Clinicalpathways.org.uk

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy
Patient information leaflet
It is normal to feel sick, and sometimes vomit, if you are
pregnant.
You might find some simple treatments can help.
Most pregnant women feel sick and vomit sometimes during their pregnancy. For many women these are the first signs that they are pregnant. Some women view these symptoms as signs that their pregnancy Nausea and vomiting usually begin around six weeks after the start of your last period. Although often called 'morning sickness', women can get these symptoms at any time of the day. You will probably feel worse in the morning, which is why it is called morning sickness. But you might feel sick, or be sick, at any time of day. Even if you are sick two or three times a day, you will usually be able to keep some food down. Your morning sickness Although it is normal to feel sick or be sick when you're pregnant, it is not normal to be so sick that you can't hold down any food or fluids for more than 24 hours. If this happens, you can become dehydrated and you may need to be treated in hospital to replace the fluids you’ve lost. feel like you haven’t been able to hold down any fluids for more than you have very dark urine, or pass no urine for more than 8 hours you have severe weakness or feeling faint What treatments work?
If you are finding it hard to cope with morning sickness, there are some natural treatments and drug treatments you can try. Research has found Treatment without drugs
Ginger is a natural remedy and one of the most widely used treatments for
nausea and vomiting. It is a spicy root used to flavour food such as gingerbread, biscuits, and stir-fried vegetables. It is also found in drinks such as ginger tea, ginger ale, and ginger beer. You probably won’t get enough ginger by eating or drinking foods that contain it. You will need to take supplements in the form of capsules or syrup. In studies 9 out of 10 women said their nausea and vomiting was much better after taking ginger supplements. Around 7 in 10 women stopped vomiting. Wearing an acupressure wristband over a certain place on your forearm
(called the P6 point) may help to reduce nausea and vomiting. Studies have found that women who wear a wristband have fewer hours of feeling nauseous and less severe nausea. There are no side effects to wearing the wristband, but problems such as numbness, soreness, and swelling from the Treatment with drugs
If you are getting a lot of nausea and vomiting, a kind of drug called an antihistamine is likely to help. Antihistamines called promethazine (brand
name Phenergan) or cyclizine are the ones usually used to treat morning sickness in the UK. There is about a 70-80% chance that you'll feel less sick and will vomit less frequently if you take one of these antihistamines. There is no evidence that taking antihistamines when you are pregnant will harm your baby but about 1 in 4 women feel drowsy when taking an antihistamine. Although there are antihistamines that don't cause drowsiness, the studies on taking antihistamines during pregnancy have used the kind that do make you drowsy. We cannot say for certain whether the drugs that don't cause drowsiness reduce nausea and vomiting or are Things you can do to help yourself
There has not been much research on things you can do yourself to reduce • Eating little and often (for example, every two to three hours) • Eating a little as soon as they wake up and taking time to get out of bed • Avoiding very rich, spicy, or fatty foods • Drinking lots of liquid (but avoiding alcohol and caffeine) • Moving slowly and avoiding sudden movements • Getting some fresh air and exercise daily. What will happen to me?
The good news is that morning sickness usually gets better after the first three months of pregnancy for almost all women. About 1 in 10 women still

Source: http://www.clinicalpathways.org.uk/download/patient-information-leaflet-vomiting-in-pregnancy.pdf