Morning sickness is a misunderstood nausea which can affect up to seventy per cent of pregnant women.

Morning sickness symptoms tend to begin before the sixth week of pregnancy and typically disappear by the fourteenth week. The symptoms of morning sickness are not serious but can be unpleasant, typical symptoms are vomiting, nausea, light-headedness, tiredness, fatigue, dizziness and weakness. These may be triggered off in some women by certain foods and odours.

Women suffering from morning sickness should drink plenty of fluids, sipping water or sugary drinks can help, ginger tea or ginger beer is excellent at reducing nausea. In fact ginger has good anti-emetic properties; some women find that taking ginger tablets or chewing crystallized ginger to be most beneficial. Eating small amounts of food often will help with morning sickness but try to drink fluids and eat food at separate times.

If you are planning on getting pregnant it may be wise to cut down on saturated fats in your diet. Studies have shown that women who consumed high amounts of saturated fats from mainly meat and dairy products in the year before they got pregnant, suffered more severely from morning sickness than those who had consume smaller amounts of saturated fats. The main vitamin that nutritional therapists recommend taking for morning sickness is vitamin B6. Some women suffering from morning sickness have also found that acupuncture to be most beneficial at relieving the symptoms.

The following supplements may help if you are pregnant and suffering:

Ginger

Vitamin C

Vitamin B6

Vitamin K

Remember, morning sickness is just temporary!