At least some morning sickness symptoms are experienced by a vast majority of all pregnant women.
While some women seem to experience no morning sickness symptoms, an estimated 75% of women suffer at least some symptoms.
When confronted with morning sickness symptoms such as nausea and vomiting at any time of day, it is natural to wonder if this could in some impact the fetus negatively.
The fact is that morning sickness does not usually have any impact on the baby.
The baby is able to get the nourishment that he or she needs from the reserves of the mother, regardless of whether she is able to eat properly or not.
In fact there is one school of thought that says that women, who suffer symptoms of morning sickness, go on to have healthy babies since these symptoms indicate optimum levels of the requisite hormones in the mother’s system.
In fact it is seen that those women who are carrying twin or multiples [multiple pregnancy]and have elevated levels of certain hormones are prone to excessive morning sickness symptoms.
Even women who know that their morning sickness symptoms are not really having any impact on their baby, it is natural to want to control the aggravation and discomfort of nausea and vomiting.
Nausea is hardly a pleasant sensation and throwing up regularly may actually be disgusting for many women.
There are of course many natural remedies for morning sickness such as identifying and dealing with the triggers of the symptoms, having small frequent meals etc.
However, in many cases the morning sickness symptoms are not controlled with home remedies or natural remedies. In many cases, this requires medical attention and perhaps prescription medication:
Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is fairly rare; a condition that afflicts less than 2% of pregnant women, however the condition is grave enough to warrant serious medical attention.
It is characterized by excessive nausea and vomiting, wherein a woman is unable to ingest adequate water and nutrition. It can cause a woman to lose weight, cause dehydration, nutritional deficiencies and even hallucinations and depression.
Whereas earlier this condition was explained away as being brought on by a pregnant woman’s psychological condition, it is now understood to have a genetic component.
This situation is not helped by the usual measures that one takes to alleviate morning sickness symptoms and is a condition treated as a medical emergency.
Antiemetic medication, IV hydration and nutritional support or intravenous feeding may be indicated in these cases.
Other causes: Apart from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), there are other conditions that could be the cause of this excessive vomiting during pregnancy.
When the onset of the nausea or vomiting is seen later on in the pregnancy, or it is accompanied by other symptoms such as fever or abdominal pain then it could be due to a reason other than HG
. It could be the indication of the presence of some infection, gallbladder problems, appendicitis, gastritis or hepatitis.
Sometimes it could be an eating disorder such as bulimia nervosa that causes excessive vomiting during pregnancy.
