Pre-eclampsia and rib pain?

[AprilBaby2025]

I am 24+5 weeks pregnant. And have anxiety and overthink every single symptom lol. I am starting to visibly show and starting to actually feel pregnant/heavy.

At 20+3 was the first time I started to get pain right below my bra line on my right rib. Close to the centre but off to the right. It was / is extremely mild and it lasted like maybe 10 minutes. I don't actually remember. It was so minor and didn't last long though. The pain is like a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I have had it on and off since then. It has always been extremely mild. It mostly happens when I am at my desk working. I have bad posture and am always slouched over. It's not shooting pain. It feels like tenderness. And when I press on it, it feels like a bruise (but no bruise actually seen). And I also notice that it can also feel tender on the left side of the sternum as well. Like the exact location on both sides. Like at the edge of the ribs, just below the sternum.

Yesterday, when it happened I was working at my desk and I also got pain in my upper back near the right scapula. It wasn't "radiating" pain. That back pain definitely felt musculoskeletal, plus I had that exact same pain pre-pregnancy and it is always posture related. It feels like a knot in my back and massaging it out helps and it completely goes away when changing positions. But it did happen at the same time as the rib pain yesterday.

Movement doesn't make it worse. Breathing doesn't make it worse. Lying on a certain side doesn't make it worse. Lying down makes it better.

It usually occurs when sitting.

I have seen my midwife twice since it started. I never mentioned it because I always forget about it when I see her (it's so mild and intermittent that I just forget lol). My blood pressure has been ok at the visits (and I can't monitor at home for personal reasons so I depend on the midwife measurements). No other symptoms.

Anyways, what is rib pain like with pre-e? Is it constant? Is it severe?

The “rib pain” in pre-eclampsia is actually “right upper quadrant pain”. It’s caused by enlargement of your liver. It’s usually described as a stabbing pain, or like severe indigestion. Very unlikely to be pre-eclampsia based on that symptom alone, and unlikely at 25 weeks as well.

I am 29 weeks and regularly have a mild burning sensation just below my ribs in the middle. I wanted ask about pre eclampsia but, like the OP, forgot in my m medical appointments because it is mild and there are no other symptoms. But I was wondering what real pre eclampsia pain felt like. I will continue to monitor other potential symptoms

I had a similar pain from around the same time until I gave birth too and was also worried about preeclampsia. My MW wasn’t concerned as I had no other symptoms.

I think mine was just ‘rib flare’ where the uterus is pressing against the ribs and normal in pregnancy. Sometimes it was very painful, especially at night or sitting in the same position for too long . The only thing I found helped was a heated pad.

I had pre eclampsia in my last pregnancy.

The first symptoms around 30 weeks were swelling in my feet, hands and face which started off just a bit puffy looking but got increasingly worse as the weeks went on.

From about 32 weeks I had protein in my urine (I ordered dip sticks from amazon so could keep an eye myself and it was usually +/++), at this point my BP was the higher end of normal but still OK so they said they weren't particularly concerned.

I was in a few times with reduced movements around 34-36 weeks and my BP was high. They would get me to lie down for an hour and retest which made it come down so they sent me home. During this time I also went to a&e one Sunday as I had an awful headache that wouldn't go away with black spots in my vision and a very sharp pain in my right side spreading up to my underarm. Referred back to maternity and they did the same with BP and sent me home when it came down.

At 37 weeks on the dot I had a growth scan and all was fine but protein in my urine was ++++ by this point and BP was high and refused to come down. It was only then that I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and I was admitted on the spot.