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Comment: Here in the Netherlands the story goes that if a woman is pregnate she is forbidden to sleep on an other side that here left side. This becourse sleeping in a other position than that will kill the baby by pressure, this pressure closes the hollow vaine of the baby and couses him to die by lack of blood flow. I'm a nurse and can't find any prove at all for this story to be true. I think it's an urban legende.
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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Not quite. Sleeping on your side may be most comfortable. Sleeping on your back can decrease circulation but you will notice it way before anyone dies.
-------------------- There is no interpersonal problem so big that it can't be solved with a suitably large amount of high explosives. ~ Bufungla Posts: 3562 | From: South Texas | Registered: Oct 2001
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According to my OB: it's not so much the sleeping on the back, but the sudden change in position from laying to sitting than can cause the loss of blood flow to the uterus. This site talks about it as well (about halfway down). So while it probably won't kill the baby, it's not recommended, either.
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Interesting, DW always sleeps on her side or face down, but now that she is pregnant (8 weeks), I've seen her sleeping on her back more times. But she never changes suddenly of position, she makes every movement slowly. Im going to look at her closer.
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I didn't sleep on my back much during pregnancy, especially the last time, just because it wasn't comfortable. If I tried to sleep on my back, it felt like the baby was sitting on my lungs.
Posts: 482 | From: Alabama | Registered: Oct 2004
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You can sleep safely in almost any position - it's just the lack of comfort that won't let you, say, sleep on your stomach at 9 months pregnant. The baby is insanely safe & well-cushioned in there!
-------------------- "Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." - Willy Wonka Posts: 388 | From: Michigan | Registered: Aug 2004
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If you can sleep in ANY position once you get far enough along you are doing good. I couldn't EVER get comfortable. I did notice however that my legs would get numb if I slept on my back for too long.
-------------------- "My Very Educated Mother Just Said Uh-oh! No...Pluto..."~ Steven Colbert Posts: 3256 | From: Somewhere in Ohio | Registered: Apr 2004
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I did read on one of the forums at babycentre.com that you shouldn't sleep on your right side while heavily pregnant, as it impairs liver function.
I am with Bach_girl though in that any sleep you can snatch is good sleep.
Also Annette you're quite right - baby is insanely safe - at the expense of oneself! Posts: 1157 | From: Westcountry UK "It's Bootiful" | Registered: Jul 2005
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oblbrn
The Red and the Green Stamps
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My experience as a OB nurse is that if a pregnant woman lays on her back the weight of the fetus may partially occlude the aorta that runs up her spine & cause decreased bloodflow to the placenta and to mom (which is why so many pregnant women who lie flat on their backs may become lightheaded &/or nauseated). Lying on her left side is optimal because it best increases oxygenated bloodflow for mom (& therefore baby), but the right side is fine too. The best test of position is what the mom-to-be is most comfortable doing. Lying on her back while sitting up (propped with pillows) may be OK as long as she's slightly tilted to one side or the other.
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SO can't find any comfortable spot, as she's 25 weeks with twins. She just repeats, "I am SO not going to like this" as I run to Dunkin Donuts to get her Tropicana Coolatas. -hijack- This is my first time through this, but the whole "pregnant women get cravings" thing is true, isn't it? She hasn't ever asked for the stereotypical "pickles and peanut butter", but we've already had a bologna phase, a cashew phase, a fruit salad and lemonade phase, and now a Dunkin Donuts Coolata phase. And we still have a few months to go.
-------------------- The book says, "We might be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." - Magnolia Posts: 252 | From: East Greenwich, RI, what! | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by oblbrn: My experience as a OB nurse is that if a pregnant woman lays on her back the weight of the fetus may partially occlude the aorta that runs up her spine & cause decreased bloodflow to the placenta and to mom (which is why so many pregnant women who lie flat on their backs may become lightheaded &/or nauseated). Lying on her left side is optimal because it best increases oxygenated bloodflow for mom (& therefore baby)
I guess you mean the descending aorta that runs DOWN her spine. I see how this might cut bloodflow to the baby, but it certainly wouldn't make Mum lightheaded. The blood flow to her brain comes through the ascending aorta which goes UP from the heart, nowhere near the baby. I don't see why lying on her left would "increase oxygenated bloodflow". Lying on the left may be less comfortable as it may increase the tendency to heartburn (reflux up from the stomach) as the gullet enters on the left side of the stomach.
A pillow between the knees helps comfort. as does a waterbed which also helps prevent blood vessels being squashed.
Posts: 670 | From: Australia | Registered: Jul 2005
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I found that once I reached month 5 or so, if I was on my back for more than about 15 minutes I started to feel funny and uncomfortable.
And by the 9th month, you're lucky if you can get comfortable in any position.
Posts: 160 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 2004
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All I know is from experience and I got so lightheaded when lying on my back having ultrasounds with my 2 boys, that they couldn't finish the ultrasounds. Now both my boys weighed over 9 lbs at birth so maybe it was just a weight issue.
Tee Hee, yes, it's common to have all the cravings and with all 3 of my babies I had "phases" like your SO.
BTW, I have been lurking on this board for so long I feel like I know everybody already Sorry for not introducing myself...
5 continents
-------------------- May those that love us, love us. And those that don't may God turn their hearts, and if He can't turn their hearts may He turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping. Posts: 63 | From: Ghana, West Africa/Houston, TX | Registered: Sep 2005
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