Morning sickness is an awful thing to go through, and I must admit I was quite unprepared for it when I became pregnant with our first. After my first pregnancy I felt like we might have to adopt the rest of our kids, with how sick I was and I desperately looked for a cure. There are a couple of things that have done wonders for me this second pregnancy, but first I thought I should share how morning sickness affected me with pregnancy #1.
*Disclosure: This post is about my personal experience with morning sickness. I am not a doctor. I'm not even a nurse. This post is NOT medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any choices concerning your pregnancy and health.
My Experience With Morning Sickness
I was very sick with my first pregnancy. Despite its name “morning sickness,” I was sick and throwing up all day. This continued until about 22 weeks. I was bound to the couch as any movement would cause me to throw up. I tried everything it seemed…B6, ginger, Unisom, and others. My morning sickness caused me to lose 10 lbs and would have caused me to lose more had my doctor not medicated me with Zofran and Phenergan. Taking these medications were the only way to avoid an IV, and although they helped a bit, they didn't take the morning sickness away and I didn't like how they affected my body.
How to Stop Morning Sickness Before it Starts
Because my second pregnancy has been so much different that the first, I thought I would give some suggestions how to stop morning sickness if you are not yet pregnant from my own experience (If you are already pregnant, these are still very helpful). Keep in mind, we all have different bodies; what works for one might not work for all!
I am currently 23 weeks pregnant with another girl and have had little to no morning sickness at all. Now I understand that every pregnancy is different, but I have a hard time believing that I could be as sick as I was my first pregnancy, to loving my life the 2nd pregnancy–all based on chance. There were a couple of things I did different and I feel they worked wonders. My sister was pregnant about 5 months before I was and she called me one day to advise me to start taking the herb Milk Thistle. She was getting desperate for something to ease her morning sickness and started reading a lot about it. After a week of taking it she said she already felt a huge difference. Now the reason she told me to start taking it is because it is even more effective if you take it prior to getting pregnant. Milk Thistle is known for its liver support as it cleanses and detoxifies the liver. Because pregnancy hormones take a toll on our liver, healthy liver function is vital for avoiding morning sickness. Who knew? She also told me to make sure and get the Jarrow brand; not sure why, but it does have awesome reviews for liver support!
I have also heard that taking up MAGNESIUM before you get pregnant makes a huge difference for morning sickness.
Here is some more info about success with Milk Thistle for morning sickness:
Milk Thistle and Morning Sickness 1
Milk Thistle and Morning Sickness 2
Milk Thistle and Morning Sickness 3
Milk Thistle and Morning Sickness 4
What to Do For Morning Sickness: Some Other Ideas
Something else that I started taking before I got pregnant was DoTerra vitamins (the vitality pack). I know that they contain Ginger, Peppermint, Caraway and other oils which may be what made them so great…I'm not sure, but they have been a miracle for me. They were a little out of my price range, but now I feel they were worth it 10 times over because of how happy and well I have been! They are about $78-80, but I take half the dose so they last me 2 months. When I didn't experience any morning sickness this pregnancy (maybe a couple “off” days, but none of those days were very bad, and I wasn't sick enough to prevent me from going places unlike pregnancy #1), I thought for sure that something was wrong with the baby. My first appointment where I got the chance to hear the heartbeat I fully expected not to hear one. In fact, when the nurse took a few minutes to find it my first thought was “That's why I haven't had morning sickness! The baby hasn't been developing properly!” I had the same feelings when I went to my first ultrasound–I tried not to get too excited and prepared myself to be told that the baby wasn't alive.
I honestly never connected the vitamins to me feeling so well until I ran out of them. I started to feel nausea coming on and it was getting incrementally a little worse each day (although still bearable). I was also MUCH more fatigued. I went back on the vitamins and went back to feeling great (and even forgetting I was pregnant at times). I still wasn't completely convinced until I caught up with a friend of mine (also pregnant). The last time I had seen her , her morning sickness was terrible. When I saw her this time around she told me that someone had introduced her to DoTerra vitamins and how much they were helping.
I wish I could clearly state whether it was the vitamins or the milk thistle that helped me the most. I feel like it was the vitamins since I started getting a little bit of sickness after taking a week's break from them, but I believe they both worked together to help me feel as great as I have. If you absolutely can't afford the DoTerra vitamins, you can probably get DigestGen and Peppermint as single oils and they will still help (I believe the vitamin pack is between $60-80, but I started taking half the dose once I got out of my first trimester). **After Ginger's comment, I'm sure having store of B vitamins is also what helped (also from the vitamins).
As a side note: Something else the vitamins help you avoid is constipation (TMI?). Constipation is common in pregnancy, but DoTerra vitamins keep you very regular. 🙂 Maybe it's the digestive blend that they contain, I'm not sure?
Although I haven't been sick enough to do this the 2nd time around, I thought I would mention that with my first pregnancy the only thing I could do to get water down was to squeeze lemon juice in my water, and make sure that it was ICE COLD. Lemon is also a detoxifier, which is maybe why it helps.
What has helped YOU with morning sickness?
This tip came from one of my readers (Ginger):
Also, get your body stocked up on vitamin b (combo of all) and then your body can handle it better. Most bodies can not absorb vitamin b after being pregnant and that causes the nausea as well. If you are already lacking the necessity before you are in trouble. I found this out as I was prego with my last…lol! Many women have had no nausea by doing this.
A little off topic but when you are pregnant you need to eat a lot of healthy fats each day. If you don’t your baby will take it from the easiest place they can…the brain. That is why so many women feel airheaded during pregnancy. On average women loose 5% of there fatty acids in the brain with each child. This is an average so it can be more or less. Some of the best foods to eat for this are nuts, avacado, banana, beans, fish, krill oil.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor to I intend to give you advice in place of your doctor. Always consult a doctor with your medical questions.
photo credit: daquellamanera via photopin
