Why sleep on the left side?

[Livinthedream]

Hi y'all. Am wondering why all the books say the left is the best side to lay on. Is it to avoid squishing organs on the right?

[Kazbah]

It's to aid blood circulation & oxygen transfer.

[Schmickers]

There is a large blood vessel that goes to the lower half of the body called the inferior vena cava. Supposedly if you sleep on the right side the uterus can compress this blood vessel and limit blood flow. To be honest, I've not heard of a case of it happening, and I'd like to think that we are a bit better designed than that.

[tutmae]

I've been waking up on my right side in the morning sometimes. Do you guys think this is a problem? I don't feel dizzy or anything and I acually seem to sleep a lot better than on my left. If I sleep on my back I have a pillow under my legs and sometimes a bit under my backside on the right hand side to keep my hips tilted a bit to the left.

[MantaRay]

My ob told me it doesn't matter which side you lie on. And lying on my right side never caused me a problem, although lying on my back did once - I was only on my back for a few minutes for an ob exam and whammo, major drop in blood pressure.

[hj1981]

My OB said the same - and throughout my whole pregnancy i slept on my right hand side - even tho i use to prefer my left, but bub would kick me like crazy until i rolled over, so now my right side is my fav side and i didnt have any problems!