6 Factors That Make You At Risk For Nausea During Pregnancy

• When women of childbearing age feel like throwing up and fainting, they are often thought of being pregnant. That’s because nausea in the morning is one of the common signs of pregnancy.

  What is nausea?

  Nausea is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a stomach distress with distaste for food and an urge to vomit.” It is not a disease but a symptom of many varying conditions, according to the experts at the Cleveland Clinic. It also doesn’t necessarily involve vomiting, which is another symptom.

  Simply put, nausea is that uneasiness in your stomach and vomiting is the actual emptying of stomach contents through the mouth. Nausea and vomiting may occur separately or together, point out the experts at the Mayo Clinic.

  Pregnant women in their first trimester are said to be more prone to nausea as part of what is known as morning sickness. About 50 to 90 percent of pregnant women are believed to have experienced nausea. (Read here about the other common causes of nausea, including premenstrual syndrome.)

  Nausea in the morning during pregnancy

  If you’re pregnant and you experience nausea, along with vomiting, you are having the so-called morning sickness. This maybe accompanied by other pregnancy symptoms, such as dizziness and headaches.

  It is called morning sickness because the symptoms are more likely to occur early in the day, according to MedlinePlus of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. But as many moms would say, morning sickness can strike at any time of the day, even all day long.

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  Typically, morning sickness begins four to six weeks after conception, and may continue until the fourth month of pregnancy. A few moms say they had morning sickness the whole time they were pregnant. Nikka Garcia had that experience with her and her husband Patrick Garcia‘s fourth child (read here).

  The exact reasons for morning sickness are unknown. Many experts link it to the increase of pregnancy hormones in the woman’s body. Morning sickness manifests at around the same time the embryo implants itself in the uterus, which signals the brain to produce human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), or the hormone detected by home pregnancy home tests.

  Other experts believe there are other causes that worsen nausea during pregnancy. These include your enhanced sense of smell and gastric or acid reflux. But no need to worry about manageable morning sickness, which, according to a study, can actually be a good sign.

  Factors that make you at risk for morning sickness

  It’s difficult to predict if a pregnant woman will or will not experience morning sickness. A woman who didn’t have it during her first pregnancy may have it in her second but less likely the other way around, according to the U.K. National Health Service (NHS).

  Here are the possible factors that may put a pregnant woman more at risk of having morning sickness:

  • She is carrying multiples
  • She had severe nausea and vomiting in a previous pregnancy
  • She tends to get motion sickness (for example, car sick)
  • She has a history of migraine headaches
  • The women in her family has a medical history of morning sickness
  • She used to feel sick when taking contraceptives containing estrogen
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  Ways to lessen your morning sickness

  You may not totally avoid having nausea in the morning or any time of the day, but you can minimize its effect or manage your condition. You can start by improving your diet and eating habits with these expert advice in mind:

  Eat a lot of protein and carbohydrates

  Try peanut butter on apple slices or celery. Also try nuts, cheese and crackers, and low-fat dairy products like milk, cottage cheese, and yogurt.

  Opt for bland foods

  Load up with gelatin, frozen desserts, broth, ginger ale, and saltine crackers. They also soothe the stomach.

  Avoid salty and fatty foods

  Nope, being pregnant is not an excuse to eat what you want and definitely not for two. So think twice before grabbing extra bags of chips and additional servings of liempo.

  Avoid large meals

  Go for small meals as often as every one to two hours during the day. Just make sure you do not let yourself get too hungry or too full.

  Keep hydrated

  Drink plenty of water and other fluids. Try also to drink between meals rather than with meals, so that your stomach does not get too full.

  Try ginger

  Ginger has been found to relieve nausea in the morning and any time of the day. Try to add ginger in your meals and drinks. You can also make your own ginger tea by boiling some slices. You can drink it hot, warm, or even cold, and add lemon juice and honey. (Read here for more about nausea.)

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6 Factors That Make You At Risk For Nausea During Pregnancy
Source: Progress Pinas