WHY PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULDN’T LAY ON THEIR BACK – Maternal supine hypotension syndrome
When the Womb Leans on the Vein
And so there you are, heavily pregnant, lying on your back, and suddenly the world begins to sway. And you wonder why a simple position feels like betrayal… why your body, which has carried you all these years, now seems to turn against you.
It is not betrayal, my dear, it is physiology. Because as your pregnancy advances, your womb becomes not just a womb but a weight…firm, full, insistent… pressing down on the great vessel we call the inferior vena cava, the very river that returns blood from your legs to your heart.
And when that river is blocked, even slightly, the heart receives less blood. And when the heart receives less, the whole body protests. You feel dizzy. You feel lightheaded. You feel your body whispering to you, “not this way, not anymore.”
That is why, during an ultrasound, lying flat feels like a struggle between comfort and survival. That is why we call it maternal supine hypotension syndrome… but names are less important than knowing that your body is speaking to you, urging you to shift, to tilt, to lean.
And so we tell you: lie on your side, preferably your left, or wedge a pillow beneath your hip. Small gestures, but they make the womb kinder, they lift its weight off that river, and they keep the oxygen flowing to both you and the little life inside you.
And you realize it is not weakness. It is wisdom. Your body is teaching you how to care for yourself, how to listen, how to lie down not just in any way, but in the way that keeps both heart and womb aligned.
Dr Ose Etiobhio
