How Morning Sickness Protects You and Your Baby
Posted on Jan 17, 2013 | About Morning Sickness Category | | Print This Article
Morning sickness is far from pleasant. For some women, it can interfere with your daily routines and make it hard to keep anything down. According to researchers, however, there may be some evidence to suggest that morning sickness protects you and your baby from certain harmful toxins. A recent study at Cornell University provides the conclusion that morning sickness is one way of defending your body and your baby. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the research:
- The research looked at literally hundreds of scientific studies involving tens of thousands of pregnant women.
- Morning sickness is, in part, a form of food aversion. In this way, morning sickness keeps women from eating certain foods that contain toxins, microorganisms, and chemicals that might be harmful to your baby.
- During the first trimester – when morning sickness is most common – your baby’s organs are undergoing critical development. Chemicals commonly found in foods (even natural foods) can sometimes cause those organs to be deformed by interrupting the development process.
- The chemicals that can harm your baby are known as teratogenic phytochemicals. These chemicals are part of a plant’s normal defense mechanism, but they serve no nutritional purpose in the human body.
- People tolerate phytochemicals in their foods fairly well. During pregnancy, however, morning sickness may be shielding these potentially-harmful chemicals from your baby.
- Symptoms of morning sickness tend to peak at the point at which organ development is in its most critical stage – between the sixth and 18th weeks of pregnancy.
- Women with morning sickness experience fewer miscarriages that women without morning sickness. Women who actually vomit during pregnancy are less likely to have a miscarriage than women who only experience the nausea side of morning sickness.
- The most common food avoidance due to morning sickness is for meat, fish, eggs, and poultry. These foods were the most likely to carry bacteria or parasites that can harm you or your baby, prior to our modern refrigeration practices.
The next time you’re feeling nauseous or vomiting due to your pregnancy, keep in mind that morning sickness may actually be helping you have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby.
Top of Page
