what is this pain?

[memory maker]

Are these contractions of some sort or is it my cervix changing? or something else?
I have been having a sharp stabbing pain that is deep in my vagina like where my cervix is located. I have never had this pain with my other 2 pregnancies. I was only 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced the other day when I went to the mw, but this pain has become more frequent since then.
What do you think?

[zjande]

I have no idea, but I am experiencing the exact same pain right this second.

[3for3hb]

does it feel like it's on the uterus side of your cervix? I've been getting that A LOT these past few weeks. I think it might be a baby elbow stretching or something like that. Literally, sometimes I think there's a little hand IN my cervix, scratching away....
Don't know if this is what you are experiencing but ouch...

[PicnicBear]

I have that, too. Don't know what it is. Mine feels like it's on the vagina side of things.

[Kavita]

Sometimes a pain like you're being scratched or poked in the cervix is effacement.

[MrsMoe]

I dunno what it is either... but I get those pains also - sometimes I get them when I am having a very uncomfortable/strong Braxton Hicks.

[birthjunkie27]

Hmmm, I've gotten this pain while walking recently. It'll just come from out of no where and stop me dead in my tracks. But it's usually fleeting. Will go away just as fast as it started.

[MamaFern]

i have it too.. i think its baby's head hitting a nerve or something.. it hurts a LOT but then its gone..

[babykaoss]

i have been having this so often lately! it feels like there's something stabbing me in my cervix and yet its so low that i get the urge to sort of.........hold myself from the outside by my vagina.......its very very intense and hard to explain. i think my midwife said it was the baby's head hitting nerves really low........but it doesnt feel like that.....it feels like i'm walking around with a knife in where a tampon would usually be.

is it the same for you guys?

[flapjack]

Uh-huh. It's much worse when I'm walking as well- and goes away quickly, but then comes back again. I could do without it, to be honest.

[gonnabeamom]

I get a stabbing pain while walking sometimes too, but it doesn't feel vaginal, it feels like bone-on-bone. Somebody suggested this is referred pain from the round ligament.

Sometimes pain particularly anything involving nerves will appear to come from somewhere else in the body than it's actual source. I don't know if that's involved with anyone here, or if in a week or two I'll be saying "Oh, THAT'S what they meant"

[PicnicBear]

Whatever the heck it is, it seems common! I second the knife thing!

Ohh, and this is what I get for going off about how better my insomnia is -- up posting at 5:30 . .

[memory maker]

Originally Posted by babykaoss

i have been having this so often lately! it feels like there's something stabbing me in my cervix and yet its so low that i get the urge to sort of.........hold myself from the outside by my vagina.......its very very intense and hard to explain. i think my midwife said it was the baby's head hitting nerves really low........but it doesnt feel like that.....it feels like i'm walking around with a knife in where a tampon would usually be.

is it the same for you guys?

this is exactly what I am having :

[babykaoss]

well, i feel for you, girl. i was TRYING to do my grocery shopping today and it was almost continuous.......i could barely walk around the store. very uncomfortable and frustrating, yet since i've gotten home, not a thing. they've been more and more frequent lately, but never that much all at one time!

i really wish i could be positive WHY its happening. if it's cervical change that could be not so good.....we really need this baby to stay in until like.....let me think, yeah, the 15th of november, that's two paychecks away. :

[Queen of Cups]

One of my friends said her OB/GYN called it the "knife in the vagina" feeling, and that its cause is not really known, but its really common. I have it occasionally, too. Not fun!

[Bex80]

Just chiming in to say that you are not alone! I hate that pain. I call it the "head grind", because it feels like she is grindinga nd twisting her head on my cervix. Very sharp, very painful. s

[eastvillage]

I'm with you! I have been describing the "knife in the vagina" pain to girlfriends for some time now and they keep looking at me like I'm crazy, so whatever. I asked my doula a while back and she said it's probably the baby's head knocking into a nerve down there, but lately it's been severe and reasonably common (perhaps 3 times a day) and it comes and goes so fast, by the time I stop and draw in my breath, it's gone.

My hubbie says that it's just nature's way of preparing me, and that by the time I hit labor, everything will be "old hat". Yeah, right!

[gonnabeamom]

Bex,

That's exactly what it feel like to me. I just always wind up picturing my little P with head not quite in the right place trying to push down!

Oddly enough I do find using some of the stuff we used in childbirth class helpful to get through the worst ones. However if my DH said that I probably apply a clothespin to his earlobe and suggest he get used to it!

[Bex80]

:LOL eastvillage and gonnabeamom! Dh's try so hard to be supportive, but they don't seem to understand completely at times. I almost peed myself laughing about the clothespin on the ear. Great visual.

[SoulJourney]

Originally Posted by MamaFern

i have it too.. i think its baby's head hitting a nerve or something.. it hurts a LOT but then its gone..

In case anyone's interested, during a natural childbirth class this evening, a CNM told us that it IS actually the baby putting pressure on a nerve! So I guess we could say they are already finding ways to get on our nerves! hehehe Sorry mamas...late night cheesy preggo humor!