Pregnancy Pillow: Types and Benefits
A pregnancy pillow? Yes, it exists. In fact, it’ll become your best partner until your baby is born. What’s more, you’ll continue using these pillows a bit longer than that, because they’re quite useful during breastfeeding as well. Once your belly starts growing, there comes a time when you can’t find a comfortable position. The extra weight, the muscle pain, and your baby’s movements may make it really hard for you to fall asleep.
That’s the moment when you should start using these useful and simple accessories. If you’re having trouble falling asleep or you’re feeling any kind of pain, continue reading about pregnancy pillows. In fact, they’re specially designed to make you feel comfortable.
“Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials”
-Meryl Streep-
What the pregnancy pillow can do for you
You may find it surprising, but a pregnancy pillow can be more helpful than you think. Actually, it’ll give you support for your belly, back, and legs during your pregnancy stages. Furthermore, you’ll be able to use it later on, when the time to breastfeed your baby comes.
Actually, these pillows are very useful for breastfeeding your baby, and also for giving them the bottle. This is because you’ll be able to put your baby on the pillow and find a comfortable position for yourself so you don’t hurt your back. In addition, when babies start growing, you can still use them, because when the time comes, they’ll help your baby remain seated. Therefore, you’ll get to see what a useful investment you made when you bought it.
Benefits of pregnancy pillows
During your third trimester, a pregnancy pillow will help you be more comfortable. In fact, many women use it during labor, when their first contractions come. This is why we’ll talk about some of the benefits of the pregnancy pillow:
- They adapt perfectly to the shape of your body.
- They provide the perfect adjustment for your back, belly, hips, and legs.
- Pregnancy pillows are perfect for alleviating all types of pregnancy discomforts, like pelvis pain, leg cramps, etc.
- They help prevent heartburn and backache.
- They prevent you from moving too much when you sleep, which promotes a good rest.
- You can easily wash one in the washing machine.
- After the babies are born, you can use it to breastfeed them.
Pregnancy pillow: Different types
As we’ve mentioned before, they’re perfect for helping you sleep properly, having rest while you read a book, and feeding your baby. Besides, they’re very useful at reducing leg cramps. Their design allows you to adapt to the different positions doctors recommend, like on your side or with your legs up, which helps you alleviate muscle pain.
In different shops, you’ll be able to find many options of different shapes, materials, sizes, and prices. Next, we’ll talk about some of the most common types.
Wedge-shaped pillow
These pillows have the shape of a triangle or a letter C, and they’re usually made of foam. Besides, they adapt to your belly while it grows and they help alleviate pain in specific areas. One of their main advantages is that they’re small, easy to store, and you can still use them after the baby’s born.
U-shaped pillow
This type of pregnancy pillow is bigger than the others. This is because it’s supposed to support your whole body, from head to toes. In addition, they help you sleep on your side, which is good for your blood flow and oxygenation. They also limit your movements, and some of them may have the shape of a body.
C-shaped pregnancy pillow
These pillows are also known as full-body pillows, and they’re pregnant women’s favorite pillows. This is because they allow women to sleep on their side while they rest their head, back, and belly on them. However, these pillows are quite big, which might be a bit uncomfortable for you and your partner.
Long pregnancy pillow
These pillows are quite similar to c-shaped pillows, but they’re a bit straighter. You can rest your whole body on them and, because they’re long, you can adapt them to any situation. In fact, their flexibility is what makes them so comfortable for pregnant women.
On the other hand, remember that you can use any kind of pillow or cushion you find at home to have a good rest. You just need something to support your belly, lumbar area, and legs. This will help you feel more relaxed.
Think about all these options and find the one that suits you the best. Notwithstanding, don’t hesitate to use a pregnancy pillow. This is going to be one of the best things to help you relax during your stages of pregnancy.