Carrying a baby can be described as one of the most amazing periods of a woman’s life. It would be wrong to state that everything is ideal when pregnancy is in question, but you would not be wrong to say it is special in every single way.
A future mother-to-be goes through numerous processes, both mental and physical, that prepare her to deliver a new life into the world. Now, particular things should be potentiated during pregnancy and the others that should be avoided, so there are numerous situations when an expectant mother does not know what is right or wrong, so in most cases, they google the issue and try finding answers online.
One of the doubts concerns sleeping positions, so we will try to bring you closer to the answer whether it is safe to sleep on a sofa when pregnant or you should pick another place to rest.
Sleep Is Crucial
It is out of the question that quality sleep is one of the most important factors that influence both the health of the mother-to-be and the baby. It is the sleep that enables both of them to prepare for the upcoming happening of the year and rest both their minds and bodies.
Although sleep is of utter importance during pregnancy, a child-bearing woman should not overdo it. For a healthy person, more than 8 hours of sleep is considered too much, while hitting the hay for less than 6 hours could be bad for your health.
Surely, those are universal numbers so you should not worry about them if you manage to function without struggling even with different sleeping habits, but when you have a baby inside your belly you should try not to sleep more than 9 hours consecutively since it can endanger the wellbeing of your child.
Positioning
The way you sleep is as important as how long you do it. Although you might have a favorite sleeping position, you should reconsider practicing it since it might be endangering the condition of the baby. If you enjoy sleeping on your three-seater sofa, you can continue doing it as long as you do not sleep on your back, or your belly.
Although it might sound unlikely, sleeping on your back slows down the oxygen exchange between yourself and the baby. If you did not notice it, pay attention to it when you lay on your back and you should experience light dizziness within minutes.
When you are aware of how fast it actually affects your state, you would like to avoid it until you give birth and your body returns to normal. We would like not to go into detail about why sleeping on your belly is bad since it is self-explanatory. From all the aforementioned, we come to the conclusion that sleeping on your side is the best solution when you are pregnant.
When the sofa is in question, you can relax and enjoy your favorite resting place as long as you find it comfortable and respect the aforementioned suggestions. At sofa-club.co.uk you can find additional info on various models and pick the right one if your current sofa does not meet your wants and needs.
3 Trimesters
Pregnancy is usually divided into trimesters, which are nothing more or less than stages in a baby’s development. Every trimester is important and unique in its way since you need to provide the baby with adequate care in order to facilitate it both for the mother and the baby when the time of delivery comes.
The good news for you is that resting is recommended during the whole pregnancy, but you should especially be careful when the third-trimester sets in. Therefore, add a pillow or two to raise the comfort of your sofa to another level, and rest assured that you are totally safe as long as you avoid spending too much time laying on your back.
Left or Right Side?
Although you can choose both left or right side while you are taking a nap on your sofa, the truth is that you should spend more time on your left, since the experts emphasize this position enables the bloodstream of the mother-to-be to pump blood through the system more easily.
What is also a positive aspect of sleeping on your left is that the placenta receives more oxygen and nutrients from the mother which affects the baby’s condition in a beneficial way. You should not worry if spending time on your left side is too difficult for you, since doing it the other way around does not affect the baby’s condition negatively. Just make sure you avoid laying on your back and belly, and you will be as safe as possible.
Comfort
Another important factor that affects both the mother and the baby is the quality of sleep, which is largely influenced by how comfortable they feel while sleeping. Thus, if you find your sofa as cozy as ever, feel free to spend as much time as you can laying around, but you should consider switching it with another piece of furniture if you fail to get the comfort you need.
Also, what you should make sure of is that your sofa should be large enough to support your full body length since it would be inappropriate for you to squeeze yourself just to fit in. Remember that your baby feels everything that you do, so make sure you make it enjoy as much as possible. Hopefully, you have learned a thing or two when sleeping on sofas while pregnant is in question. Your sofa is your friend as long as you enjoy the comfort it provides.
On the other hand, make sure you follow the aforementioned instructions considering sleep positions and avoid spending time on your back as much as you can. And, we should warn you to be careful, since if you enjoy your sofa so much, your baby might appreciate it even more, so in the end, you might have to find another place to sleep if it becomes too tight for all of you.