Sleep on your side when baby’s inside

When should you sleep on your side in pregnancy? Why should you sleep on your side in pregnancy? Should you sleep on the left side or the right side? How can you get comfortable sleeping on your side in pregnancy?

Despite great advances in research and care for women and babies, the stillbirth rates have remained relatively stable. Stillbirth has lifelong impacts to women, families, caregivers, communities, and the healthcare system. Therefore, there is now a global health focus on preventing stillbirth. One of the easily modifiable risk factors for stillbirth is sleeping on your back after 28 weeks gestation of pregnancy.

Observational evidence has shown an association between sleeping on your back in pregnancy and stillbirth after 28 weeks of pregnancy. Sleeping on your back during pregnancy increases your risk of stillbirth by 10%, that means that 1 in 10 stillbirths could be preventing simply by avoiding sleeping on your back.