Tips for Morning Sickness
Nausea, with or without vomiting, is commonly known as “morning sickness”. However, it may occur any time of the day or night. It is unclear why some women experience morning sickness, but it is often associated with the normal hormonal changes of pregnancy, low blood sugar, gastric overload, slowed movement of the intestines, the enlarging uterus, and emotional factors.
Take heart . . . in most cases morning sickness goes away by the 14th week of pregnancy.
However, if you have severe symptoms (can’t keep down any food or liquids), please contact us during the day online by logging in to your Prime Patient account or 770-991-2200 as you may need evaluation at the office or hospital. After 5:00pm and on the weekends, please call 770-991-2200 to reach the certified nurse-midwife (CNM) or doctor on-call.
The following suggestions may help:
- Eat small, frequent meals (every 2 hours). Avoid foods that smell "funny" or are not appealing to you at the time. Eat whatever sounds good. Let someone else do the cooking!
- Try the timeless remedy of crackers or toast just before you get out of bed or shortly after you get up.
- Try ice cold beverages. Some women get relief by sucking on ice, lemon drops or frozen grapes. A splash of lemon juice in cold water may help and ginger ale/Sprite is another option.
- A protein snack just before going to bed can help - cheese & crackers, peanut butter and toast, etc.
- You can temporarily stop your prenatal vitamins and iron supplements if this is making the morning sickness worse. Sometimes, taking the vitamin at bedtime with a snack can help.
- Another option is to take a 25mg tablet of Unisom (doxylamine) at bedtime with the vitamin B6 tablet. This is an over-the-counter sleep aid. Generic is ok – ask the pharmacist for help. This works best if used every night, even if you don’t feel particularly sick.
- Try a vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) tablet – 25mg, three times a day. Ovaltine is enriched with vitamin B6.
- Take ginger. You can find this spice in the health food or vitamin stores. Get the 250mg capsules. Take one capsule 4 times each day, or try nibbling on ginger snap cookies.
- Sea-Bands (wrist bands for sea sickness prevention) are available at most drugstores and may be helpful.
If these suggestions do not work, there are other medication options available by prescription. Please contact us online by logging in to your Prime Patient account or 770-991-2200 to determine the best option for you.
You are important to us!
Southern Crescent Women’s Healthcare is a group of dedicated physicians, certified nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners educated in the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology. We are led to follow the teachings of Christ and the precepts of our specialty to provide quality care for women in all phases of their lives in a warm, compassionate and nurturing environment.
