Pain at scar during pregnancy?

Since about 15 weeks or so I started getting a pain the feels like its inside my vagina and my lower uterus and cervix. At first it felt like my cervix was bruised and was getting pressed on ..

Now that the pain is getting worse I can tell its really generalised in the area where my scar would be. And its alot more intense .. Its only there when I move. It hurts just to re-adjust the way I'm sitting or to sit up from lying down etc. And its not a sharp pain its a dull pain. Also get it sometimes when I cough or sneeze .. It hurts alot more after I do some walking. Not even intense walking just around town for 30ish minutes pushing the pram to keep fit.

Does this mean its thinning out or anything? And could this affect VBAC? I have been told that it might be Round Ligament Pain also.. What do you think?



Thanks guys ...

I know when I was pregnant with DD2 my scar really hurt most of the time, much of the way you described. When discussed with my OB, she just reassured me its the muscles and stuff getting stretched after knitting themselves back together from the surgery, nothing to do with how strong your scar is ;)

If in doubt, check with your doc or midwives though.

Gee .. I was gunna ask the midwife at my next appointment .. Did it keep getting worse for you?? Im only 25 weeks .. lol ..

Yup it continued, wouldn't say it got worse though.

I didn't have a VBAC that time round though, but I did end up having a VBA2C instead.

I'm hoping to VBAC this time. I did some walking yesterday afternoon (no more then 20mins) and today while driving it hurt around the scar area to lift my foot from the acclelerator to the brake! Its not happened before but its the same pain I get while I'm readjust positions etc .. Did that happen to you too? If you drive?

I read Eden's birth story too .. WOW! ... :D

Get it checked out!!! My scar has felt tender at different stages of pregnancy but not to the extent you are talking about..to be honest it has affecetd my chances of a successful VBAC 2 times I have tried but somewhere during the labours that thought has come back and I have felt very concerned about my scar and rupture.
The sooner you get some reassurance the better I think.

I have an appointment with Drs to discuss VBAC in more detail on Thursday so I'll ask them .. My GP just said she thinks its Round Ligament Pain .. I'll let you guys know what they say .. Hopefully it hasnt thinned out too much .. I know they were going to do a scan to measure the thickness later in the pregnancy so maybe they'll do one earlier??

I had some ligament pain in the area of my scar too.
I never had a scan of my scar but hopefully if they do one for you you will get some answers, it might help put your mind at rest.

Good luck :goodluck:

I had a scan of my scar last pregnancy except because babies head was there it created a shadow and they could'nt see throught the layers well enough, so its a bit hit and miss. Best news I have had is that during the last CS all looked really good, there was no papaer thin uterus or extra scar tissue that could create a problem. So that gives me some confidence that everyhting is good and strong, well at the moment anyway.
Good luck with getting the answers.

Well I spoke about VBAC and these are my "conditions":

1.)If I don't go before my duedate they induce me straight away by breaking my waters. And if labour doesn't start in 24 hours I get a c-section.

2.)If bub is in the wrong position c-section.

3.)As soon as my waters break or I start contracting I go straight into hospital.

4.)I have to wear the monitor throughout the whole labour.


Also about the pain, Both the GP and Midwife said "Its PROBABLY just stretching" ...I am kinda paranoid about uterine rupture (only because of this pain.) .. I (TMI warning .. ) orgasmed last night (first time in a while.) and apart from making my tummy fell tight for a few minutes then when I went to get up to go to the toilet the pain was so intense I had to lean on the cot rail (Setup for bub) to be able to stand up. Again while i was still i was fine only when i moved did it hurt. It sorta feels now like when I was healing from the c-section. I have to stand up slowly, Lay down slowly .. etc ..

I'm getting a 4D scan done soon (in the next few weeks) and I am going to ask them to check the scar for me.

Do you think I'm being overly paranoid? Or should I press them more to look into it?

Hey hun, firstly :hug: to you.

My first recommendation to help you would be to look into hypnobirthing to help with fears you have. It does sound to me like it's all to do with the stretching etc of muscles, ligaments and all of that. It can be VERY uncomfortable and hurt a lot. I think it's the scar tissue can make you really feel it more sometimes.

As for your "conditions"... I'm going to say what I think of them. I think they are being too pushy and putting too many restrictions and conditions on you (which will not and do not help your frame of mind nor your want for a VBAC)... unless of course there is a really good medical reason for it. I don't think they should be inducing you at all, my first VBAC was 4 days past EDD, second was 3 days before EDD. Your EDD is just an estimation. It was quite normal to be 2 wks either side of this date!

When going into labour, I personally don't think you need to rush into the hospital unless as I said before there is a really good medical reason. You will usually labour better at home and get into a good rhythym in your own home and comfort without the threat of unnecessary intervention. They put you on a clock way too much when having a VBAC and it really can hurt your attempt. It almost hurt my second attempt but thanks to my hypnobirthing I was able to pull myself back and out of the negative where I was feeling it wasn't going to happen. I was told that as I hadn't progressed "much" in the past hour that if it wasn't getting along further in the next half an hour they'd be discussing another c/s... he was born about half an hour later... VBAC2!!

The monitoring... well I made a deal with the midwife when we got there lol... I told her she was welcome to check bub but if all was ok then could she just check every half hour or so and she was happy to agree to that. I did end up with the monitor on all the time cos I was comfy just being on the bed anyway and didn't want to hop off so it didn't bother me. I will say that I was very grateful though that they do monitor and check when you first get there as my first VBAC bub was actually in distress and there was a lot of meconium in my waters so they did vacuum assist him (so medical intervention but was for a very good medical reason). With second VBAC I told them what I wanted/didn't want BUT that I wasn't going to be stubborn or stupid and if something needed doing then I was open to options which might need to be discussed.

I hope that this might help you in some way. If you want to chat, I'm here :) I think that the bottom line still is, it's your body, your baby and you do have a say. Sometimes it's best to just discuss all options and keep it all in mind and then on the day speak what you want.

i dont think your being paranoid, if it hurts then you are not imagining it.

I felt occasional pain at my scar site a few times so far, but it has never lingered for very long. I noticed it more in the first 2 months then im noticing it now at 18 weeks.

I guessed mine must have been the streching, but if it was consistent i'd be asking questions for sure.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should just go with an elective c-section? As much as I'd love to VBAC, I'm single (I have this posted in another thread about breaking up .. But its a much more complicated story then whats there .. ) and I'm not going to have anyone to support me .. My mum has only just started full time work and won't be able to come but she lives a 8 hour drive away so even if she got the day off it still wouldnt be enough .. And my dad has offered to look after Aiden for me. And he works 5 days a week 8-4 ..

I have no friends here, well at least not any that I'm close enough to to have at my birth .. Even then theres only 2 people and they both have kids .. I just don't really know ..

Ozziehoffy: I totally agree with everythng you said. Moving helped alot witht the pain with my son I can't imagine staing still .. And I would much prefer to labour at home (Didnt get that with my son either .. group b strep and my waters broke at 2cm so i had to stay in for antibiotics.) .. But like i said above I'm not sure about what to do .. I can't imagine being in labour on my own ..

Aww hun :hug:
I think if the pain is bothering you, then you have a right to press them to look at it more.

As for their list of conditions... like Ozziehoffy said it is pushy and restrictive.
The biggest thing that stands out for me is they want to induce you by AROM if you don't go into labour by your due date...I think that is really unreasonable. There is no reason at all you can't go at least to 41 or 42 weeks. I had until 42 weeks & that was pressure enough to go into labour IYKWIM? let alone having to go before your due date....

Whether to have an elective CS...it's totally up to you. But would it really be easier? When you take into account the recovery time from a CS.
Have you thought about looking for a trainee Doula? someone who can come & support you at the birth... I think there are trainee Doulas or maybe a student midwife, who will act as a support person for free. If you do want to look at a VBAC that might be an option to look at.

How would I go about getting a trainee doula? I live out in the country .. lol

I would definately much rather VBAC .. I think i'm just a bit overemotional ATM and thats why i brought up it might be easier lol .. But I can't see me actually go through with an elective csection .. Do you think it would be totally terrible to labour at home for a little while before hand?? Ahh this is all so stressful .. lol .. :)

I don't think it would be terrible to labour at home.
The reason they want you to come in immediately is for monitoring. It's a very very small risk of anything going wrong before you get in there. Given that once you do go in, you are pretty much 'on the clock', labouring at home can give you a chance to settle into your labour, let it establish before you go in.

Finding a trainee doula or midwife - I would put a thread out on here for starters, I can't think of a better place to start looking ;)

You have a bit of time still hun, don't stress too much.

Can you have a look at the library or something for some hypnobirthing books or CDs? They might help you deal with it with a bit less stress :hug:

ETA - Maybe ask your hospital too if they have any student midwives or anyone they know of who might act as a birth partner?

I looked up my hospital for the VBAC success rate .. its only 9.8% !!!

This is what it says about my hospital ..

METHOD OF BIRTH (all values are in percentage)
Normal Vaginal: 58.4
Forceps: 3.1
Vacuum Extraction: 6.5
Vaginal Breech: 0.2
Caesarean Section Total: 30.6
Caesarean Section Labour: 12.8
Caesarean Section No Labour: 17.8
VBAC Success rate: 9.8

Its sort of disheartening ... Thats not many VBAC successes ..

:hug: Its not that high no. But - most hospitals these days say they are supportive of VBAC's and then turn around at the last minute and impose all sorts of restrictions on you - so its a high probability that the VBAC's aren't successful because of these? Do you have any independent support - like a doula or independent midwife? If the hospital has a low percentage of VBAC success - you'll have more chance with your own support :hug:

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(Didnt get that with my son either .. group b strep and my waters broke at 2cm so i had to stay in for antibiotics.) .. ..

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Firstly, big :hug: to you..... it's not easy having to go through this without close support for sure! Just wanted to let you know re: the Group strep B.... it's not that cut and dry or black and white either hun. There are threads on BB somewhere (will see if I can find) about this. I actually refused to test for it as I didn't want to have AB in labour. Just because you test positive today, does not mean you will still be positive in a few weeks time... apparently we all have it but it's wether it's active or not... something like that anyway. So, because I didn't do the test, they then "assume" you to be positive and want you to have AB in labour... to which I also turned down and told the midwife that they'd be doing regular obs on the baby anyway so I didn't see the need for having them unneccesarily. Having said that... yes, IF.. and that's IF the baby got it from you during the birth it can make them quite ill... but just because you test positive doesn't mean bub will get it. Midwife told me that so long as bub didn't get a fever within first 24 hours all was good... so they just did obs every 4 hours. I think that the hospital system does this as a blanket measure because somewhere, someone has sued or something. The reason I think this is because Oskar is only 3 and it wasn't done then, but less than 2 yrs later they were testing.

I agree, start a thread, put the feelers out and ask around and see if you can get a trainee doula/midwife for support person hun! What a fantastic idea! As you know c/s take a LOT of recovery time and if you don't have the support and/or help around that's going to be a lot harder than even having a labour on your own. That's my opinion anyway. :hug: again, being pregnant is emotional without the added stresses you have right now but you've got support here.

I got my doula :) .. Shes a student doula who is also an ABA counsellor and a midwife :) .. So I think I got really lucky ( about time!) and shes such a lovely lady ..
She works 20hours a week, so HOPEFULLY I go into labour when shes not working :)

I have my 4d scan next Thursday and the midwife wrote on it for them to check the scar .. The pain is so bad now I have to breath through it sometimes while I'm getting up, and it hurts just walking .. I vaccuumed and mopped in the same day and my god did I pay for it later that night! Dunno why it hurts more after moving around alot .. Oh well, Not long left to my due date now!!

With the group b I was tested at 6 weeks pregnant and it was negative but at 37 weeks it was positive. The doula told me that the antibiotics are every 6 hours so I couldve gone home in between, dunno why they kept me in .. She did say at the hospital in Bathurst (bout 50mins from Orange) that they do VBAC classes there and their success rate is 20%!! I guess it makes a difference, theres no classes here ..

Thanks everyone who has replied :) xx

hello :p just curious what state do u live in? ur percentages and VBAC hospital rules are the same as mine! how much is a Doula? where would we look for one? i really want to have a VBAC im casing about it! its all i can think about!! i want the pregnancy to come to the end so i know whats going to happen!! also im going to try RLT this time when do we start taking them?

I live in country NSW .. :) I think doulas can be anywhere from 500 to 2000+ I'm not too sure, but it depends on what the offer .. I found mine on studentdoula.com.au . and raspberry leaf tea i think it 35 weeks? I'm not 100% sure on that either so dont take my word for it! lol .. :) good luck!!

Sarah - you can safely take RLT and EPO from 36 weeks. Thats what I did anyway ;)

Sarah's my name too .. lol .. :)

I took RLT from around 34 weeks I think - the tablet form - I was drinking it a bit earlier than that (the tablets are stronger)
EPO internally at 36 weeks.

thanks for that ladies :D im very excited my docs are very confident of me having a VBAC! but im sure by the next 6 weeks we can tell a bit more! lets hope this baby stays head down!!:pray: