Pregnancy Symptoms and Signs Blog

Dealing with morning sickness

While pregnancy is a wonderful and magical time, there’s also a fair amount of mess that goes along with the magic.

Morning sickness is one of the most well known and often discussed negative side effects of a pregnancy. In many cases, morning sickness is the messenger that allows women to find out they’re pregnant.

Morning sickness  is a condition that impacts about half of all pregnant women, and is perhaps one of the more uncomfortable aspects of pregnancy. Morning sickness usually takes place in the early hours of the day (hence the name) and tapers off as the day progresses. Morning sickness is usually characterized by mild to severe nausea and vomiting.

Morning sickness usually begins at about the sixth week of pregnancy and lasts until about the twelfth week. No one is quite sure what causes morning sickness, but most doctors believe that it has its root in a variety of factors. Some of the leading theories include:

• An increase in the amount of estrogen. When women become pregnant their production of estrogen can increase by 100 times the normal rate of production. To be sure, there’s no known difference in estrogen levels between women who experience morning sickness and those who do not.
• When women become pregnant, their sense of smell greatly improves. Because their sense of smell is greater, they’re better able to detect foul odors and their sensitivity to them thus increases, which may lead to them becoming more likely to suffer from nausea.
• When women become pregnant their levels of progesterone increase. This increase in progesterone allows the muscles in the uterus to relax, and thus prevents premature birth, but this may also relax pregnant women’s stomach and intestines, thus leading to an excess of stomach acids and gastroesophegal reflux, thus causing nausea and vomiting.
• Morning sickness may also be an evolutionary safeguard that prevents women from eating less healthy foods during pregnancy. Because women suffering from morning sickness have more sensitive stomachs, they’re forced to eat lighter, healthier fare and abstain from unhealthy, greasy foods and substances like alcohol.

Whatever the cause, morning sickness can be quite unpleasant for many pregnant women. In some cases, it can lead to more severe health problems. In a rare number of pregnancies, morning sickness can lead to vomiting severe enough to cause weight loss, dehydration, hypokalemia and alkalosis. This is known as hyperemesis gravidarum and happens in about one percent of all pregnancies. Hyperemesis gravidarum can cause many health complications for a pregnant woman, and may cause some later-in-life health issues for their unborn children.

There are a wide variety of home and medical remedies to morning sickness that can alleviate some of the discomfort this condition causes pregnant women.

Home remedies for morning sickness include:

• Rest. Your body’s going through an exhausting period of change. Sufficient bed rest could help to settle your stomach and make you less likely to become ill.
• Keep snacks by your bedside. Snacking at night has been found to help settle the stomach, and thus keep you from feeling ill when you wake up in the morning.
• Vitamin B6 has been found to be useful in preventing nausea and vomiting in pregnant women.
• Eating or sniffing lemon slices. Ginger and ginger ale has also been found to help prevent nausea and vomiting.

Another home remedy involves avoiding fried, fatty foods. Because of your increased sense of smell, you may find the odor of fried chicken or greasy hamburgers to be nauseating. By just avoiding these foods, you may reduce your chance of being ill.

If home remedies don’t suffice, doctors are able to proscribe a number of anti-nausea medications for morning sickness. The leading anti-nausea medication prescribed for morning sickness is Zofran, a drug that blocks chemical interactions in the body that can cause nausea and vomiting. Other medications include promethazine metoclopramide, and prochlorperazine.

If you suffer from severe morning sickness, take the time to mention it to your doctor. There’s no need to suffer. You should especially seek medical attention if your morning sickness is causing you to become dehydrated or to lose weight. In extremely rare cases, women who are unable to keep any food down must be fed through intravenous methods in order to preserve their health and that of their unborn child.

Despite all the downsides to morning sickness, there may be a silver lining, however. The upside of morning sickness (yes, there is one) is that, according to some studies, women who suffer from morning sickness are less likely to miscarry than women not afflicted with it.

Morning sickness can definitely make pregnancy less enjoyable, but if you’re able to take advantage of the many home remedies or medical alternatives available to alleviate this problem it can be made into a minor annoyance instead of a major inconvenience.

Newly pregnant?

Then buckle up, your emotions are about to take you for a wild ride. The wildly emotional pregnant woman is a stereotype, but like many generalizations, it does have a grain of truth to it. Pregnant women go through a wide variety of ups and downs throughout their pregnancies, some caused by hormones, others caused by living conditions.

This emotional roller coaster can be tough for an expectant mother, and equally, if not more, tough for her partner, who must endure mood swings and outbursts while managing his or her own emotions concerning the pregnancy.

Pregnancy can leave you feeling excited, euphoric, depressed, worried, anxious, angry, proud, upbeat all at once or one after another. These feelings are perfectly normal as you get caught up in the excitement of bringing a new life into the world, and the practical matters such as money, work and lifestyle issues that must be addressed when a baby is born.A major factor that contributes to the wide range of emotions expectant mothers feel during their pregnancies is hormones. It’s a scientific fact that the chemicals in our bodies influence our emotions, and during pregnancy an incredible amount of chemical processes are taking place in the body of the expectant mother. Two major contributors to emotional instability during pregnancy are the increased production of the hormones progesterone and estrogen.

Progesterone plays a big role in pregnancy and levels of this hormone rise dramatically during pregnancy. This hormone helps prevent the uterus from contracting improperly, thus giving the unborn child the opportunity to grow and develop.

Estrogen helps build tissue and directs increased blood flow to the fetus as well as helping the mother develop milk for her soon-to-be born child.

Production of these two hormones can increase more than a hundredfold during pregnancy, so it’s no surprise that this has an impact beyond just physical changes to the expectant mother’s body.

The increase in these hormones are in large part responsible for amping up women’s’ emotions during pregnancy. While doctors aren’t quite sure how estrogen and progesterone influence emotion, they do theorize that the two hormones can have an impact on the brain’s production of serotonin, endorphins and other chemicals in the brain that regulate mood and emotion. An increase or sudden decrease in these chemicals can result in the wildly varying emotions women can feel during pregnancy.

During the first trimester of pregnancy , it’s common for pregnant women to feel cranky and irritable as their bodies begin to change and the fatigue associated with the early stages of pregnancy sets in. While the expectant mother may also feel highs of excitement and elation, she most likely is going to feel some anxieties regarding the stability of her finances and her relationship and possible ambivalence regarding parenthood.

During the second trimester, these negative emotions generally level out as the woman adjusts to her pregnancy and some of the early bodily changes involved in pregnancy are completed. Most women feel an energy bounce as their fatigue subsides and most start getting excited about the impending birth of their child.

In the third trimester of pregnancy, the good feelings continue, but anxieties about the future may increase. Many pregnant women are extremely body conscious during this time, feeling unattractive and undesirable to their partners. They also may worry about the stability of their relationships, their future earning power and how the new baby may interact with his or her siblings.

Partners of pregnant women can feel overwhelmed by the wide range of emotions their partner is displaying. They may feel like they’re constantly walking on egg shells if their partner is prone to angry outbursts, while others may feel constantly guilty if their partner is prone to frequent crying spells. Dealing with their partner’s emotions can be a draining and nerve-wracking experience for them, especially if they feel ambivalent about the pregnancy or relationship. Even the most supportive of partners can feel alienated and frustrated by an overly needy partner with constant demands.

Perhaps the best advice partners of pregnant women can be given is this: be patient. Remember that your partner is experiencing intense physical changes and that these changes may make her cranky, irritable and just plain mean. These changes are not her fault and she does not mean many of the hurtful things she says during this time. Try to listen, and show support. Sometimes the best way to head off an angry or weepy outburst is just to embrace her and tell her that you love her.

Perhaps the best way pregnant women and their partners can deal with her emotions during pregnancy is by keeping an open and honest dialogue about how they feel. By talking about how she feels, a pregnant woman may be able to head off outbursts or get to the root of problems before they blow up into an argument or fight. By being able to express his or her emotions, the partner can vent some of the frustrations he may feel and reassure the pregnant partner of his love and support. Communication is vital to any relationship, and especially to couples embarking on the journey of parenthood together.