Here at JustExhale we often get asked about sleeping on your tummy in pregnancy and the safest ways to sleep in order to be comfortable whilst also keeping your baby safe.
First Trimester
During the first trimester of pregnancy, it is absolutely fine to sleep on your tummy. You will not have much of a bump and so there are no ramifications for yourself or your baby.
Second Trimester
Once you reach the second trimester, you will start to notice a bump. This is when you will start to find sleeping on your tummy uncomfortable. You might find that as this stage you naturally find another more comfortable way of sleeping.
Third Trimester
By the time you reach the third trimester, you are likely to have a fairly big bump. Therefore, it’s highly unlikely that you would be comfortable sleeping on your tummy and it would be best not to. If you wake up and you are on your tummy, you should roll onto your side.
During the third trimester, it has been shown that sleeping on your side reduces the risk of stillbirth. This is because when sleeping on your tummy the weight of the baby and the womb put pressure on your main blood vessels. This pressure can restrict the blood flow between yourself and your baby. Research has also shown that sleeping on your back during the third trimester, can decrease oxygen levels for you and your baby.
Getting Comfortable
The bigger the bump, the more uncomfortable you are going to be; this is inevitable. You will find that you wake a lot in the night and you may find that you end up sleeping in all sorts of weird positions over the course of the night.
Do not worry about the position you wake up in but try and start off the night sleeping on your side as this is the position you are most likely to stay in. If you haven’t already tried using pillows or got a pregnancy pillow to help you get comfy, now’s the time!
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