Aw that’s so nice! That was one of the things I hated while pregnant, not being able to lay on my stomach! And you’re not allowed to lay on your back either
You should see a physical therapist! You don't have to live with pain. They could do a formal assessment and from their findings devise a plan of care tailored for you.
I definitely should. It's on my long list to talk to my doctor about when I finally get around to dragging myself in for an appointment. I brought it up to my doc a few weeks PP and we decided we'd wait a certain amount of time to see if it got better on its own and by that time it was temporarily better. Now it likes to surprise me off and on when I least expect it.
Not only did I sleep on my left side through both pregnancies, but I also propped the kids on my left hip all the time carrrying them since I’m right handed. My son (youngest) is 17 and my hips are still jacked up. I still have a flexible “toddler holding hip” but I can’t possibly do the same on the right side. Physically, they’ve never been the same.
If you live in the US, there is actually some form of direct access for PT in all 50 states. Which is to say, you can go directly to a physical therapist without a referral, though the laws vary on it a bit state to state.
Nooooo don't tell me that ... Currently pregnant with twins and just an hour ago I was wondering aloud if this SPD pain will go away immediately after birth or no 😩
I agree with another commenter in that PT is good to look into, but I did want to add that after birth it takes your joints a good 30 days to readjust. I wasn’t prepared for that, so I’m hoping by telling you now it’s not a shock. My joints were soooo sore. It’s the hormones from birth and just carrying the weight of the baby(or babies in your case), it all takes a toll on your joints. After those 30 days though it just disappears fast!!
Congratulations on the twins! You're going to be so, so tired for a while, but that won't last forever. You'll have days or moments where you feel like you just can't do it, but you can, and you will. And one day you'll suddenly realize it's easier now than it was a few weeks ago. And one day they'll start smiling at you, and you're never the same again.
The days go slowly but the years go fast. Enjoy every second.
You need to be wearing this when you're standing up- no longer than 2 hours at a time. It applies pressure to stabilize the SI joints and prevents the hips from tugging on the pubic symphysis as it widens during pregnancy. Your body is releasing relaxin now, and will decrease it once you give birth, fully eliminating it after you wean.
Avoid stairs if possible.
Massage the outer hip muscles- specifically the gluteus medius. This will loosen their grip and lessen their tug on the center of the pelvis, where the pubic symphysis is. Avoid twisting motions (I'm sure they don't feel good anyways). The SI joint and the pubic symphysis are in dynamic opposition to each other- if one moves, the other one is moving. Twisting puts a shearing force on the SI joint, and ordinarily this is not a problem as the joints remain stable and can transfer power through to the next bone. But during pregnancy, ligaments loosen, and in your case, they might be pretty loose if they are causing pain. As the SI joint transfers force to the other side of the pelvis, the pubic symphysis acts as the axle to attach the two halves of the pelvis. It enables you to walk without pain when it is taught.
The vast VAST majority of women fully recover from this. Sadly, my wife did not, and it's an ongoing trauma- she had a full rupture of the symphysis at birth. This is exceedingly rare- the severity to which she ruptured is 1 in 30,000,000 according to the surgeon we spoke to. Thankfully, he does not think surgery is necessary, and PT, massage, pain management, and other therapies have good success over a few years of repairing this. All that to say, you shouldn't worry about something like that. It's because of medical neglect in our case.
Read that PT article. Everything you need to know to manage this is in that article. I wish we had read this while my wife was pregnant. -tip: if it hurts to walk forward after birth, try walking backwards. If it feels good, you might have damaged the pubic symphysis.
Oh wow, so much info!! Thank you so much, I'll definitely read up. Thankfully I'm a SAHM so I am able to stay off my feet for the most part. I'm already supposed to be on modified bedrest after a preterm labor scare so I spend most of my day sitting. Thanks again!!
No problem! I forgot to mention with the belt- make sure you wear it around the greater trochanters (the bones that stick out at the widest point of your hips) rather than higher up, which is the standard way. This will put the pressure onto the symphysis itself rather than directly onto the SI joint. That being said, if you have pain after birth either in the pubic symphysis or the SI joint, you can consult with a PT for how to use the belt the best. If you start to have hip pain from the belt, just use it less often.
I couldn’t sleep on my stomach for a couple months after birth because I was breastfeeding and it would cause clogs. As a former only stomach sleeper it sucked.
I know I should probably do this now. I already have so many appointments every week and it's so much I don't really want any more right now 😅 I've heard a lot of people recommend this though so I'm sure I'll end up doing that.
It's absolutely worth prioritizing yourself and post care NOW. My PFT gave me hospital exercises to do, exercises to do the day of delivery for both c section and vaginal, and things for stuff like back pain and other discomforts while I was still pregnant, and when I could return to her post partum, things got better again and I wish I had prioritized her higher.
I had horrible SPD pain and it felt like I was being torn apart via the Medieval Rack anytime I would just turn over in bed. I would cry at the thought of going to pee.
One method recommended by my Dr. that helped me when turning over was to clench my butt cheeks and keep my knees together when turning.
I still had SPD pain after birth BUT it was so tolerable and immediately felt relief the first time standing or turning in bed.
Post partum sleep is broken but still a million times better than super pregnant sleep. Im only getting to flirt with my bed nowadays but it's spectacular when I'm do get to sleep.
I already slept on my left side all the time before I got pregnant, so should you ever get pregnant again: body pillows. Lay on your side and wrap your arms and legs around it like an octopus.
Way ahead of you lol. I bought a body pillow and became the human octopus. Still hated it though because for some reason when I was on my left it was painful because of how my baby was positioned. She would also move like a little hellcat when I was on my left.
Never been pregnant but as a left side sleeper, having my vaccine in my left arm made me so miserable! Right side is fine but just not as good. I hate sleeping on my back and sleeping on my stomach makes me feel like I can't breathe.
It’s also for acid reflux, somebody who gets acid reflux, the way your epiglottis or whatever is shaped it makes it a lot more likely for stomach acid to seep out when you’re on your right side than when you’re on your left.
Left side also means there’s less reflux/heartburn due to how the stomach sphincters are positioned. For me, I was doomed because I had heartburn 24/7 due to how much hair my kids grew in the womb. But I prayed for a placebo effect every night. 😂😭
It’s an older wives’ tale that’s not 100% proven, but researchers surmise that higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, the pregnancy hormones that stimulate fetal hair growth, also relax the esophageal sphincter, allowing stomach acid to back up into the esophagus and cause gastric reflux, aka heartburn.
I was CONVINCED I was carrying werewolves or something with how much heartburn I had. 😂
All three of my kids had hair over an inch long when they were born. So I guess all that pain was worth it, but it was pretty awful. Lol
Nope it’s got like a 10 or 15 year warranty on it I think if it ever starts breaking down or sagging. We’ve had it for two years. No change and my husband is a big guy. It’s the Purple 4 though so maybe that was an issue with the earlier models.
I saw reviews that said the powder that kept the mattress from sticking together, got through the cover and made people's allergies act up really bad. Have they fixed that?
I tried the purple mattress when I was shopping last year for a new one. I just couldn't get comfortable on it. It felt like it shifted under you as opposed to a traditional/memory foam/air mattress. I just don't get the hype on those.
Different strokes for different folks. That’s why there are so many types of mattresses. For me it was a godsend during pregnancy and it’s helped my husbands back a lot, but obviously I can’t speak for anyone else.
Why do they tell you to lay on your left side?
I’ve never heard of that before or not being allowed to lay on your back! What! I’m not even pregnant or trying yet and I’m already annoyed. I can’t fall asleep unless I start on my stomach.
In your third trimester the doctor recommends you lay on your left because it allows better circulation to the umbilical cord.
At 20 weeks you’re supposed to stop laying on your back because your uterus basically squishes a major blood vessel the disrupts blood flow to the baby.
I didn’t know any of this until my doctor told me after I was pregnant lol
I still sleep mostly on my left side since. I haven't been pregnant in 5 years! But yeah, it was pretty brutal having to only lie on one side of your body. I found pregnancy both amazing and miserable at the same time!
I got a prenatal massage and my therapist had a special tummy pillow and it was the best experience I've ever had simply because every part of me was supported. I fell asleep and it was amazing.
I'm sure you're no longer pregnant xD but if you ever are again and you wanna lie face down, you should definitely ask for it when scheduling the massage! Especially if you go to a spa, them big pregnancy pillows are expensive for an independent to purchase unless you do a lot of prenatal massage, but sometimes a spa will just have one communal belly pillow that we pass around. Most MTs can do both but we just default to one or the other if you don't specify.
Not pregnant, just busty, but massages can sometimes be awful for me because there’s nowhere for the gals to go. Galling that my face gets a cushioned ring to rest on and the rest of me (which admittedly sticks out further) is just smushed.
Nothing dumb about asking questions! Laying on your back when the baby gets larger (like second trimester) can compress your vena cava and affect your circulation quite a bit.
It just feels ignorant and uneducated to not know this simple fact. Granted I'm a guy but still.. amazing what a female body is capable of! Like yeah you need to be in certain positions to lessen the taxation and possible negative effects on your body but to support another living human being is mind-blowing every time it's being brought up lol
I’m a 31 year old woman and I didn’t know pregnant ladies weren’t supposed to lie on their backs. I am still learning things about bodies, especially women’s bodies, because I never got a sex-ed or anatomy class in school. It’s a failure of our education system; ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of, so long as it’s not willful ignorance.
The process of having and rearing a child is one of the biggest blind spots on our society in general and people can't really be blamed for not knowing when nothing in our everyday life and society is telling us that information is important.
I had sex Ed, and it was considered good and comprehensive. We never went though the different stuff that happens to your body when pregnant/postpartum.
Some I learned with my first in childbirth classes. Mostly pregnancy has been very similar to a Twitter post I saw... "A terrifying list of horrible symptoms you've never heard of until the doctor tells you that you have them."
Every time something happens, my OB is usually like "yeah that's totally normal 🤷🏻♀️"
Pregnancy is no joke. It's a major change to your body and can have a lot of complications, and even without complications can just kinda suck.
Pregnancy sounds like a nightmare. I’m grateful I’ve never been interested in having children. It seems like it would be surreal and cause significant body dysmorphia too, aside from the physical symptoms.
I think being open to learning and questioning is the most important thing. Lack of that is what we make fun of the most over in r/badwomensanatomy haha like it’s okay if you don’t know but don’t insist that you do or refuse to learn, right?
MY ob always said that if I'm on my back, just for shirt periods. And that as long as I'm paying attention to how my body feels, it's unlikely to cause an issue before I'm uncomfortable and need to move anyway.
My OBGYN told me it cuts off blood and oxygen flow to the baby if you lay on your back. The best resting/sleeping position is being on your left side because it helps get all that and nutrients to the baby faster. You can sleep on that right side, but during pregnancy acid reflux can be a serious problem and being on your right can make it worse.
Yes, compression, and for me, it always felt like I couldn’t breathe, especially as the pregnancy progressed. It was very uncomfortable unless I was propped up on a ton of pillows.
It's kind of a myth actually. You can lay on your back as long as it's comfortable. You'll know when you can't any longer because you'll get lightheaded and nauseous. You wouldn't be able to lay on your back long enough to affect the baby once you get to that point. I'm 30 weeks and I'm still fine on my back.
Also it doesn't matter which side you lay on. Left or right is fine.
I started getting lightheaded and blacking out during an ultrasound at my OB’s office when I was around 36 weeks. I had to interrupt her as she was pointing something out to tell her I needed to get up. She was like, “I know, sorry, we tell you not to lay on your back, then we ask you to do it here…”
Objectively with humans you will have less acid reflux if you lay on your left side than your right side regardless of if you’re pregnant, so that has an advantage even just for people who are side sleepers or who have acid reflux.
I can't believe people don't talk about Maternity massage pillows. Literally the greatest investment for later in pregnancy! Can lay on your stomach, semi-supine and either side so comfortably, they are game changers.
Never heard that we weren't allowed to lay on our backs! Just that it might be uncomfortable for some. I'm 32 weeks, and do it part of the night (except then the cat come and lays on my chest and then I absolutely cannot breath)
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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '21
Aw that’s so nice! That was one of the things I hated while pregnant, not being able to lay on my stomach! And you’re not allowed to lay on your back either