Ask the village: “Pregnancy sickness advice. I need remedies and food that will help”

As many mums and mums-to-be will tell you, the feeling of nausea or the experience of vomiting is all too commmon during pregnancy, particulary in the first 12 weeks.

For some, the sickness can pass in the first few hours of the day, while others are battling pregnancy sickness all day long.

From ginger to dry cracker biscuits, there’s plenty of remedies that can help. But, which ones do mums actually swear by?

One soon-to-be parent experiencing pregnancy sickness asked our #AskTheVillage for help and the advice came flooding in.

“Pregnany sickness help”

“I’m 8 weeks pregnant and my morning sickness is all day sickness,” she began before explaining that rather than experiencing morning sickness, she has all-day pregnancy sickness.

“From the moment I wake up until I go to bed I feel awful.”

Pleading with the Bounty Parents parenting community for advice, she finished the post writing: “If you have any advice, remedies or foods that will help me, puhlease let me know!”

The #AskTheVillage community is bursting with mums who had also been through the pregnancy sickness trenches, so thankfully they had plenty of advice and rememdies on hand for the expectant mum-to-be.

“Listen to your body and give it what it needs,” advised one commenter. “Yeah yeah I sound like a hippy but I was nauseous and ate vegemite on salada crackers for days and didn’t have any morning sickness.”

Another said a little sugary sweet helped stave off her nausea. “Try life saver fruit tingles,” she said. “I had it right up til i gave birth. Fruit tingles slowed it down.”

One mum suggested ginger and potatoes as a remedy: “Ginger tablets worked well for me were blackmores I think were ginger and vit b6. Also I found particular foods didn’t make me feel ill. Starchy things like potato settled my stomach.”

“I had terrible nausea with both my boys till around 25 weeks. I found maccas chips and frozen cokes helpful, but tbh, I would’ve died without Ondansetron 8mg wafers from the GP,” was the advice from one commenter, who added: “Once you see the midwives at 20weeks they can also prescribe them for you Congrats and Goodluck.”

Another mum suggested she seek medical help if she’s continually throwing up. “If you’re vomiting multiple times a day, all times of the day, definitely ask for some medication to help. I started on Metoclopromide but still felt awful so ended up on Ondansetron wafers which made a huge difference. I needed medication all the way through.”

She finished: “You are allowed to ask for help, the medication is also perfectly safe for baby Good luck mama!

Expert advice for relieving pregnancy sickness

Healthdirect offers the following tips for easing pregnancy sickness symptoms: consider:

• eating smaller meals more often (include morning and afternoon snacks between main meals)
• eating a plain cracker shortly after waking up
• drinking water before and after a meal, rather than with food
• aiming to drink 8 glasses of water a day
• avoiding spicy or fatty foods
• eating protein-rich foods (such as nuts or cheese)
• avoiding skipping meals

Soda (or carbonated) water and ginger are also known to help relieve nausea and settle an upset stomach.

If morning sickness is severe, it is known as hyperemesis gravidarum. Initially your midwife or GP will offer the usual advice for pregnancy sickness such as eating little and often, eating dry biscuits or toast when feeling sick, avoiding smells and food which makes you nauseous, wearing acupressure wristbands and resting as much as possible, as tiredness can often make sickness worse.