Ask the Pros
Birth Plans
Birth Stories
Bookstore
Boy or Girl
Cesareans
Chat Room
Complications
Doulas
Educators
Episiotomy
FAQs
Feeding Baby
Fertility
Finding a Class
Health
Interactive
Labor
Message Board
Monitoring
Newborns
Postcards
Postpartum
Pregnancy
Reviews/Awards
Search
VBAC
Week by Week

Ask A Nurse
Questions and Answers

Q. I am 31 weeks.

I think I have Braxton Hicks because sometimes when I sit upright (upright only) I feel a surge of pain then goes away and maybe returns an hour or day later. Same intensity and spot area.

Could it be the baby kicking my cervix instead?

A. It sounds a lot like round ligament pain to me. The ligament supporting the uterus is very small and stretched to the max with a growing uterus. Quick movements can produce a stitch like pain in the lower right and left area of the abdomen.

Get up slowly using good body mechanics and try to avoid the quick movements. I hope that this helps.

Debi Fatherree, RN, has been in nursing for 10 years. All of it has been with a childbirth focus. She has worked postpartum, nursery, NICU and have cross trained some in Labor and Delivery. She started a infant home visit and prenatal educational program in her rural home town and was nominated for Maternal Child nurse of the Year in 1995. She and her husband were transferred with his company 1 1/2 years ago and she started teaching chidlbirth classes and doing breastfeeding classes and consults. She also works as a doula and has her own business, StorkHelp. Debi is mom to three wonderful children - Katie, age 8, Hannah, age 6 and Bobby, age3 (my spit fire.) She and her husband have been married thirteen years, a great accomplishment these days. She currently teaches in the hospital setting and privately through StorkHelp.

Debi will answer your questions on fertility, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and babies. Her advice does not take the place of your practitioner. Personal answers will not always be possible.