When you’re pregnant, you have enough going on, but then you have to figure out how to relieve morning sickness. Great – one more thing on the list including making a human!
Whoever came up with the term morning sickness had to have been a guy, because morning sickness makes it sound like you’ve got nausea symptoms in the morning and then you’re fine.
In reality a large percent of women have some level of nausea during pregnancy – no matter the time of day. We get upset stomachs, queasiness, nausea and vomiting all day long. Some are lucky and just experience this for a few weeks and some are not as lucky, like myself, and have to live with them through the entire pregnancy.
I’ve been pregnant twice and both pregnancies I had really bad nausea and threw up for 9 months. It was frustrating and at times very hard to keep food down. While I didn’t have Hyperemesis Gravidarum, I did have a lot more nausea than most pregnant women and a lot more than any of my friends had. I’ve tried everything you can think of and pretty much all the natural products I could find to help me get through pregnancy.
I know I can’t be the only one that suffers this way so I want to share with you what I found that worked for me in hopes that if you’re having a rough pregnancy some of this will work for you too.
I have to add that all of these solutions worked to relieve my nausea and take it away for the remaining of the day or a few hours but the only permanent solution, for me, was to give birth.
How to Relieve Morning Sickness
There’s really no way to make morning sickness better or go away completely other than having the baby, right? So, don’t be looking for some magic pill or some charm. It’s a natural part of your body’s hormones dealing with the creation of a human being!
There is hope, however, because you can help morning sickness with a few easy tricks. And I’ve actually tried these, so you can rest easy knowing that these are tried-and-true methods to combat morning sickness (not just some guy making things up!).
Have small meals and snacks throughout the day
I found that nausea got really bad if I let myself go for too many hours without eating. Apparently, going around on an empty stomach is not what my body wanted.
But, eating a larger meal because I was so hungry, well, that made the nausea worse. And, of course, every time I was nauseous, I threw-up so the meal made no difference to me.
So, taking time to eat small snacks or meals at regular intervals helped keep the nausea under control. This meant I could not leave the house without snacks and that I kept a small something next to my bed to eat first thing in the morning. Sometimes I would eat it in the middle of the night.
My go-to snack when I was feeling nauseous were apples. You might find the something else works for you so try different foods and produce. Once you find what helps to keep the nausea at bay – keep it stocked in your kitchen!
Drink flavored water
I have always been a big water drinker. Since I was a teenager I’ve carried a water bottle every where I go but for some reason when I’m pregnant drinking a lot of plain water made me throw it up, and, at the very least it makes me nauseous. Which is a problem, since, being pregnant, you really need to stay hydrated.
I’ve found that drinking flavored water helped with the nausea, but I also don’t want to drink unnecessary sugar. So, I would make my own flavored water using fruits and vegetables. This was one of my favorite things to drink since the flavor is not too strong and it’s very tasty.
If I was on the go or eating out I would have unsweetened ice tea or just squeeze some lime into a cup of water.
Chew gum
I don’t know what is it about gum but it helped, and a lot. During pregnancy, I just added gum to my Amazon monthly subscription so I would have some on hand at all times.
To make sure I wouldn’t run out, I put it in my wallet, in the car, in the house and everywhere. Because, if I had a particularly bad wave of nausea, a piece of gum would work to keep me together in most situations.
Some of my friends swear by the anti-nausea preggy-pops, and they do the same thing. They just help you have something in your mouth to keep from being sick.
Make sure that whatever you’re choosing doesn’t have too much sugar nor artificial ingredients, you want only the good stuff for you and your baby.
Don’t Take Vitamins on an Empty Stomach
I followed my doctor’s medical advice and took prenatal vitamins with some extra vitamin B6 and others – it ended-up being a whole handful of vitamins. Unfortunately, though, no one told me that taking these on an empty stomach can cause nausea.
So, to make it less of a hassle every evening, I made sure to time one of my little snacks with taking my vitamins. A small move, but it made a world of difference.
Also, synthetic vitamins made me threw up almost every time I took them and that’s when I discovered food based ones. My top choice is this organic whole-food multi-vitamin but here are some other great options. Always consult with YOUR doctor before taking any supplements!!
Sea-Bands
This is worth mentioning since so many pregnant moms swear by it. Sea-bans are a band you place around your wrists. Sea-Bands work by applying pressure to the P6 (Nei Kuan) acupressure point on each wrist – which helps relieve nausea & vomiting.
I tried the sea-bands but I didn’t find it helped me. However, every body is different so it’s worth a try!
All of these things really made a difference in my quality of life during each pregnancy. And, of course, because I knew these tricks from pregnancy #1, that made pregnancy #2 that much more easy.
If you enjoyed this and would like to keep these ideas handy for your possible future pregnancies, be sure to pin this to your favorite pregnancy tips board on Pinterest!
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