Can your upper back hurt during labor

This pain is usually attributed to the pressure of your baby's head against your lower back, but other factors may be at work, too. One unproven but interesting theory is that the pain is "referred" to your lower back from your uterus.

That idea is supported by the fact that some women complain of low back pain when they have menstrual cramps. One study found that women who had back pain during their periods were more likely to have back pain during labor.

Back labor feels like intense pain in your lower back that continues between contractions. Regular labor pain often feels like strong menstrual cramps that start and stop, and increase in intensity over time. In contrast, moms say that back labor feels like a continuous, strong pain focused on your back. It tends to get stronger during contractions and can become especially uncomfortable at the height of a contraction.

The best thing that worked for me was counterpressure. My husband would press as hard as he could against my lower spine and it relieved a lot of the pain. If she stopped for a second, I squealed. The birthing ball helped, and while I bounced, my mom had a tennis ball in a sock that she rubbed on my lower back.

Back labor has long been thought to be more common when the baby is facing up during labor , with the back of the baby's head pressing on the bony part of your spine. But there are no studies to support that idea.

One small study found that women who had back pain during pregnancy and women who were overweight were more prone to have back pain during labor. You may not be able to prevent low back pain during labor, but you can try one or more of these tactics to help relieve it:. Check out some other natural childbirth techniques that may help you deal with labor pain. If you don't have your heart set on natural childbirth and nothing is helping you manage your back pain, consider getting an epidural.

In most cases, it provides total relief from all kinds of labor pain, including back labor. Positions your baby might be in during birth. Top pain-management techniques during labor. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.

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Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Back labor is a common occurrence. As many as one in four pregnant people reportedly experience intense back pain during the birthing process. Back labor is a term that describes the discomfort that a person in labor experiences in the region of the lower back. The pain of back labor typically is felt in the lower back, but it may also occur in the hips, and it sometimes radiates spreads to the thigh area.

Usually, a person in labor will feel pain from contractions in the abdomen and pelvis. Most laboring people will experience some type of discomfort in their back during the labor and delivery process. This pain may be mild and may exhibit itself as soreness or slight cramps. But, in some people—those in back labor—the pain is very intense, occurring during the contractions of active labor and also present between contractions.

Causes of back labor may include:. Back labor can refer to several scenarios during labor, including back pain that is:.

Some of the back pain a person feels at full term may not be related to back labor. Rather, it could be the result of general aches and pains, which commonly occur from excess weight of the pregnancy straining the back muscles. Back labor usually involves symptoms such as:. In general, you should contact your healthcare provider anytime you notice new symptoms during your pregnancy. Experiencing back pain for hours at full term can be an indication that labor is about to begin.

Here are signs that labor may have started and indications that your healthcare provider should be notified:. Note, if you are having regular, painful contractions, accompanied by back pain, you will likely have back labor.

Having back labor is not known to cause any serious complications for the baby or the pregnant person, but there are some risks. The good news is, there are a lot of effective ways to relieve back labor pain. Back labor is intense pain and discomfort experienced in the lower back during labor. It usually happens when a baby is positioned with his head down toward your cervix but is facing forward, toward your stomach. The vast majority of babies turn to face backwards on their own before their moms are ready to deliver.

If your baby is facing your tummy, the back of his head, which is the hardest part, pushes down on your spine and tailbone. This presses on the nerves in the spine, causing pain. This position is also ideal for labor, because the smallest and most compact part of your baby — his head — is lined up to fit through the pelvis as easily as possible.

Fortunately, odds are good that your baby will flip all on his own. That may be because he was sunny-side up but recently flipped, leaving your back feeling extra sensitive. Other times, it just seems to be the luck of the draw: Some women simply experience more labor pain in the back than others. As delivery day approaches, your practitioner will try to determine which way your baby is facing.

If you're in a hurry to find out, look for these clues:. When your baby is anterior facing toward your back , your belly may feel hard and smooth that's your baby's back. If your little one is posterior facing toward your stomach , your tummy may look flatter and softer because your baby's arms and legs are facing forward so there's no hard, smooth back to feel.

Once contractions start, back labor feels like strong pain in your lower back that gets worse during each contraction and doesn't usually subside as things progress. Your doctor has likely given you a list of the signs that suggest it may be time to head to the hospital during labor. Keep in mind, early labor can last for a few hours to a few days.

With the weight of your growing uterus shifting your weight forward and the pregnancy hormone relaxin loosening your joints, back pain is a common pregnancy complaint. It often starts in the second to third trimester and gets worse as pregnancy progresses. With normal pregnancy back pain, your lower back and upper hips feel constantly achy, stiff or sore. Labor contractions can cause pain in just the lower abdomen or the lower abdomen and the back. Normal labor contractions feel like intense menstrual cramps that come and go with increasing intensity.

Regular contractions are only slightly felt in the back.