Healthy Chic: Morning Sickness

Morning Sickness affects about 50-80% of women during their pregnancy with symptoms of nausea and often vomiting. It usually begins around 5 ½ weeks and ends by the 16th week of pregnancy, although some unlucky women have it their entire pregnancy. Although it is called morning sickness it really can happen any time of the day. At one time thought to be a sign of psychological problems, there is no known exact cause for the illness. It is most likely related to the hormonal changes during pregnancy. Some studies have actually shown that moderate nausea and vomiting is correlated with good pregnancy outcome, and a lower risk of miscarriage. Severe nausea and vomiting called hyperemesis gravidarum can be harmful for both the mother and the baby and may require hospitalization due to dehydration. This medical condition may lead to weight loss, psychological problems as well as physical problems. A toll free help line by Motherisk is available to answer questions for women experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum. They can be reached by calling 1-800-436-8477.

Experts at the American Dietetic Association give the following suggestions to try:

Switch to smaller, more frequent meals. It can help both heartburn and nausea
Avoid fluids at meal time; drink fluids in between meals instead
Choose bland foods as opposed to the heartburn prone spicier foods
Eat more fruits and complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, crackers and pasta. Sensitive stomachs find those foods easier to tolerate.
Take your prenatal vitamins later in the day
Get out of bed slowly in the morning. Keep some plain crackers or dry cereal by your bedside table to quiet nausea.
Drinking a decaffeinated herbal tea sometimes helps. Ask your doctor what he or she suggests.

Other suggestions that should be cleared by your Physician first include:

Consider changing to an iron-free prenatal pill if you are not anemic
Ginger can be effective in fighting nausea. This can be used in tea, candied, or in capsules.
Raspberry tea is often used by pregnant women to ease the nausea. There are some recent concerns about the safety of using raspberry tea so speak to your physician first.
Vitamin B6 also can be used not to exceed 25 mg a day.

Acupressure has also been used as a drug free method to combat morning sickness. Sea-Bands provide pressure on a specific acupuncture point, relieving the nausea almost immediately without any side effects.

When you are feeling this sick it really is hard to keep a long term perspective, but this WILL pass eventually. I remember being sick myself, every time I saw a mother with children I thought "She too went through morning sickness, and she has more than one child, so it must get better." Keep in mind, if morning sickness were really that bad, then the perpetuation of the human race would have died off long ago! Hang in there and hopefully some of our advice has helped you.