Pregnancy morning sickness is also known as nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.
It is a common early pregnancy symptom that occurs in 50-95% of all pregnant women.
As the name suggests, morning sickness doesn’t always occur in the mornings rather it occurs at anytime of the day during your pregnancy.
Pregnancy morning sickness develops in the early stages of pregnancy, generally within the first month, and continues till 14-16 weeks.
In some cases, the symptoms remain throughout the pregnancy. [Symptoms of Pregnancy]
On the other hand, you may experience a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum, the most severe form of pregnancy morning sickness that prevents you from taking adequate foods and fluids. This form of morning sickness is very rare, it occurs in 1 out of every 250 pregnancies.
Remember that pregnancy morning sickness refers to nausea, with or without vomiting.
Nausea develops very commonly in the first pregnancy of young women, in multiple pregnancy where women carry more than one fetus as well as if you had this symptom in your previous pregnancy.
The exact cause of pregnancy morning sickness is not known. However, it may develop due to bodily changes during pregnancy.
These changes include increased hormone levels, especially HCG and progesterone as well as decreased blood sugar levels due to stomach acids.
An increase in pregnancy hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) also cause pregnancy morning sickness.
Placenta that surrounds the fetus produces the hCG hormone and the levels of this hormone fluctuates when you are 5 weeks pregnant to 15 weeks pregnant, which is the period where the intensity of morning sickness also fluctuates.
The increased hCG hormone affects the CTZ (Chemoreceptor Trigger Zone) of the brain, which is located in the Medulla and is responsible for protecting the body from damages.
As a result, the CTZ send signals to the Vomiting Center of the brain to empty the contents of the stomach, if it is a cause of infection.
Thus, the increase in the stomach acid due to empty stomach decreases the blood sugar levels in the body and leads to nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
The production of progesterone hormone, the dominant hormone by the maternal ovary softly affects the muscles in the body during pregnancy.
The hormone affects the muscles of stomach and intestines where the functioning of whole digestive track relaxes and the excretion of wastes from the body becomes slow leading to increased stomach acids. The increase in acid levels of the stomach causes nausea and vomiting.
Even high sensitivity to odors also causes pregnancy morning sickness. This is due to a high level of estrogen in the body. It is also found that the other pregnancy symptoms, fatigue and stress also causes pregnancy morning sickness.
There is no cure for pregnancy morning sickness. However, you can ease the symptoms by making diet and lifestyle changes as well as through home remedies.
So, take a healthy diet at regular intervals. Drink liquids only between the meals, not after the meals. Try not to keep your stomach empty. Consult your doctor immediately if the condition is worse.
