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Morning Sickness

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KEY POINTS

  • Morning sickness is stomach upset, nausea, or vomiting that often happens during pregnancy.
  • Treatment can include medicine and IV fluids prescribed by your healthcare provider to reduce nausea and vomiting.
  • Taking small sips of fluids, sucking on ice chips or Popsicles, or sipping peppermint tea may help with replacing fluids.

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What is morning sickness?

Morning sickness is stomach upset, nausea, or vomiting that often happens during pregnancy. Nausea is a feeling of stomach upset and often is the feeling you have just before you vomit. Vomiting is throwing up food and fluid from the stomach through the mouth. Sometimes you may feel nausea without vomiting. Many pregnant women have morning sickness during the first 3 months of pregnancy. Morning sickness can happen any time of the day.

If you have severe morning sickness, it can cause problems for you and the baby. You could lose weight and lose too much fluid from your body. You and the baby may not get enough nutrients, or your body’s chemicals may get out of balance.

What is the cause?

It is not well understood why some women have morning sickness and others do not. Women with high levels of pregnancy hormones tend to have morning sickness. It is also more common when a woman is pregnant with more than 1 baby, like with twins.

Morning sickness tends to be worse during your first pregnancy. It usually goes away by about the 14th week of pregnancy, when the level of pregnancy hormones gets lower.

What are the symptoms?

Mild symptoms include nausea, queasy stomach, and vomiting 1 to 2 times a day. Symptoms of severe morning sickness may include:

  • Repeated vomiting soon after you eat or drink anything, including water
  • Weight loss
  • Dark-colored urine
  • Dizziness or lightheadedness

How is it diagnosed?

Your healthcare provider will ask about your symptoms and medical history and examine you. Tests may include:

  • Blood tests
  • Urine test

If you have severe morning sickness, you may need other tests or scans.

How is it treated?

Severe morning sickness may be treated with:

  • Medicine prescribed by your healthcare provider to reduce nausea and vomiting
  • Staying at the hospital and getting IV fluids instead of eating or drinking anything for 1 to 3 days, then slowly adding liquids and food back into your diet

How can I take care of myself?

Things that you can do that might help relieve morning sickness are:

  • Eat snacks that are high in protein, such as cheese, a glass of milk, or low-fat yogurt.
  • Eat small meals often (4 to 6 times a day) instead of 2 or 3 larger meals.
  • Avoid strong odors and greasy or spicy foods.
  • Eat more foods with vitamin B6, such as green, leafy vegetables.
  • Eat dry toast or crackers or a couple slices of apple before you get out of bed. Movement on an empty stomach often makes morning sickness worse.
  • Wear acupressure wrist bands, like the wrist bands used for motion sickness.
  • Take vitamin B6 pills or get B6 shots if recommended by your provider.

A dietitian can help you plan a way to eat a balanced diet.

Because you are losing fluids when you throw up, it’s important to drink fluids. Even if liquids stay down just an hour, your body will absorb a lot in that time. Try sucking on ice chips or Popsicles. Take small sips often rather than drinking a whole glass of fluid at once. Some women find that drinking small sips of peppermint tea, ginger tea, or ginger ale helps their symptoms.

Hypnosis or acupuncture may help. Check with your healthcare provider before you try any natural remedies or alternative treatments.

Developed by RelayHealth.
Adult Advisor 2016.4 published by RelayHealth.
Last modified: 2015-07-17
Last reviewed: 2015-07-17
This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information is intended to inform and educate and is not a replacement for medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.
Copyright © 2016 RelayHealth, a division of McKesson Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
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