Introduction
Abdominal pain during pregnancy is anything but a rare problem. Almost every pregnant woman will get acquainted with it during her pregnancy. The causes can be anything from harmless child movements to the rare life-threatening HELLP syndrome, which is why the pain should always be clarified by a doctor.
Upper abdominal pain is pain in the upper half of the abdomen. To describe places on or at the abdominal wall, a division into 4 quadrants is used: An imaginary line is drawn vertically and horizontally through the navel, thus dividing the abdomen into an upper right and left and a lower right and left quadrant. The pain can even extend to the ribs, especially during the second half of pregnancy.
As the baby grows, it takes up more and more space and the abdominal muscles are stretched, starting at the ribs. In addition to the two upper quadrants, the stomach area (epigastrium) is usually also distinguished. Please note the indication of right and left.
Everywhere in medicine these indications are made from the patient’s point of view. Thus, in medical terminology, the heart is located on the left side of the thorax, even if for the physician it is the right side when facing the patient. This may seem complicated at first glance, but it facilitates communication between medical professionals, as there can be no ambiguity when the angle of view is fixed.
Often, the place where the pain is perceived can be used to make an initial guess about the cause. Most of the time, the pain has harmless causes. In the early phase of a pregnancy, the hormonal changes in the mother-to-be’s body mainly disturb the gastrointestinal tract.
In the later course of the pregnancy, the constantly growing child in the womb may be the cause of the pain. The growing uterus with the unborn child increasingly constricts the organs in the mother’s abdomen and displaces them from their usual positions in the abdominal cavity. The child itself can often cause pain to the mother through its movements and kicks.
This pain must be endured until the child changes its position again. In addition, as the circumference of the uterus increases, the retaining ligaments of the abdominal organs become increasingly strained. This also affects the mother through abdominal pain, which occurs mainly when coughing, getting up and sitting down, when the ligaments are put under the most strain. Even though the complaints are usually harmless, a doctor should be consulted when they occur, because despite pregnancy, all other causes of stomach cramps such as gastritis, gastroenteritis, biliary colic, shingles or pancreatitis must always be considered, because they can always be the cause of such complaints, even despite pregnancy. Especially if the pain is accompanied by symptoms such as headache, fever, bleeding, water retention, high blood pressure, dizziness or chills, or if the pain is persistent and increasingly intense, a doctor should be consulted urgently to rule out serious causes.