Pregnancy triggers a number of physical as well as physiological changes in your body. As your pregnancy advances, it is common to experience sleep difficulties. And yet, you need to rest soundly during this crucial stage. The usual difficulties faced in sleeping during pregnancy include back ache, heart burn, shortness of breath and sleeplessness. Of course discomfort due to an increased abdomen size is the most dominant cause.

What sleep postures to avoid?

During the advanced stages of your pregnancy, you should avoid sleeping on your back or your stomach. With the growing size of your abdomen, you will obviously find it difficult to sleep on your stomach. Sleeping on your back during pregnancy may aggravate back pain and breathlessness. This position is also not good for your digestive system and may lead to low blood pressure. Less blood may also reach the baby.

Good sleeping positions during pregnancy

The best sleeping position during pregnancy is commonly known as “SOS” or Sleeping on Side. It is better still to sleep on your left side with a pillow between your legs. You will also find it comfortable to keep your legs and knees bent. The SOS position improves circulation to reach your baby. For back ache, short breaths and heartburn, try the SOS posture with pillows to prop up your upper portion.

You can also put a pillow under the abdomen for convenience. It is perfectly fine to rotate positions during the course of the night.

Prevention is better than cure! As the saying goes, one can never be too careful, particularly when pregnancy is concerned. A sudden abdominal ache in an odd hour can often bewilder a pregnant woman and she may hesitate whether to call the doctor or not. However, it is always safer to do so.

Apart from abdominal pain, there can be several other symptoms, which indicate when to call the doctor.

Some symptoms

After the starting of regular movement by the baby in the womb, if that suddenly decreases, it is essential to inform the doctor. The doctor may also advice to monitor the baby’s activity by daily kick-count and then to inform him/her when necessary.

Abdominal tenderness, vomiting/vomiting accompanied by fever and very high fever/chills are those symptoms, which call for immediate attention. Similar saying goes in case of problems like painful/burning urination or little/no urination, severe headache or headache accompanied by disturbed vision and slurred speech and also various visual disturbances like double images, blurred vision, dimming, floaters, flashing lights, etc.

After 37 weeks of pregnancy, any increase in mucous discharge or any change in its form (it can become watery, bloody or blood tinged) should be immediately reported. Medical help should also be called for pelvic pressure, low back pain, menstrual-like cramping, persistent or severe calf pain or leg cramp, any kind of any swelling in face, hand, feet or leg or a sudden weight gain (more than 4lbs/week).

Some other persistent signs are fainting, frequent dizziness, heart palpitation, breathing problem, chest pain, coughing up of blood, severe constipation along with abdominal pain, severe diarrhea and a feeling of intense itching.

The urgency of many of these symptoms depends on the medical history of the pregnant mother and also on her state of health during pregnancy. However, it’s better to be a little extra cautious and report any kind of any illness or uneasiness to the medical help than to ponder over when to call the doctor!