Over the past few years, I have noticed that I have become the "morning sickness go-to person." Through Facebook, or my blog, or just through knowing me, people know that I have had experiences with severe NVP, and every couple of months I get an email from someone saying, "Help! I have horrible morning sickness, can you help?" And because I participate in many online birth groups, there are often requests for NVP help there as well.
Lately, I have realized that I am reinventing the wheel each time someone asks me this question - writing emails with everything I can think of regarding NVP, over and over again. This week, therefore, I decided that I needed to write down everything that I could think of into a document so that I could keep it handy to have when this question is asked.
And so... here is my rough draft! I would love-love-love it if my wonderful readers could read this through and add their comments. Did I write anything incorrect or incomplete? Did I miss anything? This list is a bit patchy, just because it covers everything from mild NVP to hyperemesis, so I'm guessing that it will need a lot of revision.
Please feel free to share the link to this document, but do not copy it into another website. If any birth professionals would like to print this for clients, I would be honored - just give credit on the print-out.
And now... what do you think? Please let me know!
Notes on Morning Sickness
-
Because “morning sickness” is a vastly incomplete and inaccurate term, I will
use the more technical abbreviation “NVP,” which stands for “nausea and
vomiting of pregnancy”
General Notes
- - The general idea with NVP is that it occurs solely in the morning and
that it lasts only through the first trimester. For some women this is true.
However, for many women it is VASTLY INACCURATE.
o Many women experience NVP in
the evenings, or in the mornings and the evenings, or in varying degrees around
the clock. I have always had mine around the clock with the worst nausea being
from 3 p.m. to bedtime.
o For some women, NVP
decreases after the first trimester. For others, it lasts till around 20 weeks.
For some women it lasts till the birth. For some women it decreases in the
second trimester and returns in the third trimester.
o Morning sickness usually
tapers off gradually rather than suddenly resolving at a set week of pregnancy.
- - If you are carrying multiples, you can (usually) expect morning
sickness to be worse than in a singleton pregnancy. More babies = more NVP!
- - The timing of NVP appearance varies. Very rarely (as in my case), NVP
will make an appearance before a positive pregnancy test can be obtained.
Usually it hits between weeks 5 and 7.
- - Though an absence of NVP does not mean that something is wrong, the
appearance of NVP does usually mean that your baby is thriving.
- NVP experiences cover an astoundingly large range – everything from
“Morning sickness? What morning sickness? I feel great!” to “I don’t feel so
great” to “I feel downright awful” to
a mother who is fighting for her life in the hospital with life-threatening
hyperemesis gravidarum. Different remedies will work for different women and
for different levels of NVP – what may be helpful for mild NVP will be worse
than useless for severe NVP (example: crackers). Look through these suggestions
and try different things – remember that different things will work in
different situations. If something doesn’t work, ditch it and try something
else.
What To Do?
Nausea
and Vomiting of Pregnancy – Mild to Moderate
-
Ginger: Ginger is the most
well-documented herb for NVP. It is found in many forms:
o Powdered, in capsule form –
health food store
o Ginger ale – Must buy from a
health food store, and look at the ingredient labels. Most grocery store
“ginger ales” are not true ginger ales and may not even contain ginger.
o Ginger snaps.
o Candied Ginger
o Ginger Syrup (look at Whole
Foods)
o A supplement called “Morning
Sickness Comfort” (formerly “Morning Sickness Magic”) which also contains
vitamin B.
o I should say that I find no
particular benefit from ginger. However, it is helpful to a majority of women.
-
Lemon: Hard candies, lemon water,
sucking on a lemon, lemon essential oils
-
Peppermint: Hard candies, essential
oils (can put on your pillow)
-
Switch to a food-based
prenatal vitamin
-
Over the Counter things to try: Benadryl
& Dramamine
-
Pregnancy Teas: Try the pregnancy tea by
Earth Mama Angel Baby – good stuff. Check out the pregnancy area in your health
food store (Sprouts, etc.) – they usually have morning sickness teas.
-
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea: Buy the bulk herb at a
local herb shop or online at a good herb store like Mountain Meadow Herbs. Brew
and then drink hot or cold, or even freeze and make a slushie out of it.
-
High-protein: This is a BIG ONE. Eat
protein – lots of it. Meat, eggs, nuts, cheese. Every snack or meal should
either be protein, or have protein in it.
o I have had my best luck
doing a very-low-carb, high-protein diet that I started pre-conception. This is
mostly for hyperemesis mothers who deal with severe morning sickness. Email me
if you want information. However, one way or the other, simple carbs will
usually make you feel great momentarily and then even worse as your blood sugar
crashes. Staying away from carbs (or at least simple carbs) and bulking up on
protein (as much as possible) is what really works for me.
o However, I should note that
(especially once nausea is established), some women have good luck with sources
of simple carbohydrates (sugars) such as flat coke and hard candies and preggie
pops.
-
Constant snacking: This is another BIG ONE!!!
Don’t go more than an hour without snacking. Carry snacks with you wherever you
go. If you need to get up in the middle of the night to snack, fine. Do it. I
kept cheese slices in a cooler next to my bed. If your stomach gets the least
bit empty, you will pay in increased nausea. Try also to eat at least a few
minutes before getting up in the morning.
-
Keep hydrated. Dehydration = worse and
worse nausea. Try different things if you have trouble handling water. Pregnancy
teas, etc.
-
Vitamin Shots: With my last pregnancy I
got Vitamin B/Folate/Magnesium shots at our local naturopathic college. I think
they helped, and I plan to do it again. To find out where to get these, locate
a local naturopath.
-
A naturopath can also help you with acupuncture and/or homeopathy
if you are interested in those modalities. Acupuncture in particular has a very
good track record with NVP.
-
Supplements: Vitamin B complex,
magnesium, zinc. Herbs: Milk
thistle. Other: Digestive enzymes, good probiotic.
-
If all else fails, try a liquid nutrition drink, such as Ensure or Boost. I recommend
chocolate! Slimfast and jello are other
options.
Is
something wrong?
-
This level is characterized by the following:
o I can’t keep anything down.
o I am no longer using the
bathroom (or not very often).
o I am losing weight.
o I am feeling panicky or
desperate.
o I am vomiting multiple times
per day.
o I am having trouble handling
ordinary everyday tasks.
-
To check if you are dealing with hyperemesis, visit
www.helpher.org. Click on the “For Mothers”
tab, and click on the “Do I Have Morning Sickness or HG?” option – you will
find a table comparing normal NVP with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), or extreme
nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.
-
HG often requires treatment. See your doctor or midwife immediately to
get help. This may involve:
o IV hydration
o Hospitalization for severe cases
o Home health care for severe cases
o Zofran – either oral
tablets, orally disintegrating tablets (ODT), or a Zofran pump (depending on how sick
you are and how well you can tolerate meds by mouth)
§ There are other anti-nausea
drugs given during pregnancy (usually Phenergan and Reglan), but they have more
side-effects than Zofran and are usually less effective
-
If your care provider is not supportive, look immediately for another
care provider. Care providers can vary immensely on their willingness to take
HG seriously, and some will laugh it off or tell you to eat crackers. This is
NOT OKAY, and you need to move on.
-
Go to the
helpher.org website and read, read, read. You will find tons
of information and support.
NEXT TIME AROUND:
-
There are MANY lines of thought on morning sickness prevention, all of which
require pre-conception efforts, and none of which is guaranteed to work. (In other words, DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP.) I will list as many as I can think of and leave it up to you to research them
(though feel free to ask any questions):
o Magnesium (building up
tissue levels pre-conception)
o Body alkalinity
o Liver cleansing
o Milk thistle (for liver
cleansing)
o Very-low-carb diet for
insulin regulation
o Pre-conception diet (clean,
good supplements, sunshine, etc.)
o Gut health
***
Thoughts, dear readers? (p.s. Forgive the formatting - it got rather screwy.)
