Fighting Morning Sickness

Okay - so morning sickness sucks - that is a given. It sucks when you wake up and can’t face breakfast. It sucks when you wake up and think you can handle breakfast, make it - and then realize you can’t handle it. And it sucks even more when you wake up thinking you can handle breakfast, make it, eat it and then go and throw it up. It also sucks that some smart person decided to label something as ‘morning’ sickness when it can hit in the afternoon or night. I bet that was a man.
But given all those negative experiences with morning sickness there is one thing that you need to remember and that is that morning sickness is a sign of a normal healthy pregnancy. I remember the most terrifying time in my pregnancy was when early on I had some bleeding and simultaneously suffered no morning sickness for three days. I was sure I had lost my baby and was terrified. So through it all hold on to that fact. You are going to have a child and that is fantastic!
Having said that, just because morning sickness is a perfectly natural part of pregnancy and common in most pregnant woman, it doesn’t mean you’ve got to sit around and be thankful that you feel like throwing up every time you open the fridge.
The first step is to avoid nasty smells. What constitutes unpleasant is different in every woman. The sense of smell is heightened in a pregnant woman and so the reaction to unpleasant odors is many times stronger. When you do come into contact with an unpleasant odor, try and get out of range as quickly as possible. If possible dispose of the odor - or even better get hubby to do it for you.
Diet is definitely a key component of morning sickness. Expectant mothers and doctors often disagree on what is edible and what isn’t, but one place they do agree is that citrus fruits and crackers are both effective to fight nausea. Keeping from having an empty stomach is also important, and ways of doing this range from keeping crackers beside the bed to having more regular smaller portions of high-carbohydrate. Rice is a good one that can be a base for whatever else you have cooked. Basically it goes with anything. Potatoes are also good. Combine this sensible eating plan with heaps of liquids and you will go along way to combating your nausea.

By Beverley Brooke
Editor of ‘Health & Finesse’