Morning sickness during pregnancy: 12 ways you can find relief

Suffer from morning sickness? A lot of things can help you feel better. Here are 12 of them.

Gynaecologists Ratnabali Ghosh and Sunita Arora are answering some of the biggest questions on the minds of pregnant women: Why am I so nauseated? Is there anything I can do to relieve my morning sickness?

A couple of things could be making you feel so queasy.

“A vomiting centre in your brain (didn’t know you had one, huh?) is more sensitive, and your digestive tract is more relaxed, making it more likely that foods travel up as well as down,” says Dr Ghosh.

These factors, plus the heightened sense of smell you have during pregnancy, create a swirling storm that can make you sickened by the mere mention of food.

A lot of things can help you feel better, but that doesn’t mean they all will, Arora says.

“Unfortunately, this is one of those areas in which you may have to experiment a bit to see what therapy may be best for your body,” she adds.

Here are 12 things that can relieve the misery:

Morning sickness is mostly in the mind and meditation helps. (Shutterstock)

1. Meditate to help control stress. Morning sickness is more common in women under a lot of stress.

2. Stick with cold foods, think milkshakes, smoothies, fruits and salads. Hot foods have a stronger smell, which can trigger queasiness.

3. Use a mouth rinse after vomiting and after each meal to keep your mouth fresh, reduce nausea and reduce the risk of tooth decay that can occur from the interaction of stomach acid with enamel.

Make sure your egg is well cooked - both the white and the yolk should be solid. (Shutterstock)

4. Eat a diet high in protein and complex carbohydrates.

5. Keep 100% whole grain crackers by your bed. Eat a few as soon as you wake up to get something in your stomach before you start moving around.

6. Sip chicken broth to help you get some calories along with the liquid.

If your morning sickness persists, talk to your doctor about taking medication. (Shutterstock)

7. Consider meds. If your morning sickness is really bad, talk to your doc about medication.

8. Get light exercise.

9. Brew fresh ginger root in a cup of tea.

During pregnancy, acupuncture has been used to treat nausea. (Shutterstock)

10. Try acupuncture.

11. Explore homeopathic remedies to help with nausea and irritability. They are hotly debated within the medical community but are unlikely to cause harm.

12. Eat leafy greens because they’re rich in vitamin K, which seems to help.

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