Can't talk, busy vomiting...
Oct 19 '00
Ah, the sweet feel of morning (ha) sickness. This is one area where I am an unfortunate expert. I am currently in the 7th month of my second pregnancy and am just now starting to feel the frequent gags, constant churning of my stomach, and retching at the slightest smells subsiding. Morning sickness, which I will call "nausea and vomiting of pregnancy" from here on it because it does not limit itself to the morning, is one of those nasty little side effects of pregnancy that about half of pregnant women will suffer. About 1% of us are the more unfortunate ones who will suffer from what they call "hyperemesis gravidarum" -- a more severe form of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy that leads to dehydration, weight loss, and, sometimes, hospitalization.
My experience with nausea and vomiting of pregnancy began in the 6th week with my first child, now a toddler. It became so severe that I lost almost 20 pounds and was forced into the hospital several times before the 20th week of my pregnancy. I thought it was a fluke -- I'd heard that some women experience severe nausea with one pregnancy and none with subsequent -- so foolish me gets pregnant again. I became reaquainted with my bathroom floor during the 6th week of my second pregnancy once again and made the decision to limit my family to 2 kids.
Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy can be a deabilitating illness and is so misunderstood by the medical community and society in general that there's not much we know about it. The true experts are the women who suffer from it. Doctors will tell you "eat some crackers before you get out of bed." To them I say "stuff your crackers where the sun don't shine." True crackers may work for some women, if you're one of them, consider yourself lucky. For me crackers only worsened the horrible taste in my mouth and gave me something dry and crumbly to throw up.
Over the course of my two bouts with hyperemisis gravidarum, I learned a few tricks in coping.
1.) sea bands -- these are acupressure bands worn on the wrists. They have been shown in clinical trials to help nausea and vomiting in some women, others say they do nothing.
2.) Phenegran, Reglen, Unisom -- these are common medications prescribed or recommended to women suffering nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Their main drawback is that they induce sleepiness. I can honestly say they helped me, but only because I was usually sound asleep about 30 minutes after taking them --- can't throw up if you're sleeping.
3.) Vitamin B6 -- this has also been found to improve nausea and vomiting in clinical trials. It can't hurt, but I didn't see any profound difference in my nausea.
4.) quit taking prenatal vitamins and switch to Flintstones -- this actually helped me. The prenatal vitamins can induce nausea so substituting 2 Flintstone vitamins helped me to continue getting the vitamins I needed.
5.) sniff fresh cut lemons -- sounds strange but the smell of lemons does have a calming effect on the stomach.
6.) Find your miracle food -- it's different for every woman. My first pregnancy, Smarties candies actually made me feel better for a while. With my second, I couldn't stand them, but Junior Mints had a calming effect on my stomach. Experiment with different candies and foods and find the one item that seems to help and eat it all you want.
7.) Don't force yourself to eat anything that doesn't appeal to you. So you're not following that silly "best odds" diet in that book, so what. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I lived on Rice Krispies for 2 months because it's the only thing that didn't go down too bad and wasn't too offensive coming back up -- which is sometimes did.
8.) See your doctor if you're vomiting more than 4 times a day or if you haven't been able to keep anything down for more than 24 hours. You may be dehydrated and you will need an I.V. The good news is that you will feel a lot better after having the I.V. fluids.
The bad news is that there is no cure for morning sickness (although there is a cure for male baldness and male impotence -- that's the kind of world we live in), but the good news is that morning sickness will not last that long. Some women do experience it for the entire 9 months, but it does lessen the deeper into your pregnancy you get. The other good news is that women who suffer nausea and vomiting are more likely to have healthy pregnancies because it shows their body is producing enough of the hormones required to sustain a healthy pregnancy.
If you're suffering nausea and vomiting take heart that it will pass. Try out the remedies that I've listed and see if they work. Talk to other women who've suffered and see what advice they offer. Then take what works for you and throw out the rest. What may help one woman will just make it worse for another (I had one woman swear up and down that onions were a cure of morning sickness -- can you say UGH!)
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Epinions.com ID:
lisakitty
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Member: Lisa Kitty
Reviews written: 18
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