Morning Sickness and Miscarriage

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 | Blog Posts, Morning Sickness News Category | | Print This Article
 

Pollution
Creative Commons License photo credit: kevindooley

There is a lot of misinformation floating out there on the Internet. The fact is you can’t always trust what you read, especially about a topic like miscarriage. Some people have even tried to suggest that a lack of morning sickness means you’re at a higher risk of having a miscarriage. This isn’t necessarily the case. To know why, you need to understand a little bit about miscarriage.

First off, realize that it’s rarely possible to know what caused an individual miscarriage. Most miscarriages are the result of chromosomal abnormalities that make the pregnancy not viable. It’s usually not something you’ve done (or not done).

Also, understand that we do know some things that can contribute to miscarriage. Tobacco use, drug use, alcohol abuse, and more can all raise your risk of miscarriage.

But having morning sickness – or not having morning sickness – doesn’t mean you’re going to miscarry.

To be sure, there have been some studies that suggest that women who do have a miscarriage may be less likely than other women to experience pregnancy-related nausea. But the logic doesn’t work the other direction; if you don’t have nausea, it doesn’t mean you’re going to miscarry.

If your baby isn’t developing correctly, it’s going to cause you to have lower levels of the various hormones at work in pregnancy. It’s believed that those hormones are, at least in part, responsible for morning sickness. Therefore, if your baby isn’t developing correctly, you’re less likely to have morning sickness.

All of that being the case, most women have morning sickness. About two thirds of women, to be exact. But that other one third of pregnant women don’t miscarry. Most of them go on to have normal pregnancies, and just happen to be lucky enough to escape the morning sickness trouble that others wind up having.

Don’t let your morning sickness or lack thereof stress you out. Not having morning sickness is usually just as normal as having it, and it’s not related directly to your risk of miscarriage.

So, what do you think? Have you had a miscarriage, and if so did you have morning sickness?




   Top of Page