Are There Specific Pillows To Help You Get Pregnant?

Even though there have been no scientific studies proving that using a pillow when trying to conceive (TTC) is an effective way to ensure conception, there are many women who focus on natural and holistic remedies who say that it could work (or it has even worked for them), in addition to many other "au naturel" ways. But are there specific pillows to help you get pregnant or can you use just any pillow (that you don’t mind getting a bit messy) to lift those hips?

Apparently, there are special pillows, and a woman named Dana invented them after she was struggling to get pregnant. She wrote on her product's website, Fertility Pillow, that she began studying how and why women get pregnant in order to understand the mechanics of it after being frustrated at her lack of conceiving. She noted that her particular fertility specialists told her "the position, inclination, and duration of that position after intercourse is very important to conceiving," and that for some people, having sex just isn’t enough to make it work because of outside factors, including hormones added to diets, stress from daily life, and the fact that women are waiting longer before trying to have children.

With this information under her belt, Dana created The Fertility Pillow, and she now has two children after using her invention. Whether or not it was specifically because she used her fertility pillow is unknown and has not gone under scientific studies, but it seemed to have worked for her.

So how does a fertility pillow work and how is it different from other pillows? It’s shaped in such a way that it fits under your hips and elevates them to "help the sperm reach their mark" by using gravity. What comes up, must come down, right? Dana’s pillows have three parts — the bottom is for support, with a pillow on top of the big pillow to conform to your bottom, with another cylindrical pillow to "conform to the area between the woman’s legs, and act like a partial plug to restrict the outflow of semen." Dana’s pillows are even water-resistant and have an easy-to-clean outer covering that you can remove. What a world to live in.

A website that sells products specifically to help women TTC, Conceive Easy, sells fertility pillows, too, but they aren’t the same patented fertility pillows Dana created. But Conceive Easy claimed that women should place the pillow under their pelvis after intercourse and stay in that position for 30 minutes. The website suggested that’s how long it takes the sperm to reach the egg. (How long are those fallopian tubes anyway?)

According to Dr. Jennifer Hirshfeld-Cytron, director of fertility preservation and reproductive endocrinologist with Fertility Centers of Illinois, potential moms-to-be should save their money instead and not buy a special pillow when trying to get pregnant. "No pillow will make a difference when trying to achieve a positive pregnancy test," she says to Romper in an email. Hirshfeld-Cytron also says it doesn’t matter how long you stay in a position after intercourse because "sperm are motile and have already 'taken off' the moment it occurs."

While doctors and other scientific experts argue to not waste your money on fertility pillows, it’s understandable why you’d want to use one if you’ve been TTC with no results and are frustrated. Perhaps a Fertility Pillow is in your future? At the very least, it doesn’t hurt to try it, right? Plus, it’s pretty cool to be able support a female inventor and entrepreneur who has been where you are on the road to make a baby.