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Pregnancy and Childbirth: The answers

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Torsion is usually quite difficult to diagnose before performing surgery and exposing the uterus.

Even though it is usually quite painful, it does not always affect the well-being of the fetus and can be managed conservatively, as long as painkillers are effective. Everything in perspective: This is a rare condition, and rare things happen rarely.

Pathological pain in pregnancy

 

Pathological pain is caused by a disease, as opposed to physiological pain, which is caused by the changes to the body brought about by pregnancy. There are several potential causes and no list can by any means be exhaustive. Here we can try to highlight the more common ones.

The pregnancy-specific causes of pain include:

· Preterm labor

· Placental abruption

· Severe torsion of the uterus

· Uterine rupture

· Pain arising from the liver in severe pre-eclampsia or HELLP syndrome

· Ectopic pregnancy

· Uterine fibroids

· Miscarriage.

 

Pain and Preterm labour

Preterm labor is one of the most common causes of pain in pregnancy. Contractions of the uterus are painful at whatever stage of the pregnancy they occur. Labor can only be known as such after 24 weeks of gestation. That is the recognized point generally. However, in the United States, the reference point is significantly lower at 20 weeks.

If contractions occur before this stage of pregnancy and if the mother goes on to lose the baby, this is classified as a miscarriage. The process of miscarriage is also painful but the degree of pain, as with labor, is widely variable.

Placental abruption and pregnancy pain

The placenta - or afterbirth, as it is commonly known could detach prematurely in the course of a pregnancy. This is a serious condition which could lead to the loss of the baby. It is usually painful but again, the degree of pain varies between individuals and depends on the extent of the abruption. It is normally, but not necessarily, accompanied by vaginal bleeding. This is discussed in more details in the section "Bleeding in pregnancy"­

 

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