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  • Aug. 23, 2008

    Some tips to deal with pregnancy nausea and vomiting

    By Mary Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

41 comments posted

Before I ever got pregnant, I worried I would have pregnancies like my dear sister. I think she vomited from the time the sperm united with the egg until her placenta delivered. She never had relief, it just became more predictable. She got the vomiting and fast labor genes and I got the no nausea or vomiting and the slow labor gene.

According to the UpToDate database, some degree of nausea with or without vomiting occurs in 50 to 90 percent of all pregnancies. It begins at five to six weeks gestation, peaking at nine weeks, and usually getting better by 16 to 18 weeks. My sister was one of the 5 percent who continue with it until delivery.

Why do we get nauseated and vomit in pregnancy? Good question — with no definitive answer. There are no studies that can say what causes it. There are theories about hormonal changes and abnormal gastric motility as well as psychological factors.

What can we do about it? If you know that there is a trigger for the nausea, such as the smell of fried food, avoid that. No trips through a drive-through window. Other triggers can be stuffy rooms, perfume and heat. Brushing your teeth can bring it on. Sometimes the iron in your supplements can cause gastric irritation. You could stop your prenatal and take a standard multivitamin or just take your folic acid supplements until after you are feeling better. Eat before or as soon as you feel hungry. An empty stomach can aggravate nausea. Eat frequent high-carbohydrate, low-fat meals. Powdered ginger (1 to 1.5 grams in divided doses over 24 hours) has a positive effect. Some women find lemon-drop candies help.

If your nausea and vomiting are unstoppable, let your health provider know. There is a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum (too much vomiting while pregnant — have to love the fancy name) that can be serious. If you have persistent vomiting and have weight loss exceeding 5 percent of your pre-pregnancy weight, you could fall in this group. Seek help immediately.

I am sure many of you ladies have experienced this. Share with us the things you did to help get through this stage of pregnancy.

41 comments posted

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  • October 16, 2008 3:44 a.m.

    I had dreadful hyperemesis and lost 20% of my bodyweight. A combination of zofran and herbal medications allowed me to carry the pregnancy to term. An ice pack on my neck helped sometimes. Mint gum that was not artificially sweetened helped most of the time. Nutritional drinks like Ensure or Boost stayed down better than anything else. Things improved around 25 weeks and the vomiting was only 3-5 times a day.

    - Kalah

  • October 7, 2008 6:57 p.m.

    I drink mint tea.. refresh (Tazo) tea from starbucks works great...

    - teresa

  • September 18, 2008 9:48 p.m.

    a have seen so many pregnant respond well to good familial support with vit B6 plus cortecosteroid therapy please you can try

    - s alalfy

  • September 18, 2008 6:50 a.m.

    1 i would like to know how to go about y a woman has not gone to her prenantal appts before the 3 months came she new she was pregnant in july but wait to tell me i'm the father of the kid sept.3 then told me she hasn't see a doctor yet

    - anonymous

  • September 16, 2008 5:54 a.m.

    I have had dreadful hyperemesis with both pregnancies, much worse second time around with two year old at heels! in both cases I didn't improve until well into the twenty weeks somewhere and medication did not help at all; my second pregnancy saw me in hospital for weeks on end, eventually having a hyperalimentaton drip at 27 weeks.This took four or five days and seemed to help as afterwards I began to improve, ever so slowly. What I found was worse than losing 10% body weight and being too weak to walk to the toilet,was the extraordinary effect that it had on my mental state...it was bloody awful to be honest, and I found it difficult to see how I would ever contemplate pregnancy again. I would be interested to know whether there is any link between hyperemesis and post-natal depression, as after both pregnancies this has been a problem! I also suspect that the extraordinary weight loss has far more long term effects on the body than meets the eye -eg before kids, I was rarely ill, now, I seem to be constantly fighting off colds and other 'low level' infections.. On a lighter note,pregnancy doesn't last for ever (Thank heavens)...while ginger helped in the very early weeks, after that I was pretty much at the mercy of my hormones, and found that although it is extremely difficult, trying to always keep the bigger picture in frame helped...it is soooo worth it in the end!

    - Claire

  • September 9, 2008 5:21 p.m.

    One word - ginger! In any form you can tolerate it - sip gingerale, nibble on gingersnaps, gingerbread, ginger tea, ginger candy . . . it's "old-fashioned" but it works for many women.

    - Elaine, R.D.

  • September 5, 2008 1:53 p.m.

    I always tell people that I never envy people with wealth,power and position, but when a woman tells me she has never had morning sickness, I am envious. However, after several pregnancies I discovered low-sodium (I hope they still make it)club soda. I drank a couple quarts a day and it really helped. I used to joke that I would give birth to a bubble!

    - Joanne

  • September 5, 2008 1:10 a.m.

    I'm only 7 weeks pregnant. I've been naucious and threw up two mornings. After talking to my mom, whom I inhereted many medical problems from, I think I found out that I have to avoid spicy foods... or tomato products. Maybe anything acidic in general. Orange Juice, grapes, etc. Today was the first day in like 8 days that I wasn't naucious all day.

    - Brandi

  • August 29, 2008 3:53 p.m.

    I found that partially frozen grapes were the only things to take care of my nauseau. Green grapes were the best, red grapes worked pretty well. Not a single medication worked but next time grapes will stay by my side.

    - Isaiahs mom

  • August 29, 2008 1:53 p.m.

    I am a first time parent and I have to say I have never experienced so much sickness and vomiting in my life. I couldn't eat anything, but yet I was vomiting about 5 times a day. I lost 20 pounds and no medication I took helped me. Once I hit my 20th week, there was this blanket of relief and the nausea and vomiting stopped just like that.

    - kisha

  • August 27, 2008 2:06 p.m.

    With my second pregnancy I developed nausea and vomiting 24 hours a day. I would wake up in the middle of the night and vomit non-stop. No medication worked for me and then they put me on a Zofran drip until the eighth month and I held out with Zofran tablets until delivery. I felt like I had the worst case of the stomach flu possible for 9 months. I delivered a healthy son but am so mentally traumatised, I will never get pregnant again.

    - Sherry Misch

  • August 26, 2008 4:45 p.m.

    I experienced nausea and a fair amount of vomiting with two pregnancies, from about week six to about week 18 or 20 with both. No amount of crackers or dry toast helped at all in the morning, and actually the nausea and vomiting were worse at night. With pregnancy #1, I toughed it out by trying to eat what sounded appealing and frequent, small portions. Salty food, meat, refried beans and green apples helped. So did cold air and plenty of sleep. For pregnancy #2, I decided I did not want to to bear the mentally debilitating effects of so much nausea and vomiting for so long. Despite my desire to not take medications during pregnancy, I took a prescription anti nausea/vomiting medication. It helped reduce the vomiting and took some edge off the nausea so it was more "tolerable." It also made me very sleepy. A different prescription medication actually increased my vomiting, so for anyone considering medication, work with your care provider to get something that works for you if you are OK with taking such stuff at all. I also smelled a lot of cut lemons (momentary relief), drank root beer (occasionaly helped), used accupressure wrist bands (seemed to be no help) and basically endured. For those who have been through something similar, I'd love to hear what worked for you. For those who have had pregnancies free from significant nausea and vomiting, thank goodness for you, and please think of your "sisters" who may be quite sick every day for we

    - sg

  • August 25, 2008 7:35 p.m.

    oops. here is the link to that article talking about herbs and ginger http://www.wellsphere.com/healing---recovery-article/heal-yourself-with-herbs/18033

    - mels

  • August 25, 2008 7:33 p.m.

    here an article that mentions all sorts of natural remedies that should be safe during pregnancy. One of them is using ginger to calm nausea pregnant women. my friend sucked on strong ginger candy and it worked.

    - mels

  • August 25, 2008 3:50 p.m.

    I too suffered throughout my pregnancy and ended up in the hospital. I was prescribed a drug used in chemo treatments to stop mine. It did get better after the 7th month.

    - mom2one

  • August 22, 2008 10:16 p.m.

    I notice a distinct change in the way things smell as one of the first signs of mypregnancy. Even simple household odours that have never affected me before became overpowering I just wanted to barf Christine pregnancy symptoms

    - Happy Mom

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