Morning Sickness: Reasons and Advice



The existence of morning sickness
early in pregnancy seems extremely unfair! We all know that the first few months
of fetal development are critical for the baby's health. Why then are so many
women so sick early in pregnancy, and what can be done to help them? Finally,
is it possible that morning sickness is actually a good thing to have?

It Should Be Called "All-Day" Sickness

For many pregnant women, morning sickness should be called all-day sickness.
The preferred term is pregnancy sickness. It is awful! It can range in
severity from none (20 percent of all pregnant women don't get it) to persistent
vomiting so severe that hospitalization and treatment with intravenous fluids
are needed to save the patient's life. Usually, it is a constant feeling of
nausea, like you are about to throw up, along with an incredible sensitivity
to all odors, such that even a whiff of something you thought that you loved
can set off another bout of nausea and/or vomiting.

Why Does Morning Sickness Exist at All? -- Traditional Explanation

Doctors used to be taught that morning sickness was psychological, a sign that
the patient is ambivalent about being pregnant. This theory is a bunch of baloney,
and I refuse to discuss it further.

Many articles link morning sickness to the pregnancy hormone hCg. Morning
sickness tends to be worse with multiple gestation (a high hormone state) and
it tends to be minimal in pregnancies that end in miscarriage (a low hormone
state). I tell patients that it may not make any sense, but the sicker they
are, the "better" the pregnancy. This theory doesn't explain everything
however, and this does not mean that a woman with no morning sickness will not
have a good pregnancy. The key question to me is "Why do normal, healthy
pregnant women get so sick?"

An Evolutionary Explanation

The best theory I have seen to explain morning sickness comes from Margie Profet,
an evolutionary biologist (and a recipient of a 1993 MacArthur "genius"
prize). In her book, Protecting Your Baby-to-Be (Addison-Wesley, 1995)
she states that morning sickness is the result of thousands of generations of
evolution, and that it's purpose is to improve the survival of the human species!

Morning sickness is Mother Nature's instinctive toxin avoidance mechanism.
It is our biological radar, warning us when something potentially hazardous
is coming our way. For thousands of years, humans were hunter-gatherers, eating
whatever and whenever they could. Many plants produce toxins designed to enhance

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