Severe Morning Sickness and Preterm Birth

Posted on Feb 15, 2012 | Blog Posts, Morning Sickness News Category | | Print This Article

photo credit: j2dread

For the most part, morning sickness doesn’t pose a threat to your pregnancy. Most women experience some morning sickness, and it’s rarely a problem. However, there are some instances in which morning sickness can be pretty severe; when that happens, there can be trouble.

Link to preterm birth

According to some recent research, women who have severe morning sickness may also be at a higher risk of pregnancy complications later on in pregnancy – including preterm birth.

In one study, women who had severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy that caused interference with their day to day lives had a higher risk of preterm delivery. Specifically, they were 23% more likely to delivery their baby before the 34^th week of pregnancy.

Other pregnancy problems, too

In addition to the risk of preterm delivery, women who had this severe morning sickness were also:

• 31% more likely to experience preeclampsia or high blood pressure. These problems can cause a number of other health difficulties for both the pregnant woman and her baby.
• 50% more likely to have low weight gain during their pregnancy. This can lead to nutritional deficiencies for both mother and baby.

The importance of treatment

These statistics underscore a problem. About 6.5% of women in this particular study who had morning sickness indicated that it caused problems with their daily life. Of those women, two thirds required medical interventions such as anti-nausea medication and in some cases IV hydration.

The key is getting the right treatments. For many women, simple natural treatments such as ginger, peppermint, or even acupressure can do the trick. For other women, more extensive solutions might be necessary.

If you’re having trouble keeping any food down because of morning sickness, talk to your doctor. She’ll have some ideas about ways to get a handle on it, and reduce the risks that come from having severe morning sickness.

So, what do you think? What’s worked for you in treating morning sickness? How bad was your morning sickness? Did it affect your daily life, or was it more of a minor annoyance?

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