Morning Sickness Madness!

Pregnancy causes many extreme changes in your body, and with those changes come many symptoms! One of those many symptoms is the dreaded...morning sickness!

Despite the term, "morning" sickness...it could strike at anytime during the day and last for long periods of time. The medical term for morning sickness is "nausea and vomiting of pregnancy". Some women experience it differently than others in terms of how bad the sickness actually is, and at what time of the day it happens to strike.

In my case, I had morning sickness for a period of 2 months. After my first month and up until the end of my 3rd month. I experienced morning sickness like no other! It would hit me in the morning or any other time of the day that I would find myself hungry causing me to sprint to the bathroom and heave on myself or puke up like a champ.

I learned that this is typical. Most women experience morning sickness symptoms starting at around 6 weeks and ending at 14 weeks, but may return here and there throughout the pregnancy. Then again, everyone is different.

Some causes to morning sickness:

• Rapidly increasing levels of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) early in pregnancy. There is no true explanation as to why this hormone causes the nausea, but its timing is perfect. As soon as the drastic climb in its levels appear, it brings along the nausea. Estrogen levels also go up drastically, which may also be a huge factor as to why you feel queasy.

• During pregnancy you experience a heightened sense of smell. You could smell a hot dog from a stand 5 miles away...at least that's how I feel. I always find myself smelling something...and its a strong scent, but no one else smells it! This could lead to nausea if you smell something that makes you uneasy because it will hit you like brick wall. The smells could trigger your gag reflex.

• Some women may just have a sensitive gastrointestinal tract that will respond in crazy ways to pregnancy.

• Some prenatal vitamins may be too harsh for some women. You should take them with food but, if you still seem to experience nausea due to your prenatal vitamins, your doctor could put you on other vitamins. I was not responding well to Citra-Natal...which is an expensive prenatal vitamin my doctor had prescribed to me, and when I told him about he actually told me to take 2 Flintstones vitamins everyday until I felt better. I did, and he was right...I felt better within days! As soon as I felt I was ready to go back on prenatal vitamins, I purchased some from Whole Foods that were over the counter rather than prescription. I also purchased some DHA tablets to take along with them, since DHA is very important for brain and eye development of the baby. My tests are perfect and I feel great! Just because it is a prescription does not always mean that it is better. Its all about finding what is right for YOU and YOUR BABY!

• Stay away from junk food! The grease and other junk in the garbage junk food can lead to nausea. Junk food makes me queasy even when I'm not pregnant, imagine the damage it could do when you are pregnant! Now since I am almost 8 months pregnant and not experiencing any nausea at all...I indulge here and there...(lol) but its because I am seriously craving sweets!

• Morning sickness may be caused by a lack of vitamin B. Research shows that taking vitamin B6 tablets can ease morning sickness symptoms, but does not mean that person has a deficiency in vitamin B.

• Some women just experience nausea and vomitting due to stress! When your pregnant you are more sensitive to your surroundings and may experience heightened levels of stress. This could lead to nausea and vomotting...so don't stress ladies!

What helped me control my morning sickness:

As soon as I would wake up, I would would feel very uneasy. It would be hard to get out of bed at times, unless I had to run to the toilet to hurl. What I found to help big time was eating a small peice or bread or crackers as soon as I woke up. I would actually keep a small bag of crackers by the bed so that I could just lean over and munch on one before the nausea struck! It really did help!

I noticed that most of the time, nausea hit me when I was hungry. Its a great idea to control your food intake during your most sensitive times in your pregnancy. If you're hungry...don't overeat. Eat an adequate amount to supress your hunger and then eat some more in 2 hours or so. Eating too much could definitly lead to more nausea and vomitting. Your stomach is very sensitive...don't jam it too much.

Stay away from trigger foods. Everyone is different and may have different trigger foods during pregnancy. Even foods you used to love could cause you to quease even at the thought of it! Your body will let you know what foods to stay away from and what foods you crave! Personally, for me, my body could not handle potatoes during my nausea spells. Even the thought of them made me want to hurl, but for some reason I craved tomatos. It was so weird because I usually love potatoes and am not too fond of tomatos.

Staying cool!!! If you get too hot...you will not feel good...AT ALL! Try to stay cool at all times! This will severely help control your morning sickness. Your body is going through so many changes and you may overheat a lot easier than you used to. Your body is hard at work making a baby inside of you!! Keep it cool!! Eating cooler foods may also help! I would crave soups...but could not get them down unless the soup was totally cooled off...even chilled!

Smelling ginger could also suppress your nausea. I think ginger contains a form of vitamin B, which helps with morning sickness for some reason.

You may think that you are doomed to bow to the porcelean god until your hormones balance out, but you're not! You just have to learn how to deal with it. It may take some time but really listening to your body will help!