Why do you have morning sickness

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

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

Morning Sickness: Causes, Treatments, and Prevention

Medically reviewed by Valinda Riggins Nwadike, MD, MPH — By Euna Chi, MD on August 25, 2019

Overview

Morning sickness is a common symptom of pregnancy and is marked by nausea and occasional vomiting. Despite the name, morning sickness can cause discomfort at any time of the day.

Morning sickness usually happens within the first four months of pregnancy and is often the first sign that a woman is pregnant.

There are various ways to alleviate morning sickness, and complications are rare.

Causes of morning sickness

There’s no one cause of morning sickness during pregnancy, and severity varies among women. Increased hormone levels during the first few weeks of pregnancy is among the most common causes. Reduced blood sugar is another common cause of morning sickness.

Other factors can worsen morning sickness. These include:

having twins or triplets
excessive fatigue
emotional stress
frequent traveling

Morning sickness can vary between pregnancies. While you may have had severe morning sickness during one pregnancy, in future pregnancies it may be very mild.

Possible complications of morning sickness

Nausea and vomiting can easily cause a loss of appetite. Many pregnant women worry that this will harm their babies. Mild morning sickness is generally not harmful.

Women who experience morning sickness well beyond the first 3 to 4 months of their pregnancies should speak with their doctor. Also seek help if you aren’t gaining any weight during pregnancy.

Morning sickness is usually not severe enough to hinder fetal growth and development. For some pregnant women, nausea causes them to experience severe vomiting and weight loss.

This condition is called hyperemesis gravidarum. It causes electrolyte imbalances and unintentional weight loss. If left untreated, this condition may eventually harm your baby.

Call your doctor immediately if you experience:

inability to keep food down
weight loss of 2 pounds or more
fever
infrequent urination with small quantities of dark-colored urine
lightheadedness or dizziness
fast heartbeat
severe nausea within the second trimester
blood in your vomit
frequent headaches
abdominal pain
spotting, or bleeding

Severe bouts of morning sickness generally require hospitalization. Hyperemesis gravidarum often requires intravenous (IV) fluids for rehydration.

Treatment for morning sickness

Your doctor may prescribe supplements or medications to alleviate nausea and to help you retain foods and fluids. Medications your doctor may prescribe include:

antihistamines: to help with nausea and motion sickness
phenothiazine: to help calm severe nausea and vomiting
metoclopramide (Reglan): to help the stomach move food into the intestines and help with nausea and vomiting
antacids: to absorb stomach acid and help prevent acid reflux

Do not take these medications on your own without first talking with your doctor.

Some people find that alternative remedies may also help relieve morning sickness. Make sure you only try these after first discussing them with your doctor. These remedies include:

vitamin B-6 supplements
prenatal vitamins
ginger products, including ginger ale, ginger tea, and ginger drops
saltine crackers
acupuncture
hypnosis

Tests for morning sickness

Based on your symptoms, your doctor may order some tests to make sure that you and your baby are safe. These include:

Urine tests

Urine tests can determine whether you’re dehydrated.

Blood chemistry tests

Your doctor may order blood chemistry tests that include:

complete blood count (CBC)
comprehensive metabolic panel
comprehensive metabolic panel (Chem-20), to measure the electrolytes in your blood.

These tests will determine whether you’re:

dehydrated
malnourished, or deficient in certain vitamins
anemic

Ultrasound

Ultrasound uses sound waves to produce images of your baby. The doctor then uses these images and sounds to check that your baby is developing at a healthy rate.

Preventing morning sickness

Taking the following steps may help prevent or minimize nausea:

Drink plenty of water.
Drink water before and after meals.
Take naps.
Ventilate your home and workspace to eliminate scents that make you nauseous.
Avoid spicy foods.
Eat small meals.
Avoid fatty foods.
Take vitamins at night.
Avoid cigarette smoke.

If none of these preventative measures works, or if you experience morning sickness beyond the first 3 to 4 months of your pregnancy, it’s important that you speak with your doctor.

Also, be sure to talk to your doctor before starting any medications or alternative remedies to discuss these options.

Last medically reviewed on August 26, 2019

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Metoclopramide [Fact sheet]. (2018).
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Medically reviewed by Valinda Riggins Nwadike, MD, MPH — By Euna Chi, MD on August 25, 2019

Why nausea in the morning on an empty stomach - causes and how to treat at home

Most often, pregnant women face nausea in the morning on an empty stomach, due to intoxication, but it is not uncommon for this problem to occur in males or even children

Do not worry too much if you have encountered such a problem once, it is likely that this is a banal poisoning. But, if nausea in the morning on an empty stomach does not go away, you should immediately consult a doctor. Some people are used to dealing with this problem with folk remedies and medicines and they really get better, but it is worth considering that most likely the disease or pathology itself continues to develop. And as a result, it will turn into a more serious form. That is why it is so important to consult a doctor who will find out the cause of morning sickness and prescribe the most effective treatment.

Possible diseases

Most often, morning sickness on an empty stomach may indicate the presence of the following diseases: unpleasant symptoms. This is due to inflammatory processes in the duodenum 12. The patient can also be tormented by: burning, bloating during and after eating, heartburn.

Inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis) - also characterized by nausea in the morning, as well as after eating fatty or fried foods. This disease is easily confused with gastritis due to the similarity of symptoms, but with pancreatitis, the patient begins to have problems with stools and an unpleasant, bitter taste in the mouth.

Appendicitis - nausea is likely to fade into the background, after unbearable pain in the right side begins to appear.

Inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis) - this disease can also be accompanied by morning nausea. Accompanying symptoms are pain in the right hypochondrium and excessive gas formation.

Other causes of nausea in the morning

After excluding the above diseases from the list of causes, the following causes can be considered:

Pregnancy. Intoxication and nausea in the morning is often found in pregnant women, especially in the early stages. This is a normal reaction of the body to significant changes and hormonal changes. It is very important to completely exclude drugs for the treatment of the digestive tract during pregnancy. These funds can have an extremely negative impact on the health of the patient, the unborn child and the course of pregnancy. Therefore, you will have to endure this ailment and get by with folk remedies, but be sure to consult your doctor.
Migraine. Morning sickness on an empty stomach may precede a severe headache. You will most likely still feel a lot of noise and increased sensitivity to smells.
High blood pressure (hypertension). The problem of morning sickness can be accompanied by headache and dizziness. If you do not pay attention to these symptoms in a timely manner, you risk starting this disease, which in turn can lead to a stroke.
Cardiovascular disease - rarely, nausea on an empty stomach occurs with heart failure or developing myocardial infarction. If nausea is accompanied by pain, a feeling of heaviness and tightness behind the sternum, numbness or tingling in one half of the body, it is necessary to seek medical help as soon as possible, as this may be an incipient myocardial infarction.
Increased intracranial pressure - Nausea and regurgitation in infants can occur when pressure increases inside the ventricles of the brain.

What to do if you feel sick in the morning

It is important to understand that regular morning sickness is a signal of the presence of a pathology or disease and it is highly undesirable to self-medicate. Be sure to consult a doctor for an examination, but if you don’t have such an opportunity at the moment, there are several effective ways that will help reduce or temporarily get rid of this problem:

Medicines. You need to be very careful and you must be sure that morning sickness is not the cause of pregnancy or an intestinal disease.
Ginger root, mint and lemon drinks. You can make infusions of these products for maximum effect, simply by adding them to a glass and boiling water, after 15 minutes you will have a very effective and safe (in the absence of allergies) remedy for morning sickness. YOU can also just add them to hot tea.
Medicinal collection - if nausea relentlessly torments you in the morning, you can try a collection of mint, oak bark and celandine. To prepare the drink, take 1 tsp of mint leaves, dried oak bark and chopped celandine, pour 0.5 l of boiling water and boil in a water bath for 10 minutes. After the broth is cooled and filtered, take 1 tablespoon 3-5 times a day before meals.
During pregnancy. There are some little tricks you can use. For example, do not get out of bed quickly, drink plenty of fluids. Eliminate fatty and heavy foods from your diet. Eat small meals several times a day.

Nausea in the morning: causes, types

Nausea in the morning can be observed with toxicosis of pregnant women, pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract, neurological disorders. To understand why you feel sick in the morning on an empty stomach, you need to undergo a series of examinations to identify and eliminate the cause.

Why do you feel sick in the morning

If you feel sick on an empty stomach, this may indicate the presence of certain problems, which include taking vitamins on an empty stomach. Most often, this condition is characteristic of ascorbic acid, B vitamins, and iron.

Morning sickness may indicate early toxicosis in pregnant women. Unpleasant sensations begin from the 6th week of pregnancy. Vomiting in the morning depends on the severity of toxicosis.

Often, nausea can be associated with dyspepsia, organic diseases of the stomach.

Severe nausea may accompany the following diseases:

erosive, chronic gastritis;
peptic ulcer;
irritable stomach syndrome;
biliary reflux gastritis.

If there is nausea in the morning, you should think about the presence of parasites in the body in the form of Giardia, worms, Toxoplasma.

Nausea in the morning can be due to erosion of the esophagus. The reason is the entry of aggressive stomach contents into the lower esophagus. The feeling of nausea may be accompanied by sour belching, heartburn.

Nausea on an empty stomach can be the cause of endogenous intoxications. These include fatty degeneration, hepatitis, chronic renal failure, uremia, cancer intoxication.

If you feel sick in the morning, you are tired of this condition, but do not know which doctor to contact, sign up for an online consultation. Our doctors will remotely study the history, ask the necessary questions, offer a solution to the problem, select clinics for examination, and give all recommendations.

What is nausea

Depending on the etiological factors, nausea can be metabolic, cerebral, vestibular, reflex, toxic.

Name	Description
toxic	Develops after ingestion of toxic substances, poisons
reflex	Occurs with irritation of the vagus nerve receptors, inflammatory processes in the stomach
Brain	Appears in pathologies of the cardiovascular system, high blood pressure, high blood pressure, brain oncology
vestibular	The causes of this nausea are neuroses. Most common during menopause, pregnancy
metabolic	The cause is diet, diabetes, metabolic disorders

Nausea & Co.

Quite rarely, the feeling of nausea dominates the symptoms. If there are health problems, nausea will be accompanied by a number of symptoms. Nausea may be accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, weakness, hypersalivation, coldness in the extremities, hyperhidrosis, sudden darkening of the eyes, tachycardia, dizziness, fever, chills, changes in blood pressure, weight loss.

Dizziness and nausea

If you constantly feel sick in the morning and feel dizzy, this indicates the presence of a number of diseases. Doctors include pathologies of the organs of vision, migraines, osteochondrosis, previous traumatic brain injury, strokes, vestibular neuritis, neoplasms, anemia, low hemoglobin, hypotension, hypertension, and old age.

Based on the symptoms, doctors can make a preliminary diagnosis. Accurate set with a comprehensive full examination.

Weakness and nausea

If the feeling of nausea is accompanied by weakness, fatigue, deterioration of the general condition of the body, then doctors can diagnose brain oncology, high blood pressure, stroke, inflammatory processes in the pancreas, neurological diseases, acute intoxication, hepatitis.

If the patient is worried about mild nausea in the morning, this may indicate hypertension, pregnancy.

Important! Pregnancy and advanced age may be the causes of this condition. If the symptoms are not stopped by drugs, persist for a long time - this is a reason to seek advice from specialists.

Nausea after eating

If you feel sick in the morning after breakfast, this indicates a number of pathologies in the form of a stomach ulcer, an inflammatory process in the gastric mucosa, gallbladder, heart disease, appendicitis, kidney failure, stress, eating in large quantities, helminthic invasion. Often, nausea after breakfast will appear after eating stale foods. But most often this condition is due to pathologies of the digestive system. Therefore, the urge to vomit, bloating, flatulence, constipation, pain, heartburn can join the feeling of nausea.

Temperature and nausea

If a high temperature joins the feeling of nausea, this indicates the presence of serious diseases. It can be gastritis, rotavirus, rubella, meningitis, measles, salmonellosis, intestinal dyskinesia, intestinal infections, bronchitis.

The combination of nausea, fever and diarrhea indicates a viral, bacterial infection, inflammation of the pancreas.

Diarrhea, nausea, fever should not be ignored, as this leads to rapid dehydration of the body. Do not waste time, sign up for an online consultation. Our doctors will remotely give all the recommendations, draw up an action plan, help you quickly solve the problem, and tell you what tests you need to pass. Having a clear plan of action, you can quickly stop the disease, not bring it to complications.

What examinations are needed

The survey must be comprehensive. The most informative are the following types of surveys:

EGDS - visualization of the mucous membrane of the stomach, esophagus, duodenum. Detect inflammation, oncology, scarring. During endoscopy, biomaterial is taken for further research.
Ultrasound of the abdominal cavity allows you to quickly assess the state of the digestive tract, identify non-specific signs of inflammation, morphological changes in the gastrointestinal tract.
Coprogram for worm eggs, occult blood, bacteriological examination of feces.
Intraventricular pH-metry.
Laboratory research.

Women of reproductive age are advised to consult a gynecologist. Consultation with a neurologist is necessary in the presence of nausea and intense headaches, dizziness. In some cases, opinions from other doctors may be required.

How to treat nausea

You need to understand that this state does not just appear. So, it is necessary to identify the cause and eliminate it. Symptomatic therapy is aimed at relieving symptoms, but not at eliminating the etiological factor. It is not always possible to cope with nausea on your own. If a gag reflex appears in the morning, it is forbidden to take antiemetics on your own without consulting a doctor.

Nausea on an empty stomach is most often associated with a number of diseases. That is why it is necessary to carry out pathogenetic, symptomatic, etiotropic therapy.

Important! All medicines, folk remedies should be prescribed only by a doctor after examination, examination and diagnosis. It is not advisable to stop the symptoms on your own, as this will complicate the diagnosis and cause a number of complications.

FAQ

What to do if you feel sick from eating in the morning?

If you are sick of the sight of food, you can not have breakfast in the morning, then there are two scenarios. Perhaps the body has not yet woken up and is not ready to eat. In this case, the first urge may be an hour after waking up. The second option is the presence of a disease. In this case, you need to find out whether there are other symptoms besides nausea.

What to do if you vomit after sleep?

The most reasonable thing in this case is to call a doctor. If in women such a picture is observed every morning, during the day for smells, one can judge pregnancy. If this occurs in men and women, we identify the pathology. We do not take drugs on our own.

Is nausea in girls always associated with pregnancy?

No not always. However, it is necessary to exclude this circumstance or confirm it. In some cases, this condition is due to diseases, inflammatory processes in the digestive system, changes in pressure, etc.

Why do you feel sick when you eat?

Here you need to look at the presence of pathologies in the anamnesis, the quality of the food eaten.