Morning Sickness Causes

Posted on Jul 12, 2011 | Articles Category | | Print This Article

Unfortunately, no one is exactly sure what causes morning sickness but it would seem that the cause is a combination of issues related to the chemical changes your body is going through. Those changes include rapidly increasing estrogen and progesterone levels, an enhanced sense of smell and excess stomach acids. It has also been suggested that stress and fatigue that commonly accompany pregnancy also play a role.

One of the theories is that morning sickness is caused by the dominant hormone during pregnancy, progesterone. Progesterone has a “softening” effect on the muscles in the body. It is thought it helps prevent preterm labor by effecting the uterine muscles. It also effects other muscles, such as the stomach and intestines. The progesterone relaxes the workings of the whole digestive track which makes the elimination of bodily wastes slower which can lead to a slow emptying of the stomach which leads to excess stomach acids.

Another theory, and more widely accepted, is that morning sickness is caused by the buildup of hCG (human chorionic gonadotopin) in your system. hCG is produced after implantation takes place and continues to increase until about the 12th week of your pregnancy, at which point the levels of hCG starts to decrease. If you are lucky, this is when your morning sickness symptoms will start to decrease as well.

Morning sickness isn’t all bad though. Recent studies have suggested that mothers who have morning sickness have fewer miscarriages so there IS a bright spot in the midst of your morning, or in some cases, all day miseries.