Silentnight’s body support pillow helps take the pressure off during pregnancy

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Pregnancy pillows can ease the discomfort that often comes as standard during pregnancy, from backache to pelvic-girdle pain and leg cramps. Investing in good support can often make or break a good night’s sleep, as many are specifically crafted to take pressure off important joints and muscles including the spine, neck and knees. Some offer bump support, and many can be used beyond pregnancy into nursing and playtime with a new baby.

With over 60 years’ experience, Silentnight’s mission is to help everyone find their perfect sleep solution, with a wide range of aids to support all types of sleepers.

We tried the Silentnight body support pillow from its support pillow range. The brand says that it can be used in various different ways, claiming to offer support for the user’s back, hips, neck and stomach to ease aches and pains, and can even be used for nursing or just watching TV in bed. Alternatively, it can be hugged while in bed to relieve pressure on shoulders, or placed between the knees to aid spinal alignment and relieve lower back pain.

We tested this pillow for several weeks throughout our third trimester of pregnancy during sleep and at rest on the sofa during the day. We then tried using the support to help with feeding once the baby had arrived for exclusive breastfeeding throughout the day and night.

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Rating: 7/10

First things first, there’s no getting around the fact that this pillow is huge. Coming in at 4ft 8in, it was like having an extra person in the bed with us. Rectangular in shape, it has a width of 49.5cm, so we were quite taken aback when we saw the size of it. In terms of weight, it’s 3.5kg, so quite heavy to move around, especially when you’re heavily pregnant. The pillow is crafted from soft quilted microfibre and filled with squishy hollowfibre, and it also includes a soft, white microfibre pillowcase.

This pillowcase is easily washable with the rest of your laundry, but we found it difficult to find a replacement or spare to buy on its own, so this is something to bear in mind if you use the pillow often but find yourself behind on laundry. The inner pillow is also machine washable, which is handy after a lot of use – it can be tumble dried too. And it arrives in a handy zipped case.

We have a king-size bed and this pillow did take up quite a lot of room, to the point where we only used it on one side of the bed rather than the middle, as it ended up feeling like a little bit of a barrier. In terms of comfort though, we found that the pillow gave a good amount of padding for our knees and bump. Reassuringly bulky but still soft, it had a hotel-like feel to it, which for its price is fantastic. We also found the pillowcase easy to whip on and off for cleaning, which is often not the case for these larger models.

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When not sleeping, we used the support as a bed bolster, as two people can easily share this pillow when sitting side-by-side. We did also try to use the pillow as a support for feeding, but found that it was too awkward for us to shift around with the baby in one hand, and it was much easier to use a traditional curved feeding pillow with the Silentnight one behind us as a support. We also found that we needed to re-plump the pillow every few days, but that was easy to do with it laid across the bed, and we found that it regained its shape well.

If you’re short on space, perhaps look for another, more compact support. It’s not the most malleable or versatile of pillows and we feel that the brand could benefit from adding some extra colours of pillowcases to the range to allow for customisation and to reduce laundry. However, if you’re looking for a hotel-quality, extra-squishy support and large bolster, the Silentnight body support pillow is for you.