How to Cope with Morning Sickness During Pregnancy

There may be some of you that are lucky enough not to have morning sickness, but the rest of us aren’t. Finding ways to cope with morning sickness is a true hassle because one thing doesn’t work for everyone. And it doesn’t work for every pregnancy.

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So, let’s talk about tips for dealing with morning sickness, but first, let’s find out what morning sickness is.

Related Article: Top 5 Things You Should Know About the 1st Trimester

What is morning sickness and why do we get it?

Morning sickness is basically nausea and can include vomiting during pregnancy. It usually occurs during the 1st trimester. 9 out of 10 pregnancies end up with morning sickness so you are not alone. This can actually be a good thing as well because it basically shows that the placenta is growing properly and can calm your worries. Not that it is fun or anything because it is far from it.

Let’s make this clear though morning sickness does not just happen in the morning. It is an all day, try to ruin your day, type of thing. And it truly isn’t a sickness that stays around forever. It is just there for pregnancy and for most pregnancies only lasts the 1st trimester and goes away.

Don’t get me wrong there are pregnancies that have morning sickness for the entirety of the pregnancy. But this is just about 1% of pregnancies.

Now, why do we get this during pregnancy? It is due to increased hormones. Yup. Basically baby is growing and your body is trying to adjust to their needs. The increase in hormones makes it harder on your body and for some reason, it seems that morning sickness is how it decides to react to these hormones.

How are we supposed to cope with morning sickness during pregnancy?

Well, there are many ways that people deal with morning sickness. Some choose to go with foods that help. Others may choose a form of exercise. While some might just opt for medications prescribed by a doctor.

There really isn’t a set way to handle morning sickness. Mainly because each pregnancy is different and sometimes what works for one won’t work for another. It is best to check out many options and if they don’t work for you try something else.

When in doubt always ask your doctor for help. Sometimes trying to figure out something yourself isn’t always the best. And if it worsens definitely let them know so that they can help.

For mine, I tried many things and they helped for only a short period of time, so I switched to a medication. Sadly, the medication didn’t help so they had to switch me to a different one, which did end up finally helping. The only reason I even was okay with choosing to use a medication was because I ended up with the 1% of pregnancies that have morning sickness the whole pregnancy. Otherwise, I probably would have been fine with the other ways to calm morning sickness.

What options are there?

Sometimes a combination of these is better than just one. Test out what works best for you.

• Aromatherapy
• Acupressure wristbands
• Food and hard candies
• Yoga
• Infused water or teas
• Medication

Now let’s delve into each of these deeper.

Aromatherapy

This does not have to be essential oils, but you can use them as well. Many times nausea can come on by just smelling something that doesn’t settle well with your stomach.

Be aware that certain things you love the scent of may now make you nauseous. It is a curse I swear.

Try to find a smell that works well for you. Usually, lemon or citrus scents can help calm morning sickness.

Now if you want to use essential oils there are four main oils that tend to help morning sickness.

1. Lavender
2. Sandalwood
3. Ginger
4. Lemon

Some say that if you mix these four together with some coconut oil and massage it on your belly area it will be the most helpful with morning sickness.

These four usually help the best and you can always mix them if you find that works better for you. You can even mix them with something else, but just know that some essential oils you should stay away from.

Related Article: Essential Oils to Stay Away From During Pregnancy

You can choose to massage oils in or just to have something wonderful to smell. Either way, if it doesn’t help you out with morning sickness it can still be really relaxing to help with your stress. Just try something else for morning sickness.

Acupressure Wristbands

These seem to be newly used these days because of an invention called Sea-Bands. These were created so that people with motion sickness could travel easier. They are actually really helpful to some for air travel, being on a boat, and even being in a car for long. Lately, it seems that people are using them to help with morning sickness.

How do they work you might ask. Well, it is pretty simple. You have two bands, one for each wrist, and you put them on your pressure points. To find where the pressure point is, measure three fingers at the bottom of your hand. Inside of your wrist should be up and where the third finger sits is where the small ball on the band goes.

By placing the pressure ball on the pressure point it eases motion sickness. Now it also seems to help with nausea in general. That means it can help with morning sickness. It is worth a shot at least.

Now I have always loved these for when I get motion sick. Once I learned that my morning sickness had lead to more motion sickness for even short car rides I had to try them out. They did help me out a bit and I would wear them for being in the car. But, as explained earlier, my morning sickness was really bad throughout the entire pregnancy. So it could only help calm my motion sickness, which allowed me to actually go places like the grocery store again.

Foods

Ginger, apples, saltine crackers, lemon and citrus fruits, peppermint, hard candies, etc. All of these things people say help them. Doctors will actually tell you to eat some of these before trying to prescribe you medication.

Ginger seems to be the #1 food that is sworn to help. Whether you add it to your meals, make special ginger cookies or treats, or have it with tea. Your stomach will most likely love you and calm the pain.

Doctors do suggest that you have smaller meals that are more frequent to help keep you eating and lessen the chances of vomiting. Also, that you should keep saltine crackers or just crackers in general next to your bed or near you. This way before you sit up in bed you can have a couple and it should calm your stomach. You can also have them throughout the day when you start feeling a bit nauseous or need a small snack.

Peppermint and hard candies are great to suck on throughout the day to settle the stomach. Peppermint is also great for any time you feel nauseous, including after pregnancy.

If any of these work for you then that is wonderful. If not, just keep trying and maybe combine these with something else.

Yoga Exercises

Now, this I never did on purpose, but looking back I noticed that I would do them unintentionally. The four poses that are said to help are:

1. The hero pose (Virasana)
2. Reclining hero pose (Supta Virasana)
3. Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana)
4. Legs up the wall (Viparita Karani)

I am definitely not a professional on yoga and barely have practiced it throughout my lifetime, so If you do want to check out more about these yoga poses then head over to Ashley Tukiainen’s article on CureJoy.

I do know that there may be other poses that help out with morning sickness and it is all on what your body needs. Just don’t push yourself and listen to what your body tells you because you do not need to add pain or an injury on to your pregnancy symptoms.

Infused Water or Teas

Another way to add lemon or ginger into your daily routine and calm your nausea is infusing it in water or having a tea. Any tea can help, but the most common ones are with ginger or lemon.

Many times teas that have ginger help in two ways: it calms your stomach and your caffeine intake because it tends to be black tea. This can also help replace some of your coffee intake with something better for you, but not deprive you of caffeine.

My favorite tea during pregnancy: Ginger Peach Black Tea by The Republic of Tea

This stuff saved me when I was no longer allowed to drink much soda, which left me caffeine deprived and it helped my nausea a lot. I love the flavor of this so much as well. Black tea might not be for everyone, but it is worth trying. It tastes great hot and iced.

Lemon or citrus infused water is wonderful. If you like lemon water then I do suggest doing this. You can add other fruits or veggies to it if you don’t want it too lemony, but it does wonders for your nausea and your water intake. Basically, it is a two in one deal. You get to calm your stomach and still make sure that you are getting enough water that you truly need.

Medication

Now I do suggest that this be one of the last options. Reason being that all medications have risk factors and/or side effects. Some may even have risks of a miscarriage. I am not trying to scare you out of taking a medication, I just want to be honest with you.

Personally, I had to take medication. My symptoms were terrible and over time nothing seemed to work. I ended up having to give in and take medication. It is nothing to be ashamed of either.

Trust your body and talk to your doctor about everything going on. If they prescribe you a medication then you can choose to take it, but be completely honest with your doctor. They can only help if you are honest with them. That means if you are having side effects or your symptoms only get worse then tell them. If they know then they can change the medication or try something else.

Hope that helps.

There may be other ways that help you out with your morning sickness, but at least this can get you started. You may have to combine some of these and try different ones before you find out what is best for you. Sadly, each pregnancy is different though and that means what might have worked for a previous pregnancy or your friends’ pregnancy, may not work for your current pregnancy.

Want to learn more about pregnancy?

Keep Reading:

• Top 5 Things You Should Know About the 1st Trimester
• 1st Trimester Doctor Visits
• What You Should Know About the 2nd Trimester
• Pregnancy: 2nd Trimester Doctor Visits
• And more under our Pregnancy tab!

Your Turn!

What was something that helped you during for morning sickness? Is there something that you are wanting to test out? Are you that 1% that has morning sickness throughout the entirety of pregnancy? Let us know!