Best pregnancy pillow UK

If you want the reasoning behind those sizes, the full breakdown is on our pregnancy pillow shapes page. The rest of this page explains why each one wins its category, and where each one loses.

The Full Body U, 130 by 70 cm

�23.49. 130 cm long by 70 cm wide.

A full U is the shape most people picture when they hear pregnancy pillow, and for a good reason. It is the only shape that supports your bump and your lower back at the same moment. That sounds like a small thing until three in the morning, when you want to turn over. Inside a U you simply roll. The support that was behind you is now in front of you, and nothing has to be lifted, dragged or rearranged in the dark.

Every other shape asks you to do some work when you turn. That is the difference, and it is the whole reason this shape has survived while dozens of clever alternatives have not.

Where it loses

Space, and nothing else. Laid flat it is 70 cm across. A standard UK double is 135 cm across, so the pillow takes just over half of the bed. On a 90 cm single it takes most of it. If somebody else sleeps in that bed, they will feel it every single night, and the pillow that gets resented is the pillow that ends up in the cupboard. That is the honest reason we do not put the U at the top of every list.

See the Full Body U

The G Cloud, 170 by 70 cm

�34.49. 170 cm by 70 cm, grey velvet, zip-off cover.

The G is for anyone who has always gone to sleep wrapped round something. The long side runs down your back, your head rests on the top bend, and the shorter leg comes round in front of you, so you can hold it and rest your top knee on it. The cover zips off to be washed.

Where it loses

It takes the same 70 cm of a double bed as the Full Body U. If you change sides several times a night, the U is the easier shape to turn over in. And on a shared 135 cm double, the Bump Wing covers 36 cm of the length of the bed, where the G covers 170.

See the G Cloud

The Bump Wing, two pieces

�14.99. Two wings on one adjustable band, 64 to 78 by 36 cm.

This is our pick for a shared bed. Instead of one large shape wrapped around you, the Wing is two smaller supports: one that sits under the bump and one that goes against your lower back. Together they hold you on your side, which is the actual job. They just do it in 36 cm of the bed's length instead of 130.

It is also the shape that survives a change of mind. If you decide halfway through the second trimester that you want to sleep the other way round, you move one small set of wings rather than repositioning a metre and a half of pillow.

Where it loses

You have to place it. A U catches you wherever you land. The Wing needs the back support actually against your back, and if it drifts during the night you will notice. You may place it without thinking after a week, or you may never get on with it, in which case a U would have suited you better. If you have the bed to yourself, buy the U.

See the Bump Wing

The Body Bolster, about 122 cm

�12.49. About 122 cm long.

A straight bolster is the least fashionable pregnancy pillow and the one we would buy first if money were tight. It lies along you rather than around you. You put it between your knees, hug the top of it, and it does most of what a U does for a good deal less money and a good deal less bed.

It is also the only one of the four with an obvious second life. After the birth it can prop your arms during feeds. We mention that because a pillow you keep using is better value than a pillow you loved for four months.

Where it loses

It supports one side of you at a time. There is nothing behind your back, so if you are the sort of sleeper who rolls flat onto your spine in your sleep, a bolster will not stop you and a U will. It is a compromise, and we would rather say so than sell it as the best of everything.

See the Body Bolster

Cheaper again, if you mostly want to sit up, read or feed rather than be held all night: the V Pillow, with the positions in how to use a V shaped pillow.

The Bump Lounger, inflatable

�54.49. 170 cm by 65 cm inflated.

This one is not a bed pillow, and we would rather you knew that before you bought it than after. It inflates, it lets you lie on your front, with your bump resting in a hollow at its centre, and it deflates into a bag. It is for the sofa in the evening, for a floor at somebody else's house at Christmas, and for taking away without paying to check a suitcase.

Where it loses

Do not buy it as your only pregnancy pillow. Inflated it is 170 by 65 cm, which is not made for a shared bed, and an inflatable surface is warmer to lie on for eight hours than a filled pillow is. It is a second pillow, and it is an excellent second pillow.

See the Bump Lounger

A buying guide that never sends you elsewhere is not a buying guide, it is an advert. Here are the cases where the right pillow is not one of ours.

• You have been referred to a physiotherapist for pelvic girdle pain. Take their advice over ours and over any shop's. They will often recommend a specific position, and sometimes a specific support, and that is worth more than any product page.
• You want a memory foam pregnancy pillow. We do not sell one: all our filled pregnancy pillows use fibre, apart from one feather and down bolster. The only memory foam we sell is in two small pillows: a knee pillow and a pregnancy wedge. If you have slept well on a memory foam body pillow before and you want one, buy it from somebody who sells it properly.
• You want a pillow that doubles as a proper nursing pillow. The Body Bolster works for feeding, but a purpose made nursing pillow is a different, firmer, curved thing. If feeding is your main use, look at our nursing pillows instead.
• You are already comfortable with two ordinary pillows. Then you do not need this at all. One pillow between the knees and one behind the back is genuinely enough for a lot of people, and nobody makes money telling you that.

Round ups tend to score on comfort, which is not measurable and not comparable between two people of different heights sleeping in different beds. These four things are measurable, and they are what we would check on any pillow, ours or anyone else's.

1. The size against your actual bed

This is the one nobody prints, and it is the one that decides whether the pillow gets used. Before you buy anything, measure your bed. A UK single is 90 cm across, a standard double is 135 cm, a king is 150 cm. Then find the width of the pillow. If the pillow takes more than about half of a bed you share, think hard.

2. Whether you can turn over inside it

You will turn over several times a night, and by the third trimester getting up to rearrange a pillow means you are properly awake. Shapes that support both sides of you at once let you roll. Shapes that wrap one side of you do not.

3. Whether the cover comes off

Check that the cover unzips and goes in a normal machine. This matters more than people expect during pregnancy, and it matters enormously afterwards. The Full Body U cover unzips, so check its care label before washing; for the others the manufacturers do not publish washing instructions.

4. How long you have to change your mind

You cannot tell in a shop whether you will sleep well on something. You can only tell after a fortnight. Our window is 90 nights and you cover the return postage. Whoever you buy from, check that the return period is measured in weeks rather than days, because a fourteen day window is not long enough to know.

The pregnancy pillows that appear in most UK round ups sell for between 38 and 159 pounds. Ours run from 9.49 to 54.49, and you are entitled to ask why before you trust a shop you have not heard of.

The answer is not a secret. Our pillows ship from our suppliers' warehouses, in the UK or abroad depending on the pillow, as our delivery page explains. We carry a handful of products instead of forty. And there is no celebrity partnership and no influencer budget priced into what you pay.

What the price does not cut: free delivery across the UK mainland, and 90 nights to change your mind.

The one thing a low price genuinely should make you check is the return policy, on any site. A cheap pillow with a fourteen day window is a worse deal than a dearer one you can send back in week six, because week six is when you actually know.

• Buying the biggest one because it looks the most supportive. The biggest one is the most supportive, and it is also the one your partner has to sleep around. Support you stop using is not support.
• Buying before measuring the bed. Thirty seconds with a tape measure tells you whether a shape fits your bed before you buy it.
• Waiting for a particular week. Weeks 16 to 20 are a sensible time to start, but if your hips already hurt at twelve weeks there is no reason to wait. Our guide to when to start using a pregnancy pillow goes stage by stage.
• Judging it on the first night. Almost nobody sleeps better on the first night with a new shape in the bed. Give it a fortnight before you decide, which is exactly why a long return window matters more than the price.

This may be the reason you are on this page in the first place, so it deserves a straight answer rather than a product name. If you are searching for a pregnancy pillow for hip pain, or a maternity body pillow to stop your back aching at night, read this section before you look at any of our pillows.

They are all listed together, with prices, on our maternity pillows page.

How common is it? Around 1 in 5 women and birthing people get pelvic pain in pregnancy, and the figures, the four side lying positions and the pillow shape that fits a 135 cm double are all on sleeping positions for hip pain while pregnant.

For hip and pelvic pain at night, the NHS suggests a pillow between your legs for extra support in bed, and the POGP physiotherapy network advises placing a pillow between your knees for sleeping. Any of our night pillows can do that job. What matters is thickness rather than shape, which is why a 122 cm bolster at �12.49 can sit between your knees as well as anything dearer.

If you want support behind you as well as in front, it is the Full Body U if you have the bed for it, and the Bump Wing if you do not. A bolster on its own gives you nothing behind your back.

Rib pain and shoulder pain are usually about height rather than support: the pillow under your head is too low once your shoulder is compressed, and no pregnancy pillow of any shape corrects that. Add an ordinary pillow under your head before you spend anything.

One honest limit. If your pain is sharp, if it wakes you, if it is spreading, or if walking has started to hurt, that is worth a conversation with your midwife rather than a purchase. Pelvic girdle pain responds to physiotherapy and to specific positions, and a pillow is a comfort measure alongside that, not a treatment for it.

Since we are the shop, you should be able to check our working.

We ranked on three things we can actually measure and that you can verify yourself. The first is the footprint: every width on this page is the pillow laid flat, as given in the product specification, set against the three standard UK bed widths of 90, 135 and 150 cm. The second is whether you can change sides inside the shape without sitting up, which is what decides whether a pillow is still in the bed in week thirty. The third is what happens to it after the birth, because a pillow with a second use is better value than one with a single season.

We did not rank on comfort scores, because comfort is not comparable between two people of different heights in different beds, and any shop that gives you a number out of ten for it has made that number up. We did not rank on customer ratings either, for a simple reason: we opened in September 2026 and we do not have enough reviews yet to average honestly. When we do, they will appear on the product pages with the bad ones left in.

If you think we have got something wrong, tell us. Corrections we agree with go onto the page with the date changed, which is the only way you can tell whether a guide is looked after or abandoned.

Not everyone does. If you already sleep through the night on your side without waking up sore, an ordinary pillow between your knees may be enough. You are likely to want more support from around week 16 to week 20, when the bump begins pulling on the hips and lower back at night.

The clearest sign is waking up two or three times to rearrange pillows that keep sliding out of place. That is the problem a single long pillow solves, and it is the only reason to buy one.

Yes, in length and in shape. A normal pillow supports your head. A pregnancy pillow is long enough to hold your head, bump and knees in one line, which makes rolling onto your back during the night less likely. That length is the whole point of it.

It also matters that the filling holds its shape under the weight of a bump. A soft duvet or a spare pillow flattens within an hour and you wake up back where you started.

It depends on how badly you are sleeping. At �25 to �70 for something used every night for four to six months, the cost per night is low. The honest test is whether you are already waking up two or three times a night to rearrange ordinary pillows. If you are not, you can wait.

The shapes that keep their value are the ones you can still use after the birth as a feeding support. A U shape that only fits a bed you no longer have is money spent once.

It holds you on your side and takes the weight of the bump off your hip and lower back. From 28 weeks the NHS and Tommy�s advise sleeping on either side rather than on your back, and a full length pillow makes that position easier to hold without waking up. It does not treat anything.

We are a shop, not a clinic. If something hurts in a way that worries you, speak to your midwife before buying a cushion.

What is the best pregnancy pillow in the UK?

There is no single best pregnancy pillow, because the right one depends on the size of your bed and whether you share it. If you sleep alone or have a king, a full U supports both sides of you at once and is the easiest shape to turn over inside. If you share a standard 135 cm double, a wing or a bolster is usually the better answer: a U covers just over half the width and 130 cm of the length, where a wing covers 36 cm of the length.

How much should a pregnancy pillow cost in the UK?

The pillows recommended in most UK round ups sell for between 38 and 159 pounds. Ours run from 9.49 to 54.49. A low price is not automatically a bargain, so the thing to check is what it is filled with, whether the cover unzips and machine washes, and how long you have to send it back if it does not suit you.

Is a U shaped pregnancy pillow better than a C shape?

For turning over, yes. A U supports your bump and your back at the same time, so you can swap sides without moving the pillow. A C or a J wraps one side of you only, so every time you turn you have to sit up and reposition it. That is the single most common reason a pregnancy pillow ends up on the floor by three in the morning.

Which pregnancy pillow fits a 135 cm double bed?

A 135 cm double is the size where a full U shape becomes a problem. Our Full Body U is 70 cm wide, so it leaves about 65 cm for the person beside you, which is narrower than a single bed. On a 135 cm double, the Bump Wing or the Body Bolster is the honest answer. On a 150 cm king, the U fits. For the timing question, see when to start using a pregnancy pillow.

Can I use a pregnancy pillow after the birth?

Yes. A long bolster can prop your arms during long feeds.

Do you sell the pillows you recommend on this page?

Yes. Every pillow ranked here is one we sell, and you should read the page knowing that. We have not tested our competitors and we do not pretend to have. What we have done instead is publish the measurements, say plainly which shape suits which bed, and name the cases where you should buy something we do not stock.

What is the best type of pillow to use during pregnancy?

It depends on your bed more than on your bump. A full U shape supports your back and your bump at the same moment, but it is 70 cm wide and needs the mattress to spare. On a shared 135 cm double, a two piece wing or a straight bolster is the better answer. On a 90 cm single, a wedge is the only shape that fits without taking the bed over.

These pages are written and kept up to date by Serge, who runs Pregnancy Pillow UK. He is not a midwife, and nothing here is medical advice. If you have pain that is getting worse, or any bleeding, speak to your midwife or your GP rather than buying a pillow. Last reviewed 20 September 2026.