There's a good chance these days you'll be prescribed bed rest sometime during your pregnancy. Multiple gestation pregnancies are increasing due to fertility treatments, and doctors, hoping to alleviate risks of preterm delivery (in multiple births or single births with any perceived risks), are prescribing bed rest more frequently than ever.

But is bed rest (strict or modified) really necessary? Is it as helpful in preventing pregnancy complications as women are led to believe? It's possible there are as many opinions about bed rest as there are physicians.

What most women don't know is that bed rest has never been proven beneficial in preventing many of the conditions for which it is prescribed. "There are no high-quality research studies that demonstrate any benefits to prescribing bed rest to pregnant women," says Dr. Stephen Thung, maternal fetal medicine practice director at Yale University.

In fact, bed rest carries many risks to the mother that are often not discussed or considered by many physicians. These risks include increased risk of blood clots (already higher in pregnant women and made worse by immobility), as well as deconditioning and muscle atrophy.

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