Morning Sickness

If you conduct a survey among pregnant women about the nastiest symptom of pregnancy, this would probably be in the top 3. I would even bet that morning sickness would come out the winning answer.

From my own experience, I was having nausea a lot, but fortunately, not a whole lot of actual vomiting. I remember eating a lot of tocino back then. Specifically, tocino that was cooked in a way that the covering became sort of caramelized, almost burnt. Tocino that wasn't cooked like that made me nauseous (Yeah, weird.)

Another weird thing is that morning sickness doesn't only occur in the mornings. It can be present at any time of the day, whether you've just waken up or preparing to go to sleep. But many women report that their symptoms are a lot worse during the day.


A lot of pregnant women experience morning sickness within their first trimester (eg. first 3 months or so.) It's because during this stage, a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG for short, rises up the roof. The function of this hormone is to maintain the corpus luteum, a structure in the ovary which normally shrinks away if pregnancy does not occur. This corpus luteum secretes the hormone progesterone, which is responsible for maintaining the pregnancy. Progesterone relaxes the uterus, thus preventing the expulsion of the fetus, which may be considered by the body as a "foreign object." In summary, hCG helps the corpus luteum maintain the pregnancy during the first few weeks, until the placenta is fully developed and ready to take on the role of producing and secreting progesterone.

HCG levels will reach its peak in about 10-12 weeks. From then on, it will slow down its production until it stays at a fairly constant level until the end of the pregnancy. This is the reason why morning sickness, or in medical terminology, hyperemesis gravidarum, is common only in the first trimester of pregnancy. But there are quite a few women who experience morning sickness well into the second semester, and even throughout the whole pregnancy.

Although there's no way we can control our hCG levels, there are some measures we could take to control our morning sickness:

• Try to eat smaller, more frequent meals, instead of three large meals. This would help by not filling up our stomachs too much, thus reducing the feeling of wanting to vomit.
• Eat dry crackers - this helps relieve the nausea.
• Avoid eating or getting near strong-odored foods.
• Avoid lying down right after eating - lying down slows down the emptying of your stomach contents.

Morning sickness is not only a pain in the butt because you have to be choosy about foods, it can put you at risk for dehydration as well if you're vomiting too much. It can also leave you feeling sapped of energy because you might not be taking in the right amount of nutrients. So one more thing you could also do is to keep yourself well-hydrated.

You can also bring up this issue with your obstetrician if you're concerned that it's really affecting your nutritional intake. Some women report that their prenatal vitamins are making them more nauseous, and if this is the case for you, your obstetrician might recommend some other brands that may work for you.