10 Remedies To Help Combat Morning Sickness In Pregnancy

Morning sickness is caused by the pregnancy hormone HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin ) and although it may feel unpleasant, it's harmless to you and your baby in most cases.

It is actually said that the more nausea and sickness a pregnant woman experiences, the healthier the baby, but this is merely an old wives tale, as it is the presence of the hormone in the body causing you to feel this way.

Sadly for most, 'morning sickness' is also a misnomer, many women feel sick at other times of the day, often at tea time, or even day and night with no relief.

There are a few things that make morning sickness seem worse – hunger, stress and tiredness; and some ways to help alleviate the nausea and prevent the sickness are as follows.

1. Try and get a full nights sleep. This is important during the first semester of pregnancy anyway – as well as hormones causing nausea, the woman will also probably feel incredibly tired during the first 12 weeks. The more tired you are, the more sick you feel.

2. Relax whenever possible. Have a bath, massage, walk in the park, or whatever helps you to unwind. Becoming tense will only exacerbate the sympoms.

3. Don't allow yourself to get too hungry. Keep a pack of dry crackers or biscuits with you to nibble on, and make sure you eat something small at least every two hours.

4. Eat before waking in the morning. A cup of tea with a couple of ginger biscuits will relieve the nausea a great deal. Ginger is a natural anti-sickness remedy and apparently it's the smell that contains the benefit, so even if ginger biscuits aren't your cup of tea (ha!) you will get relief from the smell of ginger.

5. Try travel sickness wrist bands. Morning sickness and travel sickness are reputedly very similar, so this remedy is also effective, and safe to use during pregnancy.

6. Drink plenty of water. Keep a water bottle with you so you can sip it often. Drinking large amounts of water won't help with the sickness due to the heavy feeling in the stomach it causes, but you will need to stay hydrated, particularly if you're actually vomiting.

7. Take a good pregnancy multi-vitamin. One containing vitamin B6 and zinc will help especially, and you will need to take folic acid supplements.

8. Avoid rich, spicy or fried foods. These will irritate the stomach lining and cause a greater risk of feeling nauseus. 'Boring' foods such as mashed potato or dry toast are the least likely to cause you to feel sick.

9. Aromatherapy seems to have a lot of benefits. You can buy the oils to burn at home and those that are most helpful are lemon, lime or citrus oils. If you don't have access to specific aromatherapy oils, try sniffing a cut lemon.

10. It may help to avoid strenuous exercise for a while, just until the nausea settles down, which will happen around the 14^th week of pregnancy.

If your sickness is very severe you will need to get medical advice. You can have a condition called hyperemesis which involves severe vomiting and dehydration and will need hospital treatment. But most cases of morning sickness don't end up anywhere as severe.

Morning sickness is not fun and it can have a big impact on your life if it is severe. It can return in the third trimester, in which case the above ten tips will be helpful too, but remember that at the worst, it will all be over when your little bundle arrives safely into the world.