Nothing welcomes you to pregnancy more than the feeling of morning sickness. It is one of the earliest and most common signs of being pregnant. But does it really only occur in the morning, and what can you do to prevent it? Check out this quick guide.
What Is Morning Sickness?
Morning sickness is defined as a feeling of nausea or dizziness, which is sometimes accompanied by vomiting during pregnancy. It usually happens in the first trimester and fades as your pregnancy progresses, however, some women have them until the second trimester. At least 70 per cent of women experience morning sickness during pregnancy.
As its name implies, the sickening feeling of nausea usually happens in the morning, but the symptoms may occur anytime during the day.
What Causes Morning Sickness?
It’s thought that morning sickness is caused by the rise in the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) pregnancy hormone that occurs in the pregnancy shortly after implantation. The hormone is necessary for the formation of the placenta. Typically, during the first 10 weeks of your pregnancy HCG levels double every two days.
Morning sickness is triggered by a variety of things such as hunger or a more sensitive sense of smell. It could even be set off by your emotional state or stress levels – so make sure you give yourself plenty of ‘me’ time!
Although morning sickness can be distressing, if you make sure you eat and drink it generally won’t harm your baby. If you find you can’t hold down your food or drink at all, or completely lose your appetite, then give your doctor a call and they’ll be able to help.
Symptoms of Morning Sickness
Image source: iStock
The following are the common symptoms of morning sickness experienced by pregnant women:
- Nausea (a feeling of queasiness)
- Vomiting
- Retching (dry heaving without bringing anything up)
- Excessive salivation
Hyperemesis Gravidarum
As mentioned earlier, the sickening feeling may make you uncomfortable, but it usually disappears during the day. However, some women experience severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum, which causes them to have nausea and vomiting at least four times a day, leading to dehydration and weight loss during pregnancy.
Consult your doctor, if you vomit:
- More than three to four times per day.
- So much that you lose more than 10 pounds.
- So much that you feel dizzy and lightheaded.
- So much that you become dehydrated.
Does Morning Sickness Affect Everyone?
No, there are some lucky mums-to-be who won’t experience any morning sickness. As a general rule of thumb, morning sickness affects about 80 per cent of pregnant women in their first trimester.
ALSO READ:
REAL STORIES: “I had morning sickness all day, every day—I didn’t know it was already hyperemesis gravidarum!”
How to Spot the Early Signs of Pregnancy
8 Yummy Easy-To-Create Recipes for Morning Sickness
When Does Morning Sickness Subside?
In most cases, morning sickness stops by the end of the first trimester, when there is a normal drop of the hCG pregnancy hormone.
However, queasiness can come and go throughout pregnancy – all it needs is something like a particular smell you find unpleasant to start things off. Exactly what it is that starts nausea off does tend to vary quite a lot from person to person. There are also an unfortunate few who experience morning sickness throughout their pregnancy.
Image source: Stock
Remedies for Morning Sickness
As mentioned, there really is no specific cure to make morning sickness go away for good. However, there are some things you can do to make this unwanted pregnancy symptom more manageable. Here are some tried and tested remedies you can try:
• Eat something plain and dry as soon as you wake up – ginger biscuits or crackers are perfect. Then if you can, rest for 20-30 minutes before getting out of bed.
• During the rest of the day try and eat small, but frequent meals throughout the day – a couple of bites are better than nothing. Keep snacks on hand like dry biscuits, dried fruits, a little bag of almonds or yoghurt.
• Foods high in protein or carbohydrates can help fight that sickness feeling, so try combining the two by eating a well-cooked egg on toast. Check out this article for foods to avoid when having morning sickness.
• Drink lots of fluid – water, juice, milk, fruit teas, whatever you can stomach. Ginger ale, ginger tea or even ginger candies are worth a try as it can settle your stomach and stop the queasiness.
• Make sure you relax and take the stress out of your day! Talking with other moms-to-be who’ve experienced the same problem can be very useful.
Updates by Camille Eusebio
This morning sickness article is sponsored by: 
Here at theAsianparent Singapore, it’s important for us to give information that is correct, significant, and timely. But this doesn’t serve as an alternative for medical advice or medical treatment. theAsianparent Singapore is not responsible for those that would choose to drink medicines based on information from our website. If you have any doubts, we recommend consulting your doctor for clearer information.
