No Need to Be Pregnant to Appreciate This "Pregnancy" Pillow

Since the start of the pandemic, my coworkers and I have met via Zoom nearly every week for a staff meeting. As dark as these days have been, we all have felt so grateful for one another.

Meeting up on Zoom each week isn’t the same as interacting in person, of course, but it’s gotten us to connect more frequently than we had before. As the business owner, it means more than I can ever express to know that my crew operates as a unit, working together to support each other and customers’ needs.

Sharing good practices

Sometimes the support we give each other goes beyond our specific bookshop tasks. We talk about our mental health, exercise, inspirations, reading habits, meditation practices, and more. And, especially in spring 2020, we talked a lot about the necessity of good sleep and how we could do better at it. I raved about my Leesa mattress and someone else talked about a white noise machine.

Then my coworker said, “I found my pregnancy pillow and started using it again.”

The decision to buy

She’s not currently pregnant (as far as I know), but talked about how supportive and comfortable the curved pillow was all the same. As she described it, a few of us were taking notes to look it up later.

Anticipating our interest, my coworker sent us the link to where she bought hers. I read several reviews from people who, like me, were decidedly not pregnant but still found the pillow to be helpful for their quality and quantity of sleep.

Reader, I bought the curved “support pillow,” which is sometimes advertised as a pregnancy pillow and other times not, depending on whom the ad is trying to target.

Side sleeper and symptom management

Most of the time, I’m a side sleeper, whether I’m sharing a bed or sleeping solo. I have bought special pillows designed to support my shoulders and neck while sleeping on my side. This wasn’t a flippant purchase but one I’d planned for. My migraine attacks can be triggered by or exacerbated by neck pain, so I do what I can to support my spine from tip to tail.

For the last couple of years, I’ve slept with a regular head pillow between my knees, but I hadn’t invested in a more firm pillow for this purpose, even though I suspected doing so might align my spine better and, as a result, help my hip, leg, and lower back pain.

So when I looked at the photos and reviews of this “pregnancy” pillow, I decided to bite the bullet.

The benefits of the pregnanacy pillow

It is a U-shape, with one arm of the U detachable by a zipper. The firmer, thicker side of the U is perfect for side sleepers. I lay the pillow on my bed, inverting the U-shape so the bottom of the letter is at the top of the bed. I climb in bed, tuck one knee under the U arm and the other on top so my spine is aligned, and rest my head on the curve. Sometimes I add an extra thin pillow under my head for more support.

When reading in bed, I like to nuzzle inside the U so that both arms (that is, before the second arm of mine detached forever due to that broken zipper) are snuggling me on both sides of my body and my upper shoulders are slightly elevated.

Being comfortable while I sleep

The pillow has been especially comforting during a time of chronic stress in the world. I have been single during most of the pandemic, and I haven’t had anyone to cuddle or share a bed with. This pillow is no substitute for a grade-A cuddling human, but it’s provided me with some snuggly feelings during a lonely time.

All in all, I’d recommend one of these pillows if you’re a side sleeper interested in keeping your body aligned and comfortable while you sleep. I’m fairly confident it’s helped my psoriatic arthritis pain, and I know it brings me the sorely-missed sensation of being cuddled/hugged.

Whether or not you’ve been pregnant before, have you used a pregnancy pillow? What did you think of it? If you’ve not ever used one, would you? Why or why not?