Poor you – rest assured lots of women have pregnancy sickness and there are things you can do to help. Nausea is thought to be caused by the changing pregnancy hormone levels. You can experience it at any time of day or night - not just in the mornings - and it is often triggered off by certain foods, like coffee and fried or spicy foods, or smells, such as perfume, cigarette smoke or petrol. It can also be caused by hunger.
The advice below may help, but remember if you are losing weight or becoming dehydrated talk to your midwife as soon as possible.
Try eating small, frequent meals, once every two hours or so throughout the day, based on starchy carbohydrates, dry foods are often tolerated best. You could try:
Having something to eat like plain or ginger biscuits about 20 minutes before getting out of bed in the morning may help, you could try keeping a packet by your bed. Some women find that eating cold meals rather than hot meals helps, as it may prevent any smell-related nausea, as cold food does not seem to give off as much smell as hot food.
Glucose tablets may help prevent blood sugar levels from dropping. This can be helpful as low blood sugar levels may cause feelings of nausea.
You may also find helful:
Have lots to drink to avoid dehydration, but drink little and often rather than large amounts all at once. This may help to prevent vomiting. You may find it reassuring to know that, for most women, the last two thirds of pregnancy are relatively nausea-free.
Very rarely, however, some women experience excessive or uncontrolled vomiting during pregnancy which can make them dehydrated. If you think this is happening to you, seek advice from your midwife or doctor.