I think my baby has broken my rib!

[phlossie]

Seriously! I have awful rib pain, which feels like it's cracked or severely bruised. I'm 39+4 weeks pregnant and have had a chronic cough, and I think that's caused some bad rib damaged. Not sure there's anything I can do about it, just wondered if anyone else has experienced this?

Could it be a pulled muscle, from coughing? I once did this when lifting some heavy bags and I actually wondered if I was having a heart attack , the pain was so bad.

I had this happen twice, both times from coughing and once when I was driving! I have a high pain threshold but this had me in tears. It felt like bubs had pushed through between a couple of my ribs and it was painful for days afterwards. You've possibly bruised a rib or two from coughing and your rib cage being jerked against the baby. Bubs won't have much room in there anymore and if you do something that puts pressure on him/her they will probably let you know about it. I don't think it's anything to worry about and, hopefully, it should ease. I found that pressing my hands against my ribs if I needed to cough or sneeze made it a little less painful.

I had the same thing at about 38 weeks, I had rib pain for about a week following a bad cough then one night while I was washing up I heard and felt this awful crack and couldn't move for the pain - I thought I'd cracked a rib! I saw a doctor about it the next day as it was so bad and he said that I'd most likely sprained my ribcage, which can cause a cracking sensation. It took at least a week to heal and I could feel it clicking about slightly when I moved although it was nowhere near as bad as when it first happened.