11 week pregnancy sleeping position?

What Are the Best Sleeping Positions When You | re Pregnant?

Side sleeping
Tips for side sleeping
Stomach sleeping
Back sleeping

From steering clear of your favorite contact sports to shunning certain foods, the do | s and don | ts list of pregnancy can be a bit overwhelming.

And as your belly grows week after week, you may be adding sleep positions to your list of concerns.

Here | s some help wading through the myths and facts related to sleep positions during pregnancy and how the way you rest affects the health of your baby and you.


Side sleeping: Left vs. right

Doctors generally recommend sleeping on your side during pregnancy, especially as time goes on.

Why is this exactly? It boils down to blood flow. As the fetus gets bigger, there is greater chance of compression of the blood flow to the uterus.

However, doctors still continue to tilt patients when they are lying down during a cesarean delivery, commonly called a c-section, or when they are in labor with abnormal heart rhythms.

A 2019 review of medical studies suggests that sleeping on your back carries risks, but it doesn | t seem to matter whether you sleep on your right or left side.

These studies do have some flaws, though. Third trimester pregnancy loss is very uncommon. Therefore, there aren | t many cases from which to draw conclusions.

Additionally, it | s difficult to determine exactly when the fetus passed away and whether there were other factors involved. It can be challenging to pinpoint what is occurring in utero without monitoring.

The study did find, however, that there was an increased risk of stillbirth for back sleepers after 28 weeks.

There | s a lot of mixed data on whether lying flat on your back during pregnancy contributes to an increased risk of stillbirth.

A 2019 studyTrusted Source of about 800 women for up to 30 weeks of pregnancy examined the sleeping positions of those who experienced stillbirths.

The researchers found no association between those who reported sleeping on their back or a non-left side sleeping position.

Currently, only a limited number of studies are available on this topic. More research is needed to be certain whether or not there is an association between stillbirths and sleeping positions up to 30 weeks of pregnancy.
Left side

Sleeping on your left side is often referred to as the “ideal” scenario during pregnancy.

Positioning yourself on the left side of your body allows for optimal blood flow from the inferior vena cava (IVC).

This large vein runs parallel to your spine on the right side and carries blood to your heart and, in turn, to your baby.

Sleeping on your left side also takes the pressure off your liver and your kidneys. This means more room to function properly, helping with swelling issues in your hands, ankles, and feet.
Right side

So, if the left side is ideal — should you avoid the right side? Not necessarily.

That 2019 review showed equal safety with sleeping on the left and right sides. There | s a slight risk of compression issues with the IVC when you sleep on the right, but it | s mostly a matter of where you | re comfortable.
A note about baby | s sex

You may have heard that your sleep side indicates the sex of your baby. This is just an urban legend. There are no studies to suggest that sleep position has any correlation to the sex of your baby.