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Morning Sickness To The Extreme
Morning sickness can occur at any time of day. Some believe that the motion of getting out of bed in the morning triggers the feeling of nausea, which may indicate where the time-of-day reference got its name. You may or may not vomit when you have regular morning sickness, but you will feel nauseated. Regular morning sickness usually ends as you get into your second trimester. Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is severe morning sickness. It also begins in the first trimester and can end in the second trimester, or it may go on for most of the pregnancy. The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, suffered from this severe form of morning sickness during both of her pregnancies. It’s important to know if you’re experiencing regular morning sickness or HG. You’ll want to talk to your healthcare provider about the difference, and take steps to care for yourself if you are suffering from this more serious form of morning sickness. Signs of HG that you might notice can include: Severe vomiting, possibly of blood Difficulty keeping liquids down Dizziness and possibly fainting Headache Body odor Extreme tiredness Racing heartbeat Less urine output, and it may be darker than normal in color Unusual and rapid weight loss Constipation Thirst due to dehydration from vomiting Your provider will run tests to confirm HG, and there are lots of treatment steps available. The important thing is to talk to your provider about any issue that troubles you during pregnancy. The earlier this problem is identified, the easier it is to take care of it. Image: By rumpleteaser from Nagoya, Japan (6 Months) via Wikimedia Commons
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What Is Morning Sickness?
You’re pregnant (yay!) and preparing for the next 40 weeks—what’s first? Maybe call the family, let them know the good news. Walk around each day on a little cloud thinking about names, and about the future astronaut or singer or writer growing inside you. After a week or so, the cloud and happiness are still there, but reality gets added to the mix, so you start to plan. You walk around the house, mentally rearranging furniture and people. Clothing is inspected and rated on stretchiness. A healthier diet is a must, but a compromise is reached—you’re keeping the double cheeseburgers and ditching the pepperoni. Now comes the part that no one plans for but almost everyone experiences: morning sickness. Morning sickness is the phrase used to describe the nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, or the NVP. It’s also called nausea gravidarum. If it’s really bad, it’s called hyperemesis gravidarum. The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, suffered from this severe form of morning sickness during both of her pregnancies. Scientists aren’t certain why women have morning sickness when pregnant, but they think it has to do with the hormone levels changing during pregnancy. The mechanics of the nausea and vomiting have to do with the vagus nerve, also called the wandering nerve. It’s a long nerve that’s actually two stems dangling from the cerebellum and the brainstem and running all the way to the abdomen. It has offshoots and tendrils that wander around our organs and end up in the oddest places. The vagus nerve is always talking to the brain, telling it what’s going on with the body. When you get into the NVP loop (nausea and vomiting during pregnancy) it’s the vagus nerve sending signals to the vomiting center of the brain. The brain says OK, and before you know it, you’re vomiting. There are lots of things to try when dealing with morning sickness. For instance, avoid foods that trigger the NVP response and gets lots of fresh air. Certain smells may make you turn green, so try to avoid those. Some say ginger, as in ginger tea or cookies or biscuits may help. As your partner in the fight against morning sickness, we’ve developed ReliefBand™, which is worn on the wrist, and through regulated stimulation of certain nerves, blocks those signals from the vagus nerve to the vomiting center of the brain. The ReliefBand™ is cleared by the FDA as an over-the-counter product to be used for the relief of mild to moderate nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. Talk with your doctor about morning sickness and visit us at http://shop.reliefband.com. Image courtesy of: Anna Gutermuth
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Pregnancy Around The World
On the day your baby is born, he or she will join more than 350,000 other new humans, all of whom will feel their mother’s touch for the first time. It’s exhilarating to think about, isn’t it? Realizing that babies share the experience of entry into the world of noise and light and varying temperature, we wondered what else they share, and what makes their first day or week different from one another. For that matter, how are pregnancies treated differently from one country to the next? We did some exploring and came up with these folk tales and tidbits around the Internet for you to contemplate as baby grows inside you: In some Latin American and Mediterranean countries, it’s believed that, should you deny yourself strawberries or pickles or other foods you crave, your baby will have a birthmark in the shape of that food. In Latin American countries, there is a belief that if a pregnant woman gets a haircut, it will adversely affect the developing vision of the fetus. In many cultures around the world, it’s considered bad luck to tell others baby’s name before birth. Parents-to-be in Bangladesh typically wait until the pregnancy is in its seventh month before telling others the good news. By that time, the fetus is strong enough to resist the effects of anyone casting an evil eye. In Vietnam, infants are given odd and unappealing names the first few weeks of life. This is done under the assumption that a pretty or strong name might attract evil spirits. Pregnant women in Bali just say no to octopus for any meal, as eating octopus might cause a delivery to be difficult. You won’t catch moms-to-be in Bolivia knitting baby booties. To do so might make the umbilical cord wrap around the fetus’ neck. Seven days after birth, an Egyptian baby is welcomed with a sebou thrown in his or her honor. At that time, the baby is given a name and lots and lots of presents. Families in Japan also wait seven days to name the baby, and after a couple of months of bonding time, the baby is welcomed by everyone outside of the immediate family. In Taiwan, perhaps one of the most polite societies in the world, pregnant women do not make a lot of noise during birth so as not to disturb the neighbors. In Indonesia, the umbilical cord is buried with a young tree. As the baby’s health goes, so goes the health of the tree. Morning sickness is battled in many ways around the world. In parts of West Africa, women eat chalk or soil to fight off the nausea. Some women in Somalia sprinkle ginger on their coffee, and in Mexico they fight morning sickness with anise tea. We recommend slipping a ReliefBand on as an easy fix:). There are so many colorful and fascinating traditions in folklore (and in fact) that we can’t share them all in one blog post. Stay tuned – we’ll want to revisit this topic soon! Do you have any traditions in your family that you’d like to share in the comments? We’d love to hear them. Sources: http://forums.thebump.com/discussion/1095022/pregnancy-folklore-from-around-the-world http://www.babycenter.in/a1012478/motherhood-around-the-world http://travelmamas.com/pregnancy-birth-baby-traditions-around-the-world/ http://www.pnmag.com/pregnancy/passport-to-pregnancy-traditions-from-around-the-world-3/ http://www.incultureparent.com/2011/08/mothers-to-be-pregnancy-around-the-world/#slide1 http://www.mom-voyage.com/2014/08/15/how-mothers-around-the-world-treat-morning-sickness/ http://www.pregnancy.org/article/morning-sickness-secrets-from-around-world
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Pregnant? Let’s Tell Some People!
Pregnancy is the best news ever, and it deserves to be shared in a special way! We took a trip around the Web and found all sorts of fun ways to spread the news. Take a look— At Parenting.com there were a bunch of cute tells shared online. A couple of our favorites were the mom-to-be who took a shower and wrote a note on the foggy glass for her hubby to find during his shower the next morning, and the woman who created a flyer announcing the pregnancy, which she had her parents’ paperboy insert in their morning newspaper. Next we stopped by DatingDivas.com and found a few adorable tells. If you have a child still sleeping in a crib, hang an eviction notice on there with a vacate date! Take a picture and send it out. Or, grab the toilet in the classic morning sickness pose while your partner pats your back and reads the What To Expect book. Take a picture, send it out. (Oh, and about the morning sickness, you’re going to want to check us out🙂 LifeAsMama.com found fresh tells, such as this tech-savvy method: photograph three generations of smartphones of tablets, with the newest one decorated in baby wear, or use a baby toy version. Send out to everyone! Oh, and we can’t leave out the motherlode (no pun intended). Pinterest! Look up pregnancy announcements and you’ll find cuties like mock-up movie posters, mom’s and dad’s clothing pinned on a line to dry, along with a baby’s outfit, or mom and dad riding a bike while towing a tricycle behind them. So many fantastic ideas online. What are your favorites? What did you do when you announced, or what do you plan to do? Share in the comments, we want to hear!
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