If you’re going through the first trimester of pregnancy, you are probably well acquainted with morning sickness by now. Looking for explanations and more importantly, treatments for your nausea? Well, you've come to the right place.
What is morning sickness?
Morning sickness, or pregnancy nausea, is a common condition that affects more than half of all women during pregnancy. The feeling of sickness is related to increased oestrogen levels that occur when you’re pregnant. While the name suggests it is only present in the morning and reduces as the day progresses, many women experience it throughout the day.
Is morning sickness serious?
Women who are pregnant with their first child often worry about their baby’s nutrition when vomiting and unable to eat a balanced diet during pregnancy.
The nausea can be mild or can induce actual vomiting. In more severe cases, like for those suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, vomiting may cause dehydration, weight loss or worse. If your symptoms are anything but mild, it's best to seek a doctor’s advice. They can provide suitable medications or if very serious, transfer you to hospital.
Morning sickness can be one of the first symptoms of pregnancy and usually begins around the fifth or sixth week of pregnancy. For most women it stops around the 12th week of pregnancy.
Treatment for morning sickness
While there is no evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of specific treatments for pregnancy nausea, some things may help to lessen the symptoms.
Here are some morning sickness treatments that have worked for mums just like you:
- Eat five or six small meals per day, rather than three large meals and avoid an empty stomach
- If you get a food craving, get himself to move the earth until you have what you need!
- Eat fruits and veggies high in water content such as tomatoes, grapefruit, strawberries, spinach and grapes
- Use the BRAT diet (used for people with gastro bugs): bananas, rice, stewed apple, tea and toast
- Eat dry crackers (tuc, cream crackers, crackerbread) or biscuits in the morning: our mums report that they found it helpful to keep cereal or biscuits by the bed for eating first thing
- Drink liquids around ½ hour after eating solid food
- Use vitamin B6 supplements
- Travel sickness bands
- Suck ice cubes made from water or fruit juice (particularly if you can’t hold down fluids)
- Some mums report plain chocolate or choc spread sandwiches to help
Typically, you'll get some relief from one or more of the above ideas, but if nothing works, you can click here for more natural remedies for morning sickness.
Morning sickness is never nice to get, but remember it's a result of your body making natural changes to prepare for your little one. And while it mightn’t stop the nausea, you can at least have some fun by using your morning sickness to predict your baby’s gender.
Find out more about how best to prevent morning sickness
