Does the side you sleep on seem like a trivial detail? Well, think again. According to researchers in New Zealand, the life of your unborn child could depend on it. Pregnant women are advised that sleeping on their left side reduces the risk of having a stillborn infant by half.
Though the hypothesis has lead researcher Tomasina Stacey, a graduate student in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Auckland, excited, she's clear that further research is needed before all pregnant women are advised to sleep in this position.
So why the left? Experts claim it has to do with improved blood flow to the fetus. Having interviewed 155 women who had a stillborn infant after at least 28 weeks of gestation, researchers then compared these women with 310 pregnant women with routine ongoing pregnancies.
U.S. News reported that the pregnant women were asked about "their sleep position during the last month of their pregnancy, the last week of their pregnancy and on the night they believed the stillbirth occurred".
They were also asked about snoring, daytime sleepiness, if they regularly slept during the day during the last month of pregnancy, how much sleep they got at night and how many times a night they got up to use the bathroom.
The only factor that appeared to be connected to the stillbirths was the sleeping position: with stillbirths occurring in approximately two out of every 1,000 pregnancies among women who slept on their left side. A link, sure, but a tenuous one at that.
For many women, sleep is hard enough to come by with a huge bump in the way. Would you modify your sleep position to reduce the chance of stillbirth, or simply take sleep in whatever position you can get it?
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