PREGNANCY: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
Morning sickness. Like some cruel trick of false advertising, this name gives the impression that after feeling queasy in the morning, you are going to be bouncing around as right as rain for the rest of the day. In fact, this sick feeling (nausea) which accompanies pregnancy in more than 50 per cent of women, can occur at any time of the day or night. It is most common in the morning, hence the name.
Nausea, and occasionally vomiting, tends to happen from about six weeks gestation to about twelve weeks. It is probably a result of a reaction to all the increased hormones floating around as a result of the pregnancy. Some women notice it increases with different things, like various smells, hunger, or certain foods. Unfortunately it is difficult to predict what might aggravate it in a particular person (but from what many women tell me, walking through the meat section of the market is not a good idea).
Women can try a few things to decrease the nausea. Having a small amount of fruit mice, or a drink and a biscuit before actually getting out of bed in the morning often helps. After that, it seems that having small, relatively frequent intakes of food (about every three to four hours, even if you are not particularly hungry) can help to settle the feeling down. You may not feel like certain foods, particularly fatty foods, so avoid them. Try to remember to eat good quality food. It is often difficult to eat the recommended balanced diet during the first trimester, but it is possible to catch up on nutrients later on if you have missed out on them earlier.
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) has sometimes been found to help hormonally induced symptoms. Taking 25 to 50 milligrams of vitamin B6 up to three times a day may be worth trying.
If symptoms are preventing a woman getting adequate fluid and nutrition, it may be wise to use anti-nausea medication. Certainly, most people would recommend avoiding unnecessary medications in pregnancy (see further this chapter), but if the symptoms warrant treatment, there are drugs which have been used over many years and have been found to be safe in pregnancy. The two most commonly used types are antihistamines (like meclozine, trade name Ancolan) and a specific anti-nausea drug (metoclopromide, trade name Maxalon). These can be prescribed by doctors in tablet form, and may aid in relieving nausea and vomiting.
But there are times when oral medication will be insufficient. (It is sometimes difficult to keep tablets down when you are vomiting.) Some women will need admission to hospital to have medication, and occasionally intravenous fluids, until they are able to tolerate oral fluids again. The name given to this relatively uncommon and fairly severe form of morning sickness is hyperemesis gravidarum (which is Latin for Mots of vomiting while pregnant’).
It is difficult to give definite reasons why some people should have such dramatic morning sickness, and others sail through without so much as a burp. Certainly doctors have been able to identify some conditions which may be associated with severe morning sickness, but not everyone who gets it has one of these. Increased emotional stress often aggravates morning sickness. Women with underlying or pre-existing stomach problems may find the going rougher. Having twins, or a ‘molar pregnancy’ (see further this chapter) means there are more pregnancy-type hormones around, so symptoms like morning sickness may be exaggerated.
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