There’s a Reason for Morning Sickness…We Think
Moms with morning sickness, you have my sincere sympathy. I spent the first three months of my pregnancy talking on the great white telephone. And “morning” sickness? How about “all flipping day” sickness? I threw up water. I threw up saltine crackers. I still feel sick to this day if i see a saltine. I lost 20lbs and got that gaunt, modely look. A little consolation was that it was the most I’ll ever look like Kate Moss, although without the lifestyle.
The worst thing for me was that morning sickness seems so stupid. It’s so counter-intuitive, not being able to eat when you’d have thought mother nature would want you nourishing the baby and feeding yourself up for the pregnancy.
The medical community currently favors a theory that morning sickness protects the embryo from harmful parasites, bacteria or toxins which may be present in foods the mother eats.
The embryo is most sensitive to harmful substances in the early weeks, when the head, brain, organs, and body parts are developing most rapidly. It’s critical everything goes right in the first trimester. After about 3 months, major body parts and organs are developed, and the fetus spends the rest of the pregnancy mostly getting bigger. Coincidentally, that’s when morning sickness goes away for most moms.
So perhaps nature’s plan is, that it’s better if moms just don’t eat anything in the critical first few weeks of pregnancy? The fetus only needs a tiny amount of energy in the first trimester, so if mom can’t eat, baby isn’t starved.
Still, it doesn’t explain why some pregnant moms suffer and some pregnant moms don’t, although just about every mom gets at least a little nausea. But it’s still unwise to eat anything past it’s sell-by-date, whichever category you are in.
My morning sickness ended at about 14 weeks. I was in a airport check-in queue, my husband had just dropped me off and was about to leave. I joined the queue feeling nauseous. Suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, the morning sickness was gone. I was hungry! And I knew exactly what I wanted. Hey! I called to my husband. He turned around, expecting me to blow him a goodbye kiss or something. Get me Doritos! I shouted.
And so the morning sickness ended. And the food craving stage started.
Read More
