How to Sleep While Pregnant

Video Transcript

"Are you pregnant? Lying in bed, and can't get to sleep. Well, unfortunately that's one of the common side effects of pregnancy, difficulty in sleeping. I'm Doctor Jill from Tampa here to tell you how to sleep in pregnancy. Well, does it matter you've been sleeping your whole life. It actually does. Two things, in pregnancy position makes all of difference. As your belly starts to grow, starting about anywhere from the fourth to the fifth month, belly's going to pooch out, no more lying on your belly. You want to make sure that you're either on your back or on your side. On your back is safe when it's that early. Once you hit about five months to six months, you always want to be on your side, the reason is that it increases the blood flow to the baby, through the placenta. If you're laying flat on your back, that big pregnant uterus is pushing on the blood vessels that bring the blood to the heart. As the hearts trying to push the blood out, it's not as good and not as much blood flow goes to the baby. So, always sleep on your side after about twenty weeks, that improves baby's circulation and helps mom, you also won't get dizzy. If you lay flat on your back when you're farther along, you could pass out, same reason as before. Other problems are that your dreams become vivid. Sleep is hard because you go to bed and nightmares can occur and all of these vivid dreams start happening. No way to really prevent that, but try to go to bed at ease. Maybe watch a little T.V, read books, have soothing lavender. All of those things can help you get a restful nights sleep. If you're still not sleeping, you want to talk to your health care provider, because then they can help, maybe prescribe some medication, like even something as simple as Benadryl. That will help you sleep through the night, and improve your well being. I'm Doctor Jill from Tampa, Florida telling you how to sleep during pregnancy."