would be unreasonable to dismiss it, especially in matters of the course of pregnancy. There is an opinion that a woman who is expecting a baby should not sleep on her back. So is it or not? Can pregnant women sleep on their backs?
A person acquires many different habits throughout life, and a favorite position in a dream is one of them. Sleeping on your back is a sign of health. This pose allows you to relax as much as possible and provide complete rest to the spine and back muscles. Nerve endings, the heart and abdominal organs at the same time experience minimal stress, in addition, after sleeping on the back, there are no traces of bruising on the face from the pillow. In general, this sleeping position is a very healthy and good habit.
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But during pregnancy, many habits, including good ones, women have to give up. These include sleeping on your back, however, not from the very first days of pregnancy. You can continue to sleep like this throughout the first trimester, and then the habit will have to be changed. But there are pitfalls here too: it's about the power of habit. It is no secret that we perform many actions absolutely automatically, without even paying attention to them. This also applies to the position in which we are used to sleeping, so it will take some time to change it. Doctors recommend starting to gradually change sleeping positions from the middle of the second month of pregnancy.
Can pregnant women sleep on their backs in the second trimester?
In the second trimester, the fetus in its development reaches a fairly large size and becomes heavier. There is an increase in the uterus, and it exerts strong pressure on neighboring organs. The kidneys are especially affected, as are the intestines and liver. When a woman in the second trimester of pregnancy sleeps on her back, the load is transferred to a greater extent to the region of the spine, where one of the largest veins, the vena cava, passes. It provides blood flow to the lower parts of the body and limbs.
If a hollow venous vessel is squeezed for a long period, which happens during sleep on the back, then the amount of blood flow to the heart will be significantly reduced and a fainting state will occur:
- breathing intermittent and frequent;
- feeling of suffocation, lack of air;
- dizziness.
Sleeping on your back during pregnancy is all the more unsafe if a woman has high blood pressure or there are sharp drops in it. At the same time, the baby in the womb experiences a lack of oxygen supplied with the blood and a lack of nutrients. Prolonged squeezing effect on the vena cava and insufficient blood supply causes such complications:
- violation of the vital activity of the fetus due to oxygen starvation;
- exfoliation of the placenta from the walls of the uterus, which can be a serious threat to pregnancy;
- damage to the veins in the legs of a pregnant woman in the form of varicose veins;
- development of hemorrhoids.
The answer to the question is also obvious: is it possible for pregnant women to sleep on their backs in the 3rd trimester. Of course not. For the sake of the normal course of pregnancy, you will have to change your usual lifestyle.
What position should pregnant women sleep in?
How to sleep properly during pregnancy? Let's immediately exclude sleep in the supine position, which is understandable and without explanation. The most acceptable position in this case is sleeping on the left side:
- The pregnant woman needs to lie on her left side, stretching her right arm straight in front of her.
- The right leg bent at the knee should be placed on a roller or pillow so that the legs are folded in the shape of the letter P.
Sleeping in this position helps:
- improve blood supply to the fetus and placenta;
- a decrease in swelling in a pregnant woman due to the normalization of kidney function;
- removal of pain in the lumbar and lower pelvic region;
- reduction of uterine pressure on neighboring abdominal organs;
- optimal cardiac performance.
However, we cannot exercise control over our behavior during sleep, especially if there is a strong habit of sleeping on our backs. No need to be scared when you fell asleep on your side and woke up on your back. This happens spontaneously, and staying in this position for a short time will not harm either you or the child.
Often the body wakes up on its own if you lie on your back long enough. But getting used to sleeping on the left side is still necessary. Try lying down facing the wall with a slight tilt. So it will be more difficult for you to roll over on your back, and the wall will not let you lie down on your stomach. As a limiter of movements, you can also use a pillow placed under the back or hips. If sleeping on your left side makes you uncomfortable, try sleeping semi-sitting with a pillow under your left arm and leaning on it.
