Morning Sickness: What Causes It?

Morning sickness…. Help!

If only morning sickness was just relegated to the mornings. Here’s some help for women coping with nausea during pregnancy, especially during the early months. Morning sickness describes the nausea and vomiting that happens to an estimated 3 and four pregnant women during their first trimester. The morning part of the pregnancy symptom, however, is quite a misnomer. It actually hits at anytime of the day or night.

So why does it happen? Morning sickness typically starts at around week six of pregnancy. It’s one of the first telltale signs you’re expecting. It’s only a week after your human chorionic gonadotropin, also known as HCG levels, have risen enough to produce a positive pregnancy test. Pregnant women begin producing the HCG hormone shortly after a fertilized egg attaches to the uterine lining.

Research suggests that nausea and vomiting during pregnancy might be due to the effects of this hcg hormone produced by the placenta. Some women find that the nausea kicks in a little later, between 7 to 9 weeks. But luckily, this not so fun symptom usually disappears around the beginning of your second trimester.

So what can you do? For the vast majority of expecting moms, nausea and vomiting typically subside between weeks 12 and 16 of pregnancy, with symptoms at their worst between weeks 10 to 16. That said, a few women continue to experience symptoms into the second trimester, and a very few, particularly those expecting multiple babies, may suffer from some pregnancy nausea and vomiting throughout their pregnancy.

Every woman is different. Some may be more sensitive than others to the HCG hormones rising. I personally had a difficult time with my first pregnancy. I was nauseous and vomiting multiple times per day until week 20. My esophagus was raw and bleeding from the stomach acid from the vomiting. This vomiting also created stress urinary incontinence for me – which was quite embarrassing.

On the other end of the spectrum, my second pregnancy was completely different. No nausea and vomiting and unfortunately measurably lower HCG levels, which was not good. I ended up miscarrying at 12/13 weeks. You can check out my other article on tips for morning sickness. There’s a lot of things that can help.