Morning Sickness Remedies

Is there anything worse than to be excited about being pregnant, but to feel so nauseous that you can't enjoy it for months?!

I share these suggestions with my homebirth clients frequently, and thought that others might benefit from the knowledge as well. So here goes....

The cause of morning sickness is not really known, although there are many theories, including hormonal changes in pregnancy (elevated levels of estrogen and human chorionic gonadotropin [hCG]), low blood sugar (perhaps caused by not eating, thereby creating a vicious cycle), gastric overloading, slowed peristalsis (intestinal action), a body overloaded with toxins, and any number of other possibilities.
Nausea occurs in half to three-quarters of pregnant women. Most women experience the worst nausea and vomiting at about 11 weeks gestation. It typically begins around 5-6 weeks. About half of pregnant women with nausea and vomiting find it completely gone by 14 weeks and 90 percent by 22 weeks. Women with a multiple gestation (twins, triplets, etc.) often have longer-lasting and more severe nausea and vomiting. The theory is that the extra hCG produced during a multiple pregnancy may be the cause.



Persistent and severe nausea and vomiting beyond the first trimester may indicate hyper emesis gravid arum or hydatidiform mole and should be taken seriously.

There are so many different things that can help morning sickness, but there certainly isn't a "one size fits all" remedy! One or all or any combination or none may be effective for a particular individual. For many women, just knowing that something might help is comforting!

The following suggestions are well-known and fairly common remedies that often help alleviate or eliminate nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

Please do not take these suggestions as medical advice! Always consult your care provider before trying something new!

1. Eat small, frequent meals, including a protein food each time, as often as every 2 hours, or just “graze” continuously, not allowing more than an hour or so to pass without putting something in your mouth. The food is more apt to be retained than 3 large meals a day and prevents the blood sugar from dropping enough to cause nausea. If this seems to work for you, keep snacks by your bed (almonds, cheese sticks, yogurt, peanut butter and apples, etc) and eat several times during the night when you wake to go to the bathroom. This will keep your blood sugar from falling by morning, leaving you feeling nauseous upon awaking.

2. Eat dry crackers or toast or plain yogurt before getting up in the morning.

3. Sip on ginger or raspberry leaf tea. The best ginger tea is made by pouring one cup boiling water over 3-5 slices of fresh ginger root. Let steep 5 minutes and sip slowly.

4. Take Ginger capsules with your meals.

5. Avoid foods with strong or offensive odors.

6. Many women claim that homeopathics are effective in easing morning sickness. The remedies are specific to symptoms. Research Pulsitilla, Sepia, Nux Vomica, and Ipecacuanha. Additional remedies to consider include: Antimonium Tartrate, Argentum Nitricum, Petroleum, Sulfur, and Tabacum. Good references are: “Homepathic Medicine for Women” by Trevor Smith, MD, and “Homeopathic Medicines for Pregnancy and Childbirth” by Richard Moskowitz, MD.

7. Drink carbonated beverages - especially ginger ale. (I wouldn't recommend doing this on a
regular basis, but it does help some women with severe nausea!)

8. Rest.

9. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) either 25 mg four times a day or 50mg twice daily can be very effective.

10. Use medication. Some women find 50mg Vitamin B6 and 1 Unisom tablet at bedtime in addition to 25mg B6 twice daily to be very helpful. (Or, 25mg B6 and ½ Unisom tablet three times a day). Unisom can cause drowsiness, and of course, consult your healthcare provider before trying any medication!

Feel free to comment, adding your own suggestions or what did or did not work for you.
I welcome the collective wisdom of pregnant women and their care providers everywhere!

Waiting Till 40 Weeks of Pregnancy... So Much Better

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article back in December, stating the benefits of carrying a pregnancy to term and the risks of inductions that are "just a few weeks early."

"Conventional wisdom has long held that inducing labor or having a Caesarean section a bit early posed little risk, since after 34 weeks gestation, all the baby has to do was grow.

But new research shows that those last weeks of pregnancy are more important than once thought for brain, lung and liver development. And there may be lasting consequences for babies born at 34 to 36 weeks, now called 'late preterm.' "

Check out the rest of the article here at the Wall Street Journal

The Struggle to Be Skinny Enough

It was a few weeks ago. I found myself sitting in a little restaurant, the walls covered with retro advertisements and old Coca Cola signs from the 50’s.

I sat there, sipping my drink and waiting on my food, when the thighs of a bright and smiling girl with bouncy curls on a poster on the wall caught my eye. She wore a yellow pleated mini skirt, and was leaning back, holding her Coke. Her thighs were prominent in the picture and they were so … uh, normal sized. She wasn’t fat, or chubby, but her rosy cheeks glowed. She looked healthy and hearty. I couldn’t stop staring at her. It just seemed so weird to see a model about my size, not rail thin, on the wall.

I spent more time starting at the rosy cheeked girl with a huge smile on the Coca Cola poster than I did eating my food. How different from the models that are held up today as the perfection of beauty, I mourned to myself. The models from fifty years ago weighed far more than the stars of today. They weren't fat; they were healthy weights, with some curves, and actual flesh on their bones!

Angelina Jolie, thin limbs, gaunt and hollow face. Our culture has adjusted to thinking this is as good as beauty gets! Every magazine and billboard shouts out that sharp and stark cheek bones are more beautiful than gently rounded cheeks, legs are more beautiful with nothing but bone, and waists are most beautiful when they are impossibly small.

This is what our girls try to be. They starve themselves, live on diet sodas, protein shakes, low-calorie fillers… binge and purge because of the array of food set before them hourly. …Always feeling fat and ugly and hoping to catch a guy’s attention by getting as skinny as their friends. Size 4 jeans have almost become a status symbol.

Growing up in a culture that values an almost starved look (one that most people cannot obtain in a healthy way) carries over into motherhood.

A few months ago, I was visiting with a pregnant doula client and her husband. This beautiful woman who I’ll call Grace [details changed to protect her identity] is slender – 10-20 pounds underweight, and half-way through her pregnancy weighs less than she should as a non-pregnant person.

Grace was talking about her baby’s movement. I asked if I could touch her belly and feel the baby. She smiled and said, “Of course. He’s right here.” As I laid my hand on her nearly flat stomach (yes, she was half way through her second trimester!), she grimaced and said, “Sorry, there’s a huge blob of fat there. You’ll just have to ignore it.” Then she turned away and looked embarrassed.

Of course, I said something positive back to her about her body, but as I left I wondered how many other pregnant mothers feel the same way about their bodies, not because there is any truth to the way they feel, but because our culture makes them feel that way.

How many women feel like Grace? How many women are starving their babies for fear of “getting fat”?

I’m not advocating obesity or being overweight or gaining a huge amount while pregnant, or pigging out, or…

I’m advocating that women feel pressure to be healthy, not skinny!

Broccoli flavored amniotic fluid and breastmilk?

There is a growing body of evidence that before you ever stick a bite of mashed carrots or peas in your baby's mouth, the way you have eaten during pregnancy and while breastfeeding your infant may greatly influence their eating preferences as babies and toddlers.



In a study reported in the December issue of Pediatrics, babies whose mothers regularly eat veggies and fruits while breastfeeding them, find that their babies are more likely to accept vegetables and fruits when tasting them for the first time as well as consume larger amounts. Sometimes it's obvious that a mother's consumption of various foods is passed on through her breast milk - like when she eats too much garlic, and the next morning the baby screws up his or her face and turns away from the breast. But this research shows that perhaps the baby can also taste green beans and peaches and learn to like them.

Research also shows us that babies tend to have the eating preferences that their mothers had during pregnancy as food flavors from a mother's diet are transmitted to the amniotic fluid that a baby lives in and drinks while in utero.

The 2004 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study showed that 1 in 4 US toddlers did not consume even 1 vegetable on any given day. They were more likely to be eating fatty foods and sweetened snacks and beverages than any vegetables. And none of the top 5 vegetables consumed by the toddlers was a dark leafy vegetable. I bet their mamas preferred sweet snacks and beverages and fatty foods when they were pregnant.

So, yes, eat your veggies and avoid junk while you're pregnant and on through the breastfeeding phase of your child's life, if you want your baby to grow up happily eating squash, broccoli, and apples instead of Twinkie cakes and Mountain Dew!