It certainly won’t hurt. Sperm are pretty talented swimmers, so it’s not necessary to lie on your back after intercourse, but there is some research to suggest that lying on your back may increase your odds of getting pregnant.
Is there any right way to lie on my back?
Oftentimes we hear that a woman who is trying to get pregnant should practice lying on her back for 30 minutes following intercourse, with her legs raised in the air, or tucked to her chest. You probably don’t have to go through the whole rigamarole of raising your legs, and 30 minutes is an awfully long time to lie flat. Simply staying still for 15 minutes or so after intercourse should be enough to help usher the sperm along to your egg, if this in fact does help facilitate conception.
Does the data back it up?
A study published in 2009 in the British Medical Journal presented evidence that women who remain immobilized for 15 minutes after intercourse have a 27% chance of conceiving in a cycle, as opposed to an 18% chance for those who get up immediately following intercourse. This study was conducted on women who are undergoing intrauterine insemination (IUI), a form of assisted reproduction, so it’s unclear whether these statistics would remain the same for couples who are having plain old babymaking sex. However, if you have an extra few minutes after intercourse, there’s certainly no downside to lying on your back.
