Morning sickness is when you experience vomiting and nausea during early weeks of pregnancy.However, some women may report morning sickness throughout pregnancy. It may irritate you and make you uncomfortable but this does not pose any risk to you or your baby. This is a very common question asked by pregnant women that how long does morning sickness last? In most cases, morning sickness gets better by about 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy and can be controlled by many ways.
How Long Does Morning Sickness Last?
You may start facing morning sickness in your 6th week of pregnancy and it stays until around 15th week. During your pregnancy, the level of nausea may vary until 20th week.
If other than nausea, you are having fever with headache and pain, then it might be something else than normal morning sickness, so you must see your gynecologist immediately.
Why Do I Have Morning Sickness?
It could be any of the physical changes taking place in your body, some of them include:
1. Hormone Changes
In early pregnancy, levels of hormone fluctuates rapidly (especially serum level of Human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG). Nausea increases as the levels of hCG increase. The rapidly increasing level of hormones can also be the cause for morning sickness. Not only estrogen, but other hormones can contribute to the changing biochemistry within the body; thereby culminating in morning sickness.
2. Enhanced Sense of Smell
In early pregnancy, sense of smell is enhanced and women get more sensitive to certain odors. She can easily feel the aroma of bologna sandwich from considerable distance and may feel nauseous. There are some aromas that may activate the gag reflex.
3. Sensitive Stomach
In Some women, the gastrointestinal tracts are more sensitive than others in terms of early pregnancy changes. Some researchers say that the women who have active infection with Helicobacter pylori are more likely to have morning sickness.
4. Other Causes
Carrying twins or more can increase the seriousness of morning sickness. Some other reasons include the history of nausea due to birth control medicines or the genetic predisposition to nausea in pregnancy or the history of migraine attacks.
How to Treat Morning Sickness
Having answered the questions “how long does morning sickness last?” and “why do I have morning sickness”, you may wonder if there are any ways to relieve the discomfort. Fortunately, there are some home remedies that may help in preventing as well as treating nausea and vomiting.
1. Select Foods Carefully
Lowering the intake of carbohydrates and proteins may cause morning sickness, so increase the intake of foods that contains high amount of carbs and protein that can easily be digested. Avoid the intake of oily and spicy food. Salt and ginger is recommended in notable amount in the food.You can make ginger lollipops if you don’t like to chew ginger.
2. Snack Frequently
Take snacks more often, like in morning before leaving your bed, have some snacks. It could be soda crackers or a toasted piece of bread. Eat in little amount all the day instead of having full three meals because empty stomach can be the cause of nausea.
3. Drink Plenty of Fluids
Sip a lot of water throughout the day. In case of increased vomiting, sports drinks might also help. They contain glucose, potassium and salt that replace the electrolytes that have been lost in your body.
4. Avoid Nausea Triggers
Stay away from the smells or foods that may trigger your nausea. Take foods that are at room temperature when they don’t have strong aroma. There could be some non-food triggers as well, including a warm room, fragrance of perfume, riding a car or sometimes even flickering lights.
5. Breathe Fresh Air
Prefer fresh air instead of sitting in a closed room.Open windows whether you are at home or in office. Walk in park or any place with open air daily.
6. Take Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins also help in morning sickness. You may feel groggy after taking them so you may try them with a snack or at night. Chewing gum and sucking hard candy get easy after taking them.
7. Get Plenty of Rest
Rest is very important in early pregnancy. Tiredness can make your nausea worse, so relax yourself, have snoozes regularly and do activities that relieve your stress like spending time with friends.
8. Try Acupressure Band
Acupressure on wrist can also prove to be very helpful in treating morning sickness. You just need to wear a special wrist band on your forearm. Researches also show that applying pressure on different body parts help to reduce the symptoms of morning sickness by releasing chemicals from brain.
9. Medication
If the symptoms don’t go by any of the recommended remedies, your doctor might suggest you some medications including vitamin B-6, antihistamines and anti-nausea pills. In severe cases, doctor also suggests combination of doxylamine and pyridoxine. These medications may cause drowsiness, so you should avoid activities requiring mental activeness including driving.