Morning sickness stopped at 8 weeks

Severe Morning Sickness (Hyperemesis Gravidarum) (for Parents)

What's Morning Sickness?

During the first trimester of pregnancy, many women have the bouts of nausea and vomiting known as morning sickness.

Despite its name, morning sickness can happen day or night. It usually starts around the 6th week of pregnancy, is at its worst around week 9, and stops by weeks 16 to 18. Although unpleasant, morning sickness is considered a normal part of a healthy pregnancy.

What’s Severe Morning Sickness?

Severe morning sickness is when nausea and vomiting get so serious that a pregnant woman vomits several times a day, loses weight, and gets dehydrated or is at risk for dehydration.

If this rare pregnancy-related condition isn’t treated, it can affect a woman's health and her baby's ability to thrive.

The medical term for severe morning sickness is "hyperemesis gravidarum" (hi-per-EM-eh-sis grav-ih-DARE-um), which means "excessive vomiting during pregnancy. " It usually follows a similar timeline to normal morning sickness. But it can go longer, sometimes lasting for the whole pregnancy. Often, the symptoms get less severe as the pregnancy continues.

Most cases of hyperemesis gravidarum affect a woman's first pregnancy. But women who have it in one pregnancy are more likely to have it in future pregnancies.

What Causes Severe Morning Sickness?

The cause of severe morning sickness isn’t known. But it might be related to the hormone changes of pregnancy. A hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, might be to blame because severe morning sickness most often happens when HCG levels are at their highest in a pregnant woman's body.

Severe morning sickness also might run in families. It’s more common in women whose close family members (such as mothers and sisters) have had it.

Other things that can increase a woman's chances of having severe morning sickness include:

• carrying multiples (twins, triplets, etc. )
• history of motion sickness
• migraine headaches with nausea or vomiting

What Problems Can Happen?

The nausea and vomiting that happen in severe morning sickness are so extreme that they can harm the mother and the baby. Not being able to keep down food makes it hard for the mom to meet her nutritional needs. So she might lose weight. And a loss of fluids, combined with the loss of stomach acid from vomiting, can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.

If severe morning sickness isn’t treated, it can cause many problems, including organ failure and the early birth of her baby.

When Should I Call the Doctor?

Call the doctor right away if you’re pregnant and have any of these symptoms:

• nausea that lasts throughout the day, making it impossible to eat or drink
• vomiting three to four times per day or not being to keep anything in the stomach
• brownish vomit or vomit with blood or streaks of blood in it
• weight loss
• fainting or dizziness
• peeing less than usual
• a fast heart rate
• a lot of headaches
• unpleasant, fruity mouth or body odor
• extreme tiredness
• confusion

How Is Severe Morning Sickness Treated?

Treatments used for morning sickness, such as eating dry crackers in the morning or a bland diet, may be recommended for women with extreme morning sickness. But these might not help with severe symptoms.

Medical treatment can include:

• a short period of not eating to rest the gastrointestinal system
• intravenous (IV) fluids
• vitamin and nutritional supplements

Some women might get medicine to stop the vomiting, either by mouth or through an IV. The doctor might recommend eating foods with ginger or taking vitamin B6 supplements to help ease nausea. It can also help to:

• Eat a bland diet.
• Eat frequent small meals.
• Drink plenty of liquids when not feeling nauseated.
• Avoid spicy and fatty foods.
• Eat high-protein snacks.
• Avoid sensory stimuli that can act as triggers (like specific smells or noises).

If a woman feels anxious or depressed about her condition, talking to a therapist or counselor might help her cope with her feelings.

What Else Should I Know?

With treatment, women with severe morning sickness can feel better and get the nourishment they need so they and their babies thrive. And lifestyle changes can help ease nausea and vomiting and make the pregnancy more enjoyable.

With time, symptoms usually do improve. And, of course, they stop by the time a woman's next journey starts: parenthood.

Vomiting and morning sickness - NHS

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, often known as morning sickness, is very common in early pregnancy.

It can affect you at any time of the day or night or you may feel sick all day long.

Morning sickness is unpleasant, and can significantly affect your day-to-day life. But it usually clears up by weeks 16 to 20 of your pregnancy and does not put your baby at any increased risk.

There is a chance of developing a severe form of pregnancy sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum. This can be serious, and there's a chance you may not get enough fluids in your body (dehydration) or not get enough nutrients from your diet (malnourishment). You may need specialist treatment, sometimes in hospital.

Sometimes urinary tract infections (UTIs) can also cause nausea and vomiting. A UTI usually affects the bladder, but can spread to the kidneys.

Non-urgent advice: Call your midwife, GP or 111 if:

you're vomiting and:

• have very dark-coloured urine or have not had a pee in more than 8 hours
• are unable to keep food or fluids down for 24 hours
• feel severely weak, dizzy or faint when standing up
• have tummy (abdominal) pain
• have a high temperature
• vomit blood
• have lost weight

Treatments for morning sickness

Unfortunately, there's no hard and fast treatment that will work for everyone’s morning sickness. Every pregnancy will be different.

But there are some changes you can make to your diet and daily life to try to ease the symptoms.

If these do not work for you or you're having more severe symptoms, your doctor or midwife might recommend medicine.

Things you can try yourself

If your morning sickness is not too bad, your GP or midwife will initially recommend you try some lifestyle changes:

• get plenty of rest (tiredness can make nausea worse)
• avoid foods or smells that make you feel sick
• eat something like dry toast or a plain biscuit before you get out of bed
• eat small, frequent meals of plain foods that are high in carbohydrate and low in fat (such as bread, rice, crackers and pasta)
• eat cold foods rather than hot ones if the smell of hot meals makes you feel sick
• drink plenty of fluids, such as water (sipping them little and often may help prevent vomiting)
• eat foods or drinks containing ginger – there's some evidence ginger may help reduce nausea and vomiting (check with your pharmacist before taking ginger supplements during pregnancy)
• try acupressure – there's some evidence that putting pressure on your wrist, using a special band or bracelet on your forearm, may help relieve the symptoms

Find out more about vitamins and supplements in pregnancy

Anti-sickness medicine

If your nausea and vomiting is severe and does not improve after trying the above lifestyle changes, your GP may recommend a short-term course of an anti-sickness medicine, called an antiemetic, that's safe to use in pregnancy.

Often this will be a type of antihistamine, which are usually used to treat allergies but also work as medicines to stop sickness (antiemetic).

Antiemetics will usually be given as tablets for you to swallow.

But if you cannot keep these down, your doctor may suggest an injection or a type of medicine that's inserted into your bottom (suppository).

See your GP if you'd like to talk about getting anti-sickness medication.

Risk factors for morning sickness

It's thought hormonal changes in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy are probably one of the causes of morning sickness.

But you may be more at risk of it if:

• you're having twins or more
• you had severe sickness and vomiting in a previous pregnancy
• you tend to get motion sickness (for example, car sick)
• you have a history of migraine headaches
• morning sickness runs in the family
• you used to feel sick when taking contraceptives containing oestrogen
• it's your first pregnancy
• you're obese (your BMI is 30 or more)
• you're experiencing stress

Visit the pregnancy sickness support site for tips for you and your partner on dealing with morning sickness.

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Video: how can I cope with morning sickness?

In this video, a midwife gives advice on how to deal with morning sickness during your pregnancy.

Media last reviewed: 27 February 2017
Media review due: 27 March 2020

Page last reviewed: 13 April 2021
Next review due: 13 April 2024

We fight against toxicosis - articles from the specialists of the clinic "Mother and Child"

Alexandrova Anna Evgenievna

Embryologist

Clinic "Mother and Child" South-West

rest more

Very often in the first trimester, the expectant mother feels weakness, drowsiness, she wants to lie down to rest, and sometimes she simply does not even have the strength to move. This, of course, is not toxicosis, but if such sensations arise, then they must be indulged so as not to inadvertently provoke another attack of nausea. Get plenty of rest and do not make any sudden movements, because even if it’s just unsuccessful to get up from a chair, you can provoke an attack of nausea. nine0003

Sleep with the windows open: the air in the bedroom should be fresh and cool. Go to bed on time, do not sit at midnight in front of the TV or at the computer, eliminate all irritating factors: an uncomfortable mattress, blanket, pillow, hard bedding - lack of sleep can respond with morning sickness.

eat right

Eat small meals, 5-6 times a day, or even more often. When you wake up, don't get out of bed right away. One of the most effective methods against toxicosis is breakfast in bed. In the evening, put crackers, yogurt, or any product that you can tolerate well next to your bed. Eat it before you get up, and then lie down for a while. Most likely, morning sickness will either not appear at all, or will be very weak. nine0003

Usually, in case of toxicosis, it is not recommended to eat fatty, smoked, salty, pickled, drink soda (the usual set of food hazards). But it is likely that some not very healthy product will now be well tolerated, and something from healthy food, on the contrary, will cause nausea. "Pregnant whims" - a cake with herring or pineapples at night - these are the requests of the body that it needs one or another component in food. For example, the desire to chew chalk is a sign of calcium deficiency. So eat what you like and what you want, within reason, of course. And if you don’t feel like something, even if this product is extremely useful and necessary, don’t eat it. If you feel sick from some dish, it means that the body signals you: I don’t need this now! nine0003

drink more often

Toxicosis may not be limited to nausea, some may also vomit. This means fluid is lost. Therefore, between meals, drink more often: a sip or two of mineral water or tea with lemon will help to cope with nausea and replenish lost fluids. But drink in small sips. Also, you should not drink food and you should give up soups for a while - a large amount of food drunk and eaten, on the contrary, only provokes nausea and vomiting.

breathe fresh air

Outdoor walks are good for everyone, but especially for toxicosis. Firstly, when walking, the blood of the expectant mother and baby is saturated with oxygen, which is very important for health, and secondly, walking calms the nervous system. Together, this helps to reduce the unpleasant symptoms of toxicosis. You need to walk at least two hours a day - but not just along the street, but in the place where the air is really fresh: in the forest, park, square, and best of all outside the city. Before you go out, think over the route: go away from gas-polluted highways, street cafes, food stalls and other "fragrant" places. nine0003

eliminate fragrances

Taste and smell preferences change during the first trimester. Now even your favorite perfumes can cause nausea, headaches and allergic reactions. Therefore, put away all fragrant cosmetics that irritate you: perfumes, deodorants, creams, and so on. You will have to stop using your favorite perfume for both your husband and loved ones. Explain to others that this is not a whim, but a temporary measure, very soon everything will return to normal. nine0003

And do not worry that now you will be left without your usual beauty products. Both the cosmetic store and the pharmacy are full of different creams, tonics, shampoos without fragrance or with a minimal smell.

work with yourself

Psychologists believe that the cause of toxicosis is not only in hormonal changes, but also in the psychological state of a woman. The more a woman experiences, the more anxieties and fears she has, the more pronounced toxicosis can be. Ideally, it is better to limit yourself during pregnancy from any stress. Of course, it’s not always possible to eliminate nervous work or crowding in public transport, but watch less TV, don’t read negative news and various pregnant “horror stories” on the Internet, and don’t react to minor or even major everyday troubles everyone can do. Therefore, if you are worried about toxicosis, create your own comfortable world during pregnancy. If you can’t cope on your own, contact a specialist (psychologist). Toxicosis is really well treated with psychotherapy. The main thing is that the expectant mother should want to get rid of her own anxiety. nine0003

No matter how unpleasant toxicosis is, it does not last forever. It is necessary to suffer until the beginning or (less often) the middle of the II trimester. And very soon all the unpleasant symptoms of toxicosis will remain in the past!

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Termination nausea

April 22, 2015

Photo credit, PA

Morning sickness in pregnant women can vary in intensity; in the worst cases, women must remain in bed

An estimated 10,000 pregnant women suffer from acute nausea and vomiting each year, a condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum, which is much more severe than the usual morning sickness that occurs every third expectant mother. nine0010