Sharp muscle pain on one side of the back, in the middle of the back. Hip area is pain free. But this middle area is driving me nuts; it feels like someones sticking a knife in me and not moving it.

I end up waking up on my back in the morning because of the pain, because it feels nice when I lie flat on my back (even though I'm not supposed to) but as the day gradually goes by, the sharp pain gets worse. Sometimes I really feel like cracking my back!!

Any advice as to how to relieve it?

Hi I know what you mean I wake up on my back too, sorry not much advice on how to stop it hurting. I tryed a hot water bottle ..not too hot though, it made it a little better. I found it was worse when sitting, not that I get to sit much lol but when I do I get a cushion and fold it in half and wedge it into my back this feels good :-) The thing I really want to do is bend forward and stretch my back out but bumps in the way, I've managed it a little on all fours like a cat stretch! If you have a willing partner a nice rub eases it tempereraly. But I'm glad it's not just me beging to think I might have pulled it at work

That's exactly how I feel! I really feel like stretching my back out but it's so hard to stretch that mid area out!

When I get that I take a very warm deep bath and soak for a bit. It usually helps a lot. I think it's just those muscles getting kinked up from the way we sit or from the heavier boobs pulling our shoulders forward. Mine got really bad when I was carrying some food dishes to the car a few days ago and I leaned forward to put them down in the car. I knew immediately that I shouldn't have done it and it was killing me all day. Took my bath plus some tylenol (paracetamol) and that eased it later in the day. I also had a dose of benadryl (i have ongoing terrible allergies and it's the only thing that works) that evening before the bath which may have helped some too because it makes you sleepy and relaxes you a bit.

You need to make the bath as deep as you can though so you can submerge your your whole back down in it easily with a towel behind your head for a pillow. I am SO thankful for my garden tub these days. The new place has one too thank god. Don't know what I would do without it.

Hi, I have had this since the beginning of december and it has been getting progressively worse. It doesn't help that is is exacerbated by sitting down and I travel 50 mins to work everyday and then sit down for my job!!!!
I ended up going to see a physio and she said that I have 2 trapped nerves which run from my spine along my ribs round to the front. She tried to manipulate them free with no luck so just sent me away with some stretching exercises to help relieve it.

The first stretch is just to sit on a chair and place your left and over your right knee and twist towards the back of the chair - repeat on the other side - do these as often as you like.

The second one was, again sitting on a chair, lift one arm up as high as you can towards the ceiling, take a long deep breath, then lower your arm slowly - repeat on other side.

Basically what is happening is that your rib cage shifts during pregnancy and a couple of ribs are slightly too close together, trapping a nerve. These exercises help to seperate the ribs. They won't make the pain disappear but they do help a bit, they have made the difference between me being signed off work and being able to carry on!!

Hope this helps XXX