Morning (plus day and night) sickness

Morning sickness is a common symptom in early pregnancy that, despite its name, is rarely contained specifically to morning hours. It is caused by changes in hormones and usually resolves as you move out of first trimester.

Morning sickness involves nausea with or without vomiting that usually commences in the morning, but can often last all day. Each woman experiences first trimester symptoms differently but increased levels of oestrogen and hCG hormones are mostly responsible for morning sickness. Morning sickness usually starts to get better after the first 3 months, however some women experience nausea for a longer periods. For the most part, generalized nausea and occasional vomiting won’t affect you or your baby, but if vomiting is severe or ongoing, it is best to seek advice and assessment.

While some nausea and tiredness is to be expected, ongoing morning sickness can impact a woman’s ability to maintain energy levels and continue effectively with work and social activities.  The best thing to do is listen to your body, rest as much as you can, maintain as much fluid intake and balance diet as possible, and seek advice if it is causing ongoing concern. There are medications that can be effective for morning sickness if it is severe, and each woman will find the effect of these, along with natural remedies, varies individually. Working out what is effective for you in relieving symptoms, as well as foods, scents or environments that trigger symptoms is important.

Non-medicated approaches to relief of morning sickness include;

• Eating small regular meals, avoiding feeling hungry or missing meals
• Frequent intake of small amounts of water rather than large drinks; sipper bottles are perfect for this
• Snacking between meals on plain foods such as crackers or nuts; an emergency stash in a zip lock bag in your bag is a great idea
• Limit foods which are rich in favour, acidity, fatty, spicy or deep fried
• Having someone help with meal preparation or preparing at a time of day when nausea is minimal, as food smells increase with cooking
• Inclusion of foods rich in Vitamin B6 such as avocado, chicken and greek yoghurt
• Ice cubes or freezing snack foods to allow slower ingestion with sucking; ie grapes, orange/grapefruit, berries
• Eating a light and plain flavoured snack before going to bed at night and or before getting out of bed in the morning
• Use of ginger and peppermint
• Acupressure, either by a qualified natural therapist or by pressure bands available at pharmacies
• Aromatherapy, particularly citrus based scents.

There are also medications that are safe to use in pregnancy and can be very effective for ongoing nausea.  If you have ongoing concerns with morning sickness during your pregnancy, please contact Kindred MOG to speak with one of the team.