Maybe you're in the same position right now. Perhaps your doctor has prescribed bed rest and at the time, you were too shocked or panicked to ask two all-important questions:

"Why?" and "Will it do any good?"

I think these are excellent questions to ask. Not only will the information empower you, but, if you're anything like me, the answers will help you to feel better about going to bed.

Why?

I trawled the internet to found out why bed rest is prescribed:

Wikipedia tells us it can be prescribed for complications of pregnancy like:

• preterm labour,
• high blood pressure,
• an incompetent cervix, or
• fetal growth problems.
  

Pregnancy-info.net adds:

• gestational diabetes,
• early effacement,
• placenta previa,
• placental abruption and
• multiple pregnancies.
  

Growing Your Baby includes:

• premature rupture of your membranes (water breaking) or
• premature contractions.
  

So it seems that bed rest could be prescribed for any number of pregnancy complications. Don't see your particular problem there? Give your doctor a call and find out exactly why you're on bed rest. Find out what the plan is and whether bed rest is the best option for you. Trust me: it'll make you feel a whole lot better about what you're doing.

Is bed rest effective?

The second question isn't as easily answered. The jury still seems to be out on whether bed rest is beneficial in all cases. Some doctors believe that it lowers stress in women who work at high-pressure jobs or who generally lead a stressful lifestyle. They also say it helps lower blood pressure and takes pressure off your cervix. Lying on your left side, which a lot of doctors suggest, helps increase blood flow to the uterus.

But others aren't convinced that bed rest during pregnancy is best. Apparently, there have been few studies on its efficacy, so it's still unknown whether it actually improves outcomes.

I can't say whether it worked for me, because all my pregnancy complications were so diverse and in some cases, I obeyed doctor's orders, while in others, I ignored them. I can say, though, that it never failed to increase my stress levels. Bed rest always seemed to take me by surprise and I always had a thousand things on the go that had to come to a grinding halt when I went to bed. The stress of passing on work duties, kids' school administration and household-running actually stressed me out far more than my usual lifestyle did.

Whatever your doctor's opinion, it's important that you trust his judgement. Failure to do so will cause you to doubt the value of his prescription. The last thing you want is to spend your time on bed rest wondering whether it's the best thing for you and your pregnancy.

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