Pregnancy Often Comes With Sleep Challenges
A woman’s body goes through many amazing changes when she becomes pregnant and many of those are unexpected at first. Many women are surprised to learn of the many different and challenging side-effects of experiencing pregnancy. Many people joke about not getting sleep after the child is born, but pregnancy brings its own collection of sleeping problems. Obviously women expect to be inconvenienced by trying to sleep with an expanding belly, but there may be lots of other unexpected sleep issues.
Charley Horses: Many women suffer from painful bedtime calf cramps. Calf muscle cramps may strike at any time during the pregnancy, but they are most commonly experienced in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Changes in vitamin intake, dehydration and the quick weight gain of becoming pregnant can often be reasons for nighttime leg cramps. There are a number of preventative measures for muscle cramps, but be sure to ask your doctor before using them.
Constipation issues: It is no surprise that many women should have problems with digestion during pregnancy. The stomach and other bodily organs are being squeezed together to make room for the expanding baby and that tightness commonly impacts the digestive system the most. Pregnant women may not always be able to get much relief from digestion issues because some drugs designed to alleviate these symptoms are not pregnancy safe.
Unexpected urination problems: Almost all expecting women experience an increased need to urinate much more frequently than they are used to. There is some debate over how much being pregnant causes to adult bed wetting.Pressure against the bladder and increased pressure on the kidneys can cause some women to urinate three to five times each night. Some pregnant women suffer through one or more unexpected nocturnal bedwetting episodes during their pregnancy.
Pregnant women should be forewarned about sleep difficulties by their doctors in advance. Some doctors advise pregnant women to sleep with pillows around them for convenience and to lay on their left side to help alleviate some of these sleep issues. Different sleep issues will come and go during the course of a pregnancy, and not all women suffer from the same sleep challenges.
