Morning Sickness

Naming it morning sickness gives us a little giggle as it doesn’t just disappear once it hits noon!

Morning sickness will visit you any time of the day or night, due to all those wonderful new pregnancy hormones. 80-85 % of Australian women will suffer from nausea in their pregnancy during their first trimester with vomiting in approximately 52% of Australian women.

This is one of the most unpleasant common first trimester symptoms to experience.

Morning sickness can be brought on by odours such as walking past someone wearing a particular perfume or cologne. The smell of this can bring on nausea.

Spicy food, the summer heat and excess salivation can also trigger morning sickness. You will find at times that you will not eat spicy food and the weather is cool or just right and there no other things around you to bring on nausea but yet, you still have morning sickness. This is part of the joy of pregnancy.

I find personally that snacking on what you crave will help keep the nausea at bay. One of my favourite ways of keeping morning sickness away for a while was dipping french fries in ice cream. Weird I know, but it worked for me.

Try some of these healthy snacks to assist with the discomfort:

Smoothies

Yoghurt

Crackers

Toast

Rice

Fruit flavoured carbonated water. You can pick these bottes up at your local supermarket.

Banana

Applesauce

Ginger ale with real ginger, ginger tea with freshly grated ginger or ginger candies.

Another condition of morning sickness is Hyperemesis Gravidarum. This condition is less common and affecting up to 1.5% of women. Symptoms can start between 5 to 10 weeks of pregnancy and resolve by 20 weeks but up to 10% of women will continue to vomit throughout the pregnancy. There is an old wives tale, that if you suffer with this, you will have a smart baby.

Overall, if morning sickness does persist, it is best to speak with your medical professional.