Sleeping in pregnancy

Once you start noticing your bump getting bigger - around 20 weeks of pregnancy, it is important to avoid sleeping on your back. The reason for this is because the weight of the baby can compress the blood vessel which supply the placenta. There has been some research which has found that sleeping on your back in late pregnancy is associated with a small risk of still birth.

There has also been one study which found that sleeping on the left side was more beneficial. Although this has not been concluded in other studies, one of the benefits of sleeping on your left side is that it is thought to help with waste removal from your kidneys.

Sleeping on any side is better than sleeping on your back, and sleeping on your left side may be more beneficial than sleeping on your right.

To help you sleep on your side, you can try the following:

• use a pregnancy pillow to make it more comfortable at night

• Put a pillow behind you to stop you rolling over onto your back

• put your hair in a bun to make it uncomfortable to sleep on your back

• If you wake up on your back, just change your position back to the side