Mayo Clinic medical information and tools for healthy living

Connect with an expert

Pregnancy and you blog

With Mayo Clinic certified nurse-midwife Mary Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

Back to posting index

August 23, 2008

Some tips to deal with pregnancy nausea and vomiting

21 comments posted

Read comments | Post a comment

By Mary Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

Before I ever got pregnant, I worried I would have pregnancies like my dear sister. I think she vomited from the time the sperm united with the egg until her placenta delivered. She never had relief, it just became more predictable. She got the vomiting and fast labor genes and I got the no nausea or vomiting and the slow labor gene.

According to the UpToDate database, some degree of nausea with or without vomiting occurs in 50 to 90 percent of all pregnancies. It begins at five to six weeks gestation, peaking at nine weeks, and usually getting better by 16 to 18 weeks. My sister was one of the 5 percent who continue with it until delivery.

Why do we get nauseated and vomit in pregnancy? Good question — with no definitive answer. There are no studies that can say what causes it. There are theories about hormonal changes and abnormal gastric motility as well as psychological factors.

What can we do about it? If you know that there is a trigger for the nausea, such as the smell of fried food, avoid that. No trips through a drive-through window. Other triggers can be stuffy rooms, perfume and heat. Brushing your teeth can bring it on. Sometimes the iron in your supplements can cause gastric irritation. You could stop your prenatal and take a standard multivitamin or just take your folic acid supplements until after you are feeling better. Eat before or as soon as you feel hungry. An empty stomach can aggravate nausea. Eat frequent high-carbohydrate, low-fat meals. Powdered ginger (1 to 1.5 grams in divided doses over 24 hours) has a positive effect. Some women find lemon-drop candies help.

If your nausea and vomiting are unstoppable, let your health provider know. There is a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum (too much vomiting while pregnant — have to love the fancy name) that can be serious. If you have persistent vomiting and have weight loss exceeding 5 percent of your pre-pregnancy weight, you could fall in this group. Seek help immediately.

I am sure many of you ladies have experienced this. Share with us the things you did to help get through this stage of pregnancy.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg This

Add to Technorati

Stumble It!

21 comments posted

Read comments | Post a comment

Back to posting index

November 6, 2008 10:06 a.m.

I have lost 12 lbs. this first trimester. With my first, the vomitting ended at around the third month...NOT so with this one. The Dr. perscribed Zofran, and nausea medicine often given to chemotherapy patients. This DID NOT work. It gave me SEVERE headaches. I'd rather be sick than have a headache.

- Amanda

November 4, 2008 10:16 a.m.

My naturopath recommended protein to prevent nausea during my first pregnancy and it totally worked for me. As long as I have at least 3-4 servings of lean protein a day I am never sick (ie. soy milk, rice protein shake, chicken or fish). I am early into my second pregnancy and so far I have not had any morning sickness as long as I have my protein. Its worth a try - good luck!

- Patricia

November 2, 2008 5:14 p.m.

I had severe hyperemisis....Vomitting 22 times a day.....avg was bout 15 times...horrible You can have your dr rx zofran, reglan, finnergan and the best pill ever"Nexium"....wish you well

- Kristina

October 24, 2008 6:17 p.m.

Someone told me to drink a large glass of warm water first thing in the morning and then throw it up. The last bit of it was a foul yellow bile type substance, and I was fine the rest of the day. This wouldn't work for sickness after eating.

- Darlene

October 20, 2008 3:18 p.m.

I started with my nausea at about 6 weeks. (Currenly in week 24 of my first pregnancy). After missing 2 days of work, I called my OB to see if there was anything I could do. Office staff asked my name to get my chart, and I started crying! I was able to tell them that I had not been keeping any food down (wasn't eating because I knew it would come up), and they prescribed phenergen and B-6. It helped. But an equal help was my amazing husband who would hold me for a while, then cook me all kinds of "beige food" (cream of wheat, mashed potatoes, etc), and then grill any food he could for himself and eat it outside while I curled up on the couch or in bed. That lasted until about week 14. I've been off and on, often feeling really good, until the last couple of days. I've just read that about week 24 (where I am now), the placenta steps up hormone production again. I have retreated to Gala apples, bananas, and generally mild flavors, with a bedside snack to wake up to. How long could this last?? I'm concerned because, while I haven't really lost weight, I haven't really gained any either.

- amanda

October 16, 2008 3:44 a.m.

I had dreadful hyperemesis and lost 20% of my bodyweight. A combination of zofran and herbal medications allowed me to carry the pregnancy to term. An ice pack on my neck helped sometimes. Mint gum that was not artificially sweetened helped most of the time. Nutritional drinks like Ensure or Boost stayed down better than anything else. Things improved around 25 weeks and the vomiting was only 3-5 times a day.

- Kalah

October 7, 2008 6:57 p.m.

I drink mint tea.. refresh (Tazo) tea from starbucks works great...

- teresa

September 18, 2008 9:48 p.m.

a have seen so many pregnant respond well to good familial support with vit B6 plus cortecosteroid therapy please you can try

- s alalfy

September 18, 2008 6:50 a.m.

1 i would like to know how to go about y a woman has not gone to her prenantal appts before the 3 months came she new she was pregnant in july but wait to tell me i'm the father of the kid sept.3 then told me she hasn't see a doctor yet

- anonymous

September 16, 2008 5:54 a.m.

I have had dreadful hyperemesis with both pregnancies, much worse second time around with two year old at heels! in both cases I didn't improve until well into the twenty weeks somewhere and medication did not help at all; my second pregnancy saw me in hospital for weeks on end, eventually having a hyperalimentaton drip at 27 weeks.This took four or five days and seemed to help as afterwards I began to improve, ever so slowly. What I found was worse than losing 10% body weight and being too weak to walk to the toilet,was the extraordinary effect that it had on my mental state...it was bloody awful to be honest, and I found it difficult to see how I would ever contemplate pregnancy again. I would be interested to know whether there is any link between hyperemesis and post-natal depression, as after both pregnancies this has been a problem! I also suspect that the extraordinary weight loss has far more long term effects on the body than meets the eye -eg before kids, I was rarely ill, now, I seem to be constantly fighting off colds and other 'low level' infections.. On a lighter note,pregnancy doesn't last for ever (Thank heavens)...while ginger helped in the very early weeks, after that I was pretty much at the mercy of my hormones, and found that although it is extremely difficult, trying to always keep the bigger picture in frame helped...it is soooo worth it in the end!

- Claire