How to use a pregnancy pillow

Every pregnancy pillow does the same three jobs: it stops your bump pulling downwards, it keeps your hips stacked instead of twisting, and it makes your side hard to roll off. The shapes differ in how much of that they do at once.

From 28 weeks the NHS and Tommy’s advise sleeping on either side rather than on your back. A pillow does not make that happen by itself. It makes the position comfortable enough that you stop leaving it in your sleep.

If you have not chosen a shape yet, read pregnancy pillow shapes compared first. This page assumes you already have one in front of you.

Lie inside the U with one arm of it behind your back and the other in front of you. Pull the front arm down between your knees. The curve at the top takes your head, so you do not need your usual pillow as well.

Getting the height right

If your neck feels pushed forward, you have too much under your head. Slide down the pillow by a few centimetres rather than folding it: folding it creates a ridge under your shoulder.

Turning over without leaving it

This is the one real advantage of the U. Roll onto your back for a second, then straight over to the other side. The arm that was behind you is now in front of you and you pull it between your knees again. You never have to sit up.

If you share the bed

Our Full Body U is 130 by 70 cm. On a 135 cm double that leaves roughly 65 cm for the person next to you, which is less than a single bed. On a 150 cm king it works. If that is going to start an argument, a wing or a bolster is the honest answer.

The C goes behind you, not in front. The top curve supports your head and neck, the long back runs down your spine, and the bottom curve comes forward between your knees. If you have it the other way round, your back is unsupported and the pillow will feel useless.

The mistake almost everyone makes first

Hugging the C from the front. It feels nice for ten minutes and then your back aches, because nothing is stopping you rolling backwards. The C is a back support with a leg extension, not a cuddle.

Changing sides

Unlike the U, you have to move the C when you turn over. Sit up slightly, lift it across, lie back down.

A G is a C with a shorter leg that comes round the front. Lie inside the curve: the long side runs down your back, your head rests on the top bend, and the shorter leg sits in front of you, where you can hold it and rest your top knee on it. You get the back support of a C and something to hug at the same time.

Changing sides

As you roll over, lift the shorter leg across so it lands between your knees on the new side; the long side can stay where it is. If you turn over many times a night, a U, which holds both sides at once, is less work.

We sell one, the G Cloud, 170 × 70 cm.

A wedge goes under the side of your bump, thin edge tucked towards your body, so it lifts the weight without pushing you backwards. It is the smallest option and the only one that fits a single bed, a hotel bed or a sofa without taking it over.

Pairing it with an ordinary pillow

A wedge under the bump and a normal pillow between the knees covers most of what a full length pillow does, for a fraction of the space. This is the cheapest thing that works and we will say so even though we sell the bigger ones.

Where a wedge runs out

It does nothing for your back. If what wakes you is lower back ache rather than bump weight, a wedge is the wrong tool.

Run it down the front of your body: head at the top, arm over it, knee bent over the lower half. Your top leg should rest on the pillow at hip height, not drop past it onto the mattress, because that drop is what twists the pelvis.

Using two instead of one

One in front and one behind turns a straight pillow into something close to a U, and you can wash them separately. Our Body Bolster is about 122 cm, so two of them still cost less than most single U shaped pillows.

After the birth

A bolster is the shape that keeps working. Curled round your waist it holds the baby at breast height, which is the position you would otherwise build with cushions.

Put the pillow behind you, not in front. A full length pillow or the back arm of a U along your spine gives you something to meet when you roll, and it can stop you halfway, so you settle back onto your side.

Waking up on your back is not an emergency. Tommy’s is clear that what matters is the position you go to sleep in, because that is the one you hold longest. Turn back onto your side and go back to sleep.

Hip pain on the side you sleep on

The pillow between your knees is too low. It needs to be thick enough that your top knee sits level with your hip. If it drops below, the whole leg pulls the pelvis round and the hip takes it.

Lower back ache

Move the support behind you rather than in front. It is easy to put everything in front of you and leave your back against nothing.

Heartburn

The NHS says propping your head and shoulders up when you go to bed can stop stomach acid coming up while you sleep. If it is waking you every night, speak to your midwife: this is not something a cushion fixes.

Rib ache under the bump

Bring the pillow higher so it supports the side of the bump rather than sitting under it. Under it, it pushes upwards into the ribs.

Whatever shape you own, the pillow between your knees has to be thick enough that your top knee sits level with your hip. If it drops below that line, the whole leg pulls the pelvis round and your hip takes the strain all night. This is the single most common reason people say a pregnancy pillow did not work for them.

This is not a detail we invented to sell pillows. It is the single gesture that Tommy’s gives for pelvic pain in pregnancy, in its own words: putting a pillow between your legs in bed. Physiotherapists say the same thing, and the reason the height of that pillow decides whether it works is set out on sleeping positions for hip pain.

If your pillow is too thin for this, you do not need a different pillow. Fold the end of it, or add an ordinary pillow under it until the knee comes up. Height is the thing that matters here, not the shape.

1. Keeping your own pillow as well. A U or a C already has a head section. Two layers push your neck forward all night.
2. Letting the top knee drop past the pillow. This is the single most common one, and it undoes most of the benefit.
3. Buying a shape bigger than your bed. Measure the bed before the pillow. Our shapes page lists the real footprint of each one against 90, 135 and 150 cm beds.
4. Giving up on night two. Almost everyone sleeps worse the first two nights because the position is unfamiliar. Judge it at a week.

Yes. Curled round your waist a U or a bolster can hold the baby at breast height and take the weight off your arms and shoulders during long feeds.

One thing we will not tell you is to leave a baby propped on a pillow unattended, or to put any pillow in a cot. Safe sleep guidance is a flat, clear cot, and that is not our opinion to soften.

• Pregnancy pillow shapes compared, with the real footprint of each one against a 90, 135 and 150 cm bed.
• When to start using a pregnancy pillow, trimester by trimester.
• Best pregnancy pillow UK, our main shapes ranked by the situation they suit.
• All our maternity pillows, with the price and the width of each one on a single page.
• Sleeping positions for hip pain, the four positions and which shape actually stays between your knees.
• How to use a V shaped pillow, the six positions, including the one for side sleeping in pregnancy.