Your Questions Answered
What are some recommendations to treat nausea and vomiting in pregnancy?
Over half of pregnant women experience nausea, vomiting, and “morning sickness”. Twenty five percent of women have only mild nausea while it affects the daily life of thirty percent of women. It is worst 8- 10 weeks after your last period and usually resolves about 12-16 weeks after your last period. Morning sickness is a misnomer; women find it can affect them at different times during the day.
Causes are uncertain: The changes in the pregnancy hormone levels certainly are a contributing factor as well as whether a woman is prone to motion sickness or stomach problems before getting pregnant. Some women find they are particularly sensitive to the prenatal vitamins they are taking.
Mild to moderate nausea and vomiting, though it makes you feel miserable, will not affect the well-being of the pregnancy. However, if the vomiting becomes severe, that is, if it prevents you from keeping any food down, it requires monitoring. There is a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum which is rare but can cause difficulties. Please call your provider if you are not able to keep any liquids or foods down for 24 hours, if you are vomiting several times a day, or after every meal, or if you have abdominal pain, difficulty urinating, or if you have a fever.
There are a series of recommendations that we advise to treat the symptoms. First of all, simple diet modifications may be all that is needed. Be sure to keep your body well-hydrated. Six to eight glasses of water a day are best, lemon or lime in the water may help, or even sucking on this citrus can be beneficial. There is truth to the saltines! Salty crackers before getting out of bed, or any time during the day may help. Try eating small frequent meals every two to three hours. Foods that are high in carbohydrates and white foods may be tolerable, like potatoes, potato chips, noodles, or toast. Adding some protein to these snacks will help keep your blood sugar steady, like cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, and peanut butter. Avoid foods that are greasy, fried, spicy, or very hot. Do not lie down right after eating. Some women find that carbonated beverages do help. As mentioned previously, prenatal vitamins can worsen your symptoms; check with your provider about changing vitamins, and increasing vitamin B6, 25 milligrams to three times a day. If your provider recommends discontinuing the multivitamin, be sure to continue taking one tablet of folic acid daily, 0.4mg, which is 400 micrograms per day, in the first trimester. Folic acid tablets should not worsen nausea.
In addition to diet changes, acupressure bands that you wear on your wrist, called seabands, have been shown to decrease nausea. Some women have relief with alternative remedies like acupuncture or hypnosis.
Ginger has been known to be helpful since ancient times. There is ginger root tea, ginger gum, ginger snaps, and ginger syrup which can be added to the water. You can also buy ginger capsules. Check with your provider for a recommended dose of the ginger supplement.
Finally, if your symptoms are making it increasingly difficult to do your daily activities, medications could be considered. There are actually several different types of nausea medicines which work in different ways and your individual circumstances will need to be considered.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee these recommendations will work, and often it is the tincture of time that helps women to feel better. But if you have any questions or concerns, as always, we are here for you.
Excerpted from
Share with Women, Journal of Nurse Midwifery. Volume 51 No. 4 July/ August 2006
For more information about Nausea and Vomiting
Motherisk Nausea and Vomiting Helpline
(800) 436-8477
http://www.motherisk.org/women/morningsickness.jsp
SOS Morning Sickness
http://sosmorningsickness.com