Umbilical Hernia Anyone?

[OurLittleNest]

Anyone else dealing/has dealt with an umbilical hernia during pregnancy?

I found out I had an umbilical hernia with this pregnancy, something that developed during my first pregnancy but went undiagnosed until now. It didn't bother me much before but has been getting worse as the pregnancy goes on.

Apparently my intestine is getting caught in there, which can be very painful, and the couple times it has been caught and hasn't gone back in after a few minutes I would describe it as excruciating. I went to the ER the first time it didn't fix itself (but they did not know anything about umbilical hernias and were of no help. It resolved itself about 30 minutes after I got there). My doctor said it is best to lay on my back so gravity will push the tissue back in. If needed, I can also push on the hernia too.

Just a few days ago, I got an abdominal binder and that has made a lot of difference. The two days before I couldn't be upright for more than 20/30 minutes at a time before taking a break to lay down. If I have this binder on it hasn't given me any problems.

My doctor said this will get better later in pregnancy because my uterus will grow and block off the hernia. I am about five months now so I guess this should be happening soon.

Just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and how it went throughout the pregnancy/delivery/postpartum. What did your doctor tell you? And has anyone had the surgery to repair the hernia?

[mom61508]

this is interesting because I have pain a little to the left of my bellybutton then up from there that kills me if I press in the area. I noticed it after my 1st pregnancy I'm wondering If this is a hernia?? Sorry I'm not much help but I'm wondering If this is my problem.

[Ellen Griswold]

I'm curious too. I have a bump just above my belly button and also hurts if I press on it. Going to ask about it the next time I go in. I don't have any previous experience with this.

[OurLittleNest]

I thought nothing of mine until I became pregnant again. Pre-pregnancy it looked like a small marble under my skin above my belly button. Sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller. It didn't bother me much at all, unless I was more active than usual chasing my toddler around. Now that I'm pregnant it's another story. I have to wait until after the birth to have the surgery but I wish I had known beforehand because I would have had it taken care of and saved myself all this trouble now.

[kellybell]

I had surgery to repair an inguinal hernia that I developed during my last pregnancy. We chose not to do mesh, as we hoped to have another little one in the future. Evidently repairing with mesh is not recommended until after you're completely done having children. I am now pregnant 6 weeks and found out that I also have an umbilical hernia. My belly button already sticks out in the evenings, but has not been painful so far.

I'm sorry to hear about the pain! Mine was debilitating during the last pregnancy, which was why I had it taken care of. Unfortunately I didn't know about this one...

[spatulagirl]

I had a ventrical and umbilical hernia repair (had to use mesh for one of them) in February and accidentally got pregnant in May. I was thinking about having another kid, so I asked the surgeon and he said it wouldn't be a problem. At most, I might have to have it repaired again. I have some scar tissue built up so I know I have to go in again to have it removed, they are little hard calls you can see under my skin.

I had them undiagnosed during my last pregnancy but it didn't cause me any pain.

[VillageMom6]

I'm so sorry this is causing you pain. I had a hernia during my fourth pregnancy that I didn't even know about. I just thought my belly button wasn't an "inny" anymore.

It wasn't until a year later that a doctor noticed it and said that I needed to have surgery.

Unlike Kellybell's situation, my docs never said anything about not using mesh if more babies are in the future. That's really interesting. My surgeon used mesh and I've had two more babies since then.

The only time mesh caused an issue was last year I developed an ovarian cyst that needed to be surgically removed. They could not do it laparoscopically because of the mesh, they had to do a more invasive laparotomy.

I hope you feel better soon!