Miriam Erick, author of Managing Morning Sickness: A Survival Guide for Pregnant Women offers natural remedies, common triggers and tips for battling morning sickness during pregnancy. She shows how simple changes or additions to your normal routine may help decrease your symptoms of nausea.
First tip: add lemons! Erick said, “In my clinical experience I’ve observed a strange but real therapeutic effect of lemons. You can sniff them, suck on them, or sprinkle them with salt and lick them. The fragrance of lemons works almost 99 percent of the time!” The American Pregnancy Association (APA) also recommends including sour flavors to your diet. Suggestions like sour lemon, sour tangerine, and sour raspberry are recommended (these are flavors of “Preggie Pops” flavored lollipops).
Second, get out of bed slowly. Rather than setting your alarm for the time you need to wake, give yourself an hour to get ready for the morning ahead. Also, keep some snacks near at your bedside so during this "almost out of bed" phase so you can get something in your stomach.
According to the APA, progesterone (a key pregnancy hormone) slows down the passage of food through the digestive tract. To help balance this, try eating smaller meals to avoid feeling overly full and nauseous. In the same regards, frequent small meals will help prevent you from getting too hungry and leave you with the empty stomach nausea.
Do what works for you. Erick praised the individual remedies rather than just following a “bland diet.” Each woman is different and by listening to your body and reading its triggers, you should get a general idea of foods to avoid and cravings to endure. Some women do respond well to a bland foods diet, others require cinnamon candy, vinegar, or salty potato chips to help curb signs of morning sickness.
Morning sickness can have a huge impact on your nutritional status, physical, and emotional well-being. If you are experiencing continued morning sickness without relief, contact your health care provider about a possible condition called hyperemesis gravidarum.
For more information about ways to fight morning sickness check out The American Pregnancy Association at: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/survivingmorningsickness.html. Also the original interview of Miriam Erick can be found at http://www.parenthood.com/articletopics/7_ways_to_fight_morning_sickness.html
Claire is a twenty-three year old nursing student at Arizona State University. She currently lives in Tempe, AZ with her dog Bella.