What You Should Know: Morning Sickness Tips and Tricks

This article is part of my pregnancy series. For more information on pregnancy, labor and delivery, and homebirth, please see my other articles.

Queasy in the morning, queasy in the evening, queasy at suppertime...

Does that sound like your tune? I'm here to help with some of my morning sickness remedies. I've been through 9 pregnancies and now cope with morning sickness much better.

Without further ado, here they are:

- Eat smaller meals more frequently. This helps keep your blood sugar levels more consistent, as well as keeping stomach acids busy. This will reduce nausea.

- Eat something right before bed, preferably something with protein. It will take longer to digest.

- If you wake during the night to use the restroom, keep some crackers or something beside the bed. Graham crackers work great for keeping your sugar levels up.

- Avoid foods and smells that trigger nausea.

- Try eating foods you're craving (all things in moderation, of course)

- Try eating some crackers near the bed to nibble on before you get up.

- Lots of women swear by Sea-Bands, which you wear around your wrists. They're supposed to help curb nausea like they do motion sickness.

- Suck on peppermint lozenges. There's just something about the taste of peppermint that can really help to keep nausea at bay.

- Stay away from foods that are spicy, fatty, or acidic. They can trigger morning sickness. So can foods with a strong smell.

- Try foods with ginger, or ginger tea. Ginger curbs nausea.

- Drink is more important than food. If you absolutely can't eat, try drinking juice, smoothies, or whatever else you may find palatable that's healthy.

- Acupuncture has been known to reduce nausea in some women.

- Get your rest. When you're tired, you tend to feel more nauseous.

Now that you're hopefully feeling a little better, perhaps you'd like to know what causes morning sickness.

Fluctuating (and new levels of) hormones can do a number on the body and take a while to get used to. At this state, too, your baby gets its nourishment from you without a well formed placenta as a barrier, so many things might trigger a negative response.

Morning sickness can hit at any time of day, or all day. It isn't restricted to the first trimester in some women, and they have to deal with it all the way through their pregnancies. I'm one of *those* lucky types.

Having morning sickness in one pregnancy, even really bad morning sickness, doesn't guarantee that you'll spend every pregnancy with a bowl under one arm. Some women report that their nausea wasn't as bad in subsequent pregnancies, and every pregnancy is different.

For more information on pregnancy, childbirth, and child development see my other_articles_on_pregnancy, as well as my_series_on_homebirth and my (for now) pending articles on labor and delivery, as well as the risks and reasons for labor induction.