Nausea and vomiting are common problems in the early stages of pregnancy. They usually start around 6 week’s gestation and resolve at about 12 to 14 weeks. Multiple pregnancy can be associated with severe vomiting, and a small minority of pregnant women will experience symptoms severe enough to require hospital admission. This is known as hyperemesis gravidarum.
The good news is that the nausea and vomiting of early pregnancy can often be effectively managed with nondrug therapy. Helpful dietary modifications may include:
- Eating small, frequent, high-carbohydrate, low-fat meals
- Changing to a multivitamin without iron
- Maintaining adequate hydration with cold drinks or ice chips as tolerated
- Snacking on high-protein foods between meals
- Eating crackers or plain biscuits before getting out of bed in the morning
- Avoiding spicy foods and strong odours
Other non-drug therapy includes:
- Getting adequate sleep –fatigue exacerbates symptoms
- P6 acupressure
- Ginger (1 to 2g powdered ginger orally, daily)
If these measures are ineffective be sure to discuss your symptoms with your doctor as there are several safe and effective antiemetic (anti-nausea) therapies available if necessary. Effective management of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease will also help.
So don’t suffer in silence!! Take control and ask for help.
(Source: Therapeutic Guidelines – Gastrointestinal disease https://tgldcdp.org.au)