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Worried about the regular sleep deprivation post pregnancy? It comes as one of the most common woes of new moms. Not getting ample sleep is never a good thing for your body.
By adopting this technique, you might want to do away with less useful (and perhaps sleep-deterring) sources such as a cup of coffee. A lot of mothers rely on coffee in their post-pregnancy period because it jolts them through the day. But it will not put them to uninterrupted sleep if they want their eyes shut in the night.
Some women try to avoid sleeping during the day for fear of staying up through the night. This might have an added disadvantage of putting your body at a need for more sleep, but getting fewer hours. So napping during the day, and still managing to sleep during nights is an ideal situation.
You should make sure to catch up on all the necessary sleep after you have had a baby. How do you do it? There’s a way out. Read on to know.
A new study that has been published in the journal CHEST discusses a specific sleep position that helps postnatal women drift off to sleep much more easily and safely.
The study by a group of scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital assessed the breathing patterns of new mothers 48 hours post delivery. They studied the airflow of the mothers and the size of the airway in a seating position, at a 45-degree recline, and while lying down. They figured out that the diameter of the upper respiratory passage increased when the women would move from lying flat to reclining at an angle of 45 degrees which indicated an improved breathing pattern, according to Dr. Matthias Eikermann, the lead study author.
It’s been speculated that some pregnancy-related maternal death is due to obstructive sleep apnea or OSA that could affect some women at the time of pregnancy, cardiac problems being one of them. It may find its way into postpartum weeks owing to the hormonal levels which inhibit the muscles of the airway and increase abdominal volume leading to pressure on the airway.
OSA has also been linked with insomnia and fatigue. You tend to have a fatigued morning if you keep waking up frequently at any given hour because of airway collapse. With a decrease in the quality of sleep, there is an impairment of cognitive function.
Eikermann says that an elevated body position has helped cure sleep apnea in fifty percent of the mothers. Eikermann noticed this trend among all those women who suffered from moderate to severe OSA. Plus it hardly costs you anything and is a simple way to overcome sleep apnea. Therefore it might make sense for new mothers to lift their upper body and breathe easy after birth.
The best part is that you don’t need major props, tools, or gadgets to achieve this. All you need is a pillow or two that will help you to raise the position of your upper body. You simply need to ensure that the cushions are piled on top of each other neatly under the chest and the shoulder blades to raise the entire upper body along with your head. Should a new mother assume the reclined position for a minimum of three days following the delivery when there is a higher likelihood of problems, propping up their pillows might work as their best savior.
