Pain is incredibly common in pregnancy. It's not easy to carry around a growing uterus
for nine months. And most of the pain that people get in pregnancy are related to growth
spurts at the uterus and the fetus. In general, if pain is mild to moderate, it's not persistent,
it's not severe, and it goes away with rest, it's not gonna be something you need to worry
about. I would say the warning signs are probably when it's associated with fever, when it's
radiating to a different part of the body, when there is burning on urination, then these
would all be things that I think you should talk to your doctor about. A lot of patients
say that they feel abdominal cramping around the time of implantation of the pregnancy,
so very early after conception. A lot of people will say they have lower abdominal midline
cramping, almost like menstrual cramping. If you've already had an ultrasound and you're
bleeding, then we know it's not an ectopic pregnancy, but we need to make sure that the
bleeding hasn't affected the pregnancy. In the second trimester starting from about 15
weeks going up until around 22, maybe 24 weeks, the most common cause of abdominal pain is
probably around ligament pain. It's caused by the ligaments that normally hold the uterus
in the pelvis. It gets stretched under tension as the uterus grows out of the pelvis and
that pain can usually be felt on one side or the other. I would say lower abdominal
pain on one side or the other and kind of a pulling sensation. So, with round ligament
pain, we ask patients, well, when they lie down and you rest, does it get better? And
typically you will. In the third trimester, there can be new causes for abdominal pain
that you may not have felt earlier. A lot of times patients will feel an intermittent
contraction. Kind of out of the blue when they're walking they stop. They kinda have
to catch their breath for a moment and then they can keep going. And if it's not persisting
and it's kind of an isolated cramp like that, it's probably just a Braxton Hicks contraction
and nothing more concerning than that. With labor, it's a different issue. So, labor or
preterm labor is typically a rhythmic pattern to the contraction. So, it comes and goes
over time. If a patient is preterm, meaning less than 37 weeks, I often ask if you feel
5 or more of those an hour. If the answer is yes, then you need medical attention. And
if you're full term and you're having 5 or more an hour, then that's good news 'cause
it probably means you're going into labor. But regardless in any case, if you're not
sure about the abdominal pain that you're having, you should just call your doctor.