Back/Rib Pain! Aaarrrrggggh.....

I'm 24 weeks pregnant and all is peachy EXCEPT since about 18 weeks I've had pain in my upper back on the right side. Kind of like my back ribs. It has slowly spread around the side and is now in the back, side and front ribs. I'm doing pregancy fitness classes (focussing on cardio and core strength using fit balls), walking every day, stretching, heat packs, ice packs, panadol osteo, weekly chiro visits, massage, pregnancy safe dencorub stuff and it just won't go away!!! Stretches that involve raising my hands above my head seem to give the most relief. It's like I've got an extra rib or something except it has never ever bothered me before.

Sitting makes it worse, sitting in the car for any longer than 10 minutes is awful but sometimes even standing hurts it. Today at work the pain started around an hour into my day!! And NOTHING relieved it, not even laying down. I ended up going home at lunch time bawling my eyes out because I'm just so over it. I find the weekends are better because I can lay down for 5 minutes here and there but I've still got 7 weeks left of work and still another 16 weeks till baby is due.

I feel so blessed to have a healthy pregnancy and really really want to enjoy it but my whole life is starting to revolve around my back. As in I have to plan if I want to go out somewhere so I can get time to rest my back beforehand, take heat packs and painkillers and leave early if need be. It is really getting me down. I'm sick of lying on my bed (which I love!) as even laying on the couch doesn't relieve it and after a day at work I need at least half an hour on my back if not more before I can bear doing anything.

My chiro is trying her best to figure out what is going on. Yesterday she found that my diaphragm was super tight so massaged under my ribs to try release it (OMG! Ouch!!) and that felt good last night but today my front ribs just feel bruised and sore and my back is worse. Doctor just says it is one of "those" things and says to keep doing what I'm doing, it is okay to take Panadol Osteo (which does very little TBH) and that when the baby's born things should settle down.......that is 4 months away and baby isn't even reaching my ribs properly yet!!!

Has ANYBODY got ANYTHING else I can try....or at the very least perhaps this can be a vent thread and I can get some "there, there, it will all be worth it in a few months time" ;) (hoping for a miracle cure though ladies, pleeeeeeaaaassseeee). Did any of you have bad back pain and what did you do to relieve it, cope with it, manage it?

Poor DH is trying so hard to make me feel better, back rubs, foot rubs, heating up heat packs, doing extra jobs around the house etc. I feel so lousy.

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I had it horribly with my first prehnancy, and then less with the second. At first I thought it was because I had broken that rib about 6 months before but it wasn't. The OB said it is not uncommon.

I wish I had a solution for you but in the end I just became great mates with my heat pack. I will try to think if there was anything else I did and if I can will get back to you - bub is screaming for a feed!

Thanks. At least I know it isn't just me! The pain seems to be moving more into my ribs than back. Not sure if it's a good thing or not but at least now I can reach the sore spots to massage myself itms. And yep me and heat pack are peas in a pod. I take it everywhere and on a bad day at work need it continually in my back!

Hoping subsequent pregnancies will be pain free but not expecting it :(.


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I could have written that word for word - spot on. It has me in tears and sometimes I just want to cry because I can't cope with it anymore. Its like a huge tight, aching pain and chinese burn type of pain around the side of my body where my ribs are - so widespread you get beside yourself. At least labour has a start and stop in 12-24 hours, but this is a joke, going on for weeks and getting worse! Nothing has been working for me either, but then I have only been able to have acu once, osteo twice and chiro twice, as I have limited resources here. The worst thing for it seems to be sitting - which is the worst thing for your back anyway in terms of pressure on your spine. The best thing I have found is a hot water bottle if I lie down on it, but it has to be quite hot to numb my back, then when its cooler, it kicks in again and begins to ache :( I am going to try and book myself in for a massage when I am in Melbourne but being 36 weeks I am resigned to the fact that this is going to be here until birth. Its such a debilitating pain, I never expected to be this uncomfortable, much worse than my first two :( I hope I don't have to deal with it during labour.

ETA: I was just reminded about Rodney Whyte, who works in the Monash Medical Centre and is seen as a guru in drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Here's what he passed on about pain relief: Absolutely fine to take the maximum daily dose of panadol (8) in any combination as long as you dont exceed the daily limit. Same with panadeine - you can mix up panadol and panadeine if you like, as long as you stick to the daily limits. In the case of pandol osteo (higher dose, slow release) then 6 per day.

If you are taking pain relief remember not to take any ibuprofen (nurofen) drugs, or asprin (thins the blood!) which is not what you want especially before you give birth.

Hugs Kelly. It was tough going but thankfully my only real "issue" during pregnancy. I got fitted properly for a maternity bra around 26/28 weeks and after that it gradually got less and less. I also finished work at 31 weeks after which it dramatically got better and was very bearable only flaring up when I had to sit down for longer than 5 minutes (driving or travelling in the car was not fun). I continued to take panadol and panadol osteo as much as I needed but like you said no ibuprofen which I think would've helped (in a non pregnant state). I also continued to go to the chiro and used a product called fisio cream which is much the same as decorub only natural and hence suitable for pregnancy. Right at the end of my pregnancy, like weeks 38 to birth (41+9) it didn't bother me. My back ached but it was lower back and all that other late pregnancy stuff. Hope it eases up for you and you can enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy.


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Ah, my osteo had some of that cream, its arnica based which is brilliant stuff. I wanted to get some when he showed me last week but they had no eftpos! Will definitely get some tomorrow. I reckon nurofen would knock this on its head too! So you had no issues during labour?

Nope not with mybupper/mid back and ribs. I got the normal lower back pain etc. the other thing my chiro noticed was that on my right (the sore sude) my diaphragm was really tight. I mean towards the end everything is pretty darn squished but even before that mine was tight. She had me dig my fingers under my ribs and move gentky from side to side to kind of massage and hopefully release it a bit. My god it was painful but seemed to help a little. I went to the chiro right up to 41 weeks (didnt maje my kast appt because id just given birth ha ha. She spent a lot of time making sure everything was aligned for labour. Bubs still got a bit stuck but that was more my hips than anything else :). If you find a good chiro/osteo/massuese that works for you if you can keep seeing them i think it helps. Sitting on the fit ball and better still leaning over it on all fours helped too. Id watch tv like that every evening until my knees got too sore. I laboured on my knees too actually.

Hun, i hope it eases off for you. This was my first bub so i only had myself to worry about i can only imagine how tough it is for you with other little ones. I see youre due in august, not long to go now. Hopefully it eases up for you soon.

Kelly, I'm a musculo-skeletal physio, and have also worked in women's health where I treated musculoskeletal problems in women ante- and post-natally.

The pain that dantri described, which you say is identical to yours now, sounds like a classic thoracic facet (aka zygo-pophaseal) joint or, less likely, disc dysfunction. you can think of it as the thoracic version of sciatica, where the pain in low back and refers down the back of the leg on the affected side. If I saw you in clinic I would expect to find really stiff local joint which is referring pain along the route of the nerve that exits at that level. For mid-thoracic problems, that's roughly around the line of the ribs, ie, around the chest wall and under the arm towards the front of the chest wall on that side. Treatment would be mobilisation to the affected joint/joints and exercises to maintain and improve mobility at that level, as well as postural education.

You're right in saying that sitting isn't especially good for the spine, and that counts as much for the thoracic spine as for the low back. You're also right that nurofen would likely help, but obviously it's not to be taken when pregnant! For more a more comfortable sitting position, try using a kitchen chair backwards, straddling the seat and leaning forward on to the backrest with your arms. This is good for off-loading the thoracic spine, and of course is good for optimal foetal positioning as well. Just don't try driving like this! ;) For sitting at a desk job, or in the car, a lumbar support can help, ie, a rolled up small towel or bathmat which you lay in the inward curve of the small of your back, between your back and the backrest of your chair or carseat. It it feels too big, unroll it a turn and let the excess hang down. Try different towels/tighter or looser rolling, and rounder rolling or flatter folding until you find a shape and fatness that supports your low back without feeling excessive. A well fitted bra, where the weight of your breasts is supported significantly more by the chest band than by the shoulder straps, also can help.

To me it sounds like a very treatable problem. If your chiro visits have not helped much, you always have the option of trying a different chiro/osteo/physio instead. If paying privately is an issue, try to get a referral to your local public women's health physio clinic and see if they can help.

The good news is that this sort of problem rarely has much impact on labour and birth, though you might find that your favoured positions are partly determined by this pain as well as by the usual types of labour pains. It sometimes goes away completely or partially after delivery, but can also be aggravated by the prolonged and frequent sitting that new mum's often do when breast-feeding (and to a lesser extent bottle-feeding.) In the early weeks/months post-birth, changing breast size and weight, and the difficulty some women have in consistently wearing a well fitted, supportive bra also can make it worse. Make sure you use cushions under baby to bring baby up to boob, and don't slouch down to bring boob to baby, and use that lumbar support whenever you sit to feed. Definitely ask for a referral from your mw or GP to a postnatal physio if the pain persists beyond the birth.

I hope that helps you cope with the last few weeks. :)

Pholi, thank you for a detailed reply! This is a huge help because like the others, no-one seems to have any answers when you're desperate for treatment. My biggest problem is that I relocated to the country to be with my partner, and therapists are few and far between. Most treatments have been when i'm down in Melbourne (1.5hrs away) but the trips are getting too unbarable so few and far between. There is a local chiro which my partner's family have been seeing for a very long time, its helped my body in general somewhat but the pain around my mid-back and ribs wont go away.

So you're lucky to get one type of therapist here if at all. :(

Im in Melbourne later this week so will go nuts with appointments, which is what I would be doing if I still lived locally.

Aha... that makes sense! There are some fantastic advantages to living a more rural lifestyle, but access to a choice of professionals certainly isn't one of them.

I'd suggest that you see if you can get into a women's health physio in Melbourne when you're there, and get a little bit of treatment if you can, and ask for exercises as well, so you can keep self treating. I've treated people with similar complaints which have responded very well to just one or two treatment sessions.

I'm very reluctant to prescribe exercises for this kind of condition when I can't assess it and confirm that it actually is what it sounds like. Please feel free to ask (in the thread or pm me) if you have any other questions, though. I'm happy to help as much as I can.

I feel your pain. I had it really bad with my DD and it has just started 2nd time around. I was told it was due to the expansion of the rib cage because everything is being pushed up. Whatever it is, it's so uncomfortable. It didn't cause me any grief during labour. I had no back pain at all in labour.

Babyluv - that was one of the things i got told too. Sure it's plausible but I don't think it was JUST that.

Pholi - thanks from me too for your detailed reply. Great advice for post natal care as I've not been doing all of those things!

Kelly - the whole lumbar support thing helped me a little too. I'd also engage my stomach muscles more to take the pressure of my back itms when sitting. It was something we did in exercise class anyway. It certainly didn't fix it but it meant that I'd I had to sit (ie travelling or meetings etc for work) it'd be longer until I couldn't bear it anymore :)

And I think the bra thing is also so very important. I think that that really did help me. Perhaps get fitted by a professional when you're in Melbourne if you haven't already.

I understand the regional/remote thing. I'm in the same boat although am lucky to be only an hour away from a large regional centre and to have found an awesome chiro who has special interest and talents in women's health. She didn't "fix" it but I think helped.


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Forgot to update this thread, which I hope can help someone in future because its taken a while to get this sorted out.

I've kept getting as much treatment as I can (osteo, chiro, acu), as I noticed I burnt my back with the hot water bottle, which I have pretty much had attached to me 24x7 - I saw in the mirror my back had red and purple blotches all over it even with no heat applied, which has now gone red/brown. The panadol osteo was doing nothing so I stopped that as well, don't want to load my body up with a drug that is doing nothing for it. But it's left me short of options.

Its definitely a thoracic spine issue, like Pholi mentioned, only it goes around the side of the ribs instead of down. I started getting a burning sensation around the front of my ribs, its a horrid stinging/burning sensation - it pulls when I turn over in bed, or just randomly flares up throughout the day and feels like sunburn to touch. I saw the chiro today who said it was 100% from intercostal nerve interference, have googled a bit and it seems to be called intercostal neuralgia, which can occur in pregnancy and often as the result of issues in the thoracic spine. So its all making sense. Apart from treatment to help get some relief, I have been ordered to cut out bending down (which puts more weight on the belly/skin) and sitting - I have tried to lie down when I can but its hard when you're a busy mamma. I have to keep reminding myself I am almost 38 weeks and I really have to get some rest, but you know how it is. I'll have to see how that goes getting more help around here from the kids lol but its nice to understand whats going on, and it all makes sense. Hope this helps someone in future... it seems a very vague and confusing problem (yet debilitating at times) with not much you can do about it.