# round ligament pain = continued growth?



## franjapany (Oct 23, 2007)

*skip all the following and start reading at the (*) again, if you want to get straight to the question (can'T seem to keep it short, sorry)

I'm 10weeks pregnant with our third child. In my previous pregnancies I have never feared an m/c - I guess mainly because both previous kids were 'planned' and it never occurred to me that anything could prevent them from reaching their final destination LOL

This pregnancy however was a surprise and as much as I welcome this new little person in my life I am feeling a bit antsy. A close friend just miscarried at the start of the year and suddenly the idea is in my head...

I had my first mw appointment a week ago but we weren't able to find a heartbeat with the doppler, which would have been fortunate anyway. My next appointment with her is on may 14th since we are going away for a week at the start of the month and I expected to have an appointment with a HB-friendly OB before. However the earliest apptmnt I could get with the OB was may 10th.

So, now I am torn between scheduling an earlier appointment with the mw or just relaxing myself and finding that old trust again within myself.

My friends baby stopped growing in week 7, she learned about it in week 11 and mc'd two weeks later. She said she was glad she didn't know any earlier, bc this way she had two weeks of coming to terms with it and waiting for nature to do its thing. She coped extremely well and wouldn'T have wanted to know for six weeks that the baby wasn'T viable. I can see her point.

(*)

So in the past few days I have had on and off round ligament pain and today for the first time definite growing pains. In my logic this would mean, if my uterus is still stretching and adjusting, the baby inside must have a heartbeat too, right? Or is this too naive and unscientific thinking? anyone know more about this? any OB's on here who can actually contribute some medical facts?

TIA


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## Laurucha (Apr 11, 2011)

I don't think you can read too much into the pains you are having. There are so many little pains in early pregnancy that it is impossible to know what exactly is causing them. I can't imagine an ob-gyn is going to try to diagnose the cause, especially over the internet!

I personally have no problem with non-invasive testing during pregnancy, so if it were me I would want an ultrasound as soon as possible. I have suffered some pregnancy losses, including one at a fairly late stage, so I am prone to realistic worrying. My doctor has considered my pregnancy high-risk, which means I go in for frequent ultrasounds. I don't mind, even though I think he is being overly cautious, because I get to see that my baby is doing well on a regular basis. I am not sure why you are hesitating to push for an earlier appointment.


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## franjapany (Oct 23, 2007)

thanks for the reply.

I guess I was pretty vague with my question...

I guess I just wanted to hear some experiences of women who mc'd - how long did they have growing pains, like round ligament pain? In retrospect could say say that their symptoms became less or stopped when the baby stopped growing? Things like that... I had a conversation with my friend yesterday and she confirmed exactly that. But that's just one person...

In the mean time I have scheduled an earlier appointment with my mw, bc I realized if anything WAS wrong, I could obviously not go on our planned trip! That realization just pretty much hit me yesterday. So I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks


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## GoofyInOK (Nov 10, 2011)

Best of luck, I hope everything works out great for you.


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## LilyTiger (Dec 11, 2011)

*franjapany*, to be honest, I don't think hearing those stories would be terribly helpful. When I first got pregnant, I trolled around for stories of miscarriage and everyone is just so different that you could easily interpret your own symptoms to meet the case. I've heard from women who didn't have symptoms, which was the sign something was wrong and then women who had normal symptoms even though the baby had stopped growing. I think your initial thought of trying to connect with the pregnancy and regain your usual confidence makes more sense than sorting through traumatic miscarriage stories that will ultimately do nothing but make you more worried. I, at least, have never found that reading more about miscarriage has made me feel better.


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## Laurucha (Apr 11, 2011)

I agree with what LilyTiger said. Minor pains can mean anything, and there is a lot of diversity in women's experiences with pregnancy and miscarriage. Personally, I didn't notice any changes when my fetuses stopped developing, but I also didn't have round ligament pains that early in the pregnancy. After years of infertility, treatments, and two lost pregnancies, I have a lot of experience trying read too much into little symptoms that really mean nothing. Your risk of miscarriage at this stage is very low. It's small enough that you shouldn't be wasting any energy worrying about it, though it's totally understandable that you do. I feel like you either need to let the worrying go, or try to get an ultrasound as soon as possible to get some answers.

Now that I am well into my second trimester, I am realizing how much the first trimester sucked. It is hard to deal with the uncertainty, especially if you are someone is aware of pregnancy loss. I hope that baby starts kicking you early to let you know s/he's doing well!


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## MissE (May 12, 2007)

@Franziska: I hear you. The first few weeks/months really do suck, the uncertainty of things, is the baby ok etc. I was never worried about mc in my first two pregnancies and got pregnant again, unplanned, a total shock and still didn't worry about a mc until I heard stories of other moms having completely easy pregnancies and then all of a sudden, lost the next baby..argh...how scary. Now, at 18 weeks, I feel more comfortable. my belly is growing and I can feel baby squirming in there, it's more reassuring.

I don't think that round ligament pain necessarily means the baby is still 'there'. I have heard of missed miscarriages, where growth stopped at 6 weeks or 8 weeks but yet the body hadn't started to miscarry up until 12 weeks or even later and it was just not detected cause the women didn't have a checkup yet or were in between checkups.

All the best to you..think positive (easier said than done).

Lots of greetings to Germany...I miss Germany. I envy you for being there right now .


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