Sleeping Posture during Pregnancy

Went to Focus Pilates today to sign up for another teaching course. It is now a great time to take up courses since they charge in USD. I saved few hundred dollars compared to 2 years ago!

As we catched up, Daniel from Focus reminded me to sleep on my left side, as I am now into the 5th month of pregnancy. In fact most of the pregnancy info site will give the same advice too. But few of them ever explain why should you sleep on your side and avoid sleeping on the back during pregnancy, making some pregnant ladies all paranoid about their sleep posture. I even saw a message on a forum from a mom-to-be, saying that she was so afraid to accidentally sleep on her back and harm her baby thus ended up having countless sleepless nights!

It is adviced to avoid sleeping on the back, but sleep on the side instead, because from 4th month of pregnancy, the weight of the growing baby will be pressing on the vena cava (the large vein running next to the spine that returns oxygen depleted blood to the heart) when the mother sleep on her back. This may caused discomfort to the mother and cutting down blood supply to the growing baby. As the vena cava is located on the right to the spine, sleeping on the left side will have the least amont of pressure on it. However, sleeping on the back occasionally or unintentionally (especially during your deep sleep when you can't really control your posture) is not fatal to the baby. Our body design is highly intelligent and if you "accidentally" sleep on your back, you will probably be awaken by the discomfort and forced to change your posture. So just relax and try to get some worry-free sleep.

A Good Pillow for Quality Sleep

For the lucky ones we spend around one third of our lives sleeping. So it makes sense to put in effort in choosing the right "sleep-equipments".

"A bad pillow can be damaging your back, insomnia, neck pain shoulder pain, back pain and also headaches" says Marnie Douglas, a physiotherapist and a pillow expert. "Most people have the wrong pillow and they don't know what to look for when choosing a pillow."

Pillow design has become high-tech science. You can buy all sorts - for pregnancy, snoring, allergies, back and neck problems. In polyester, latex, foam, duck down, luxurious goose feathers, special NASA developed materials, even filled with water or buckwheat. They cost from just S$10 up to S$1000.

In fact, a study show that in HK, 90% people already suffer from moderate spinal misalignment due to improper sitting and standing posture, injury or simply lack of physical activity. Misalignment in the spine may cause compression to spinal nerves, thus giving pain. And if your spinal muscle cannot relax completely during sleep (probably due to a bad mattress and pillow), the misalignment problem may be worsen. (NB: click here for more info on "sleep science") So how should you choose a pillow? It was a myth that the firmer the better. In fact, one should checkout how a pillow re-bounce after compression. The stronger the pillow re-bounces, the more likely it may cause cervical misalignment.

Chiropractors use a little trick used to choose pillow, u can give it a try:
1. Lie face-up on the pillow.
2. Raise one of your arms at 90 degree (like pointing to the ceiling)
3. Ask a friend to press your arm down towards your hip, but at the same time u try to resist it.

--> if your body tremble or your head lift off the pillow while you try to resist the pressing force from your friend, it means the pillow does not provide sufficient support for your head.

Of course, if u already have a good pillow and u want to further improve your sleep, practice Pilates so that u can sleep better after de-stressing and re-connecting your mind with the body.

Anyway figure below is a good comparison (extracted from Next Magazine) of 4 common pillow fills for your reference. Click on image to enlarge. English translation follows.

	Pros	Cons	Life-Span	Price	Grading (5* being the best)
Buckwheat	Highly breathable; low re-bounce; conform to body shape regardless of sleep posture, well support the neck	Not machine washable; to be sanitized regularly with sunlight.	Up to 20 years	S$60-200	* * * * *
Foam	Soft; supportive; conforms well to head	Strong re-bounce; may turn moldy as sweat is not easily evaporated	~ 3 years	S$5-200	* * * *
Cotton	Less man-made material; Soft to touch.	The fills condensed & stiffen up with time. Not breathable and go moldy easily	1 year	S$6-10	* *
Goose Feathers	Soft	Not breathable, does not absorb sweat, may cause allergies	3-7 years. Dry-cleaned yearly	$10-100+	*