E106: Morning Sickness, Made Understandable

Nausea that won’t quit can turn early pregnancy into a maze of guesswork, guilt, and survival tactics. We’re pulling that experience into the light with a clear look at what drives “morning” sickness, why it rarely sticks to mornings, and how to find practical relief that respects your limits. Drawing on years of doula care and personal trial and error, we map the spectrum—from everyday nausea to hyperemesis gravidarum—so you can recognize red flags early and get the right support.

We talk through real-world strategies that fit into a busy life: small, frequent snacks that keep your stomach from tipping into empty, gentle proteins paired with bland carbs, and hydration plans that work when plain water tastes off. You’ll hear how ginger, vitamin B6 with doxylamine, and P6 acupressure can help, along with environmental tweaks like cooler air and scent-free spaces. When symptoms surge, we walk through medical options, from antiemetics to IV fluids, and why early intervention protects both you and your baby. Throughout, we name the emotional weight of constant nausea, and how humor, permission to slow down, and a small, informed support circle can restore dignity and hope.

This conversation holds space for the messy middle: the days when brushing your teeth is a victory, the moments when a bowl of cereal genuinely saves the afternoon, and the stories that remind you you’re not alone. If you’re navigating nausea now, or supporting someone who is, you’ll leave with clear tools, language to ask for help, and a kinder frame for the work your body is doing. Subscribe for deeper, evidence-informed guidance on pregnancy and birth, share this with a friend who needs reassurance, and leave a review with your go-to nausea tip—what helped you most?

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Show Credits

Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker

Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome And Episode Focus
• 1:04 What Morning Sickness Really Is
• 2:49 Timing, Severity, And Hormonal Drivers
• 5:08 Angie’s Pregnancies And Lived Experience
• 6:41 When Nausea Becomes Hyperemesis
• 7:39 Food Strategies That Actually Help
• 9:53 Hydration, Supplements, And Acupressure
• 11:25 Managing Life, Work, And Triggers
• 13:11 Medical Options And IV Support
• 14:13 Humor, Hard Days, And Mental Health
• 18:00 The Marathon Story And Delayed Nausea
• 20:17 Doula Lens: Permission To Slow Down
• 22:13 Community Care, Small Comforts, And Hope
• 24:00 Closing Reflections And Connection

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rosier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice, helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

I want to like dial back to early pregnancy and talk about something that is common and frustrating and real. And that is morning sickness and kind of understanding what's happening, what can help. And if you are familiar with morning sickness, it's often, it's common, but it's underestimated about how challenging that sometimes can be. So perhaps you're pregnant now, perhaps you've been pregnant in the past, you're planning in the future to become pregnant. Um, morning sickness is pretty common, so it obviously accompanies some nauseousness, not always vomiting, but often vomiting, um, an inability to like eat normally, um, not feeling like yourself. This it's just it's just not a very fun time. So in this episode, we're kind of gonna dive into that and hopefully you'll kind of understand a little bit what's going on and know what options are available to help you. So interesting to know that morning sickness is referred to as nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. So NVP, it affects most pregnant people to some extent. There's a lot of varying degrees of that, but if they approximate they estimate that approximately 70 to 80 percent of pregnant people are going to experience some form of morning sickness. So although it says morning in the name, it's kind of a misnomer because it does not just occur in the morning. It can be constant throughout the day, it can be unpredictable, it can be in little patches, it can be at night time, um, it can be in evening time. Um, but more I don't know where we got this. I should have researched that a little bit, where we got the name morning sickness, but it's just overall sickness, um, which you know you feel just sick to your stomach. So symptoms for many people begin early in pregnancy, maybe five to six weeks. Typically they're gone by first trimester, kind of peak around nine to ten weeks and fade by 12 to 14 weeks. However, some people experience symptoms far beyond that, perhaps the entire 40 weeks of pregnancy. I've had many clients, one of them just had her baby a couple weeks ago. Actually, I'm doing a lactation visit with her today. And she was one of the unlucky ones who had morning sickness or this nauseous sick feeling the entire pregnancy, right up until delivery. And it was interesting as we were chatting about that, um, she was curious to know when that would go away. And it was the day her baby was born, like the exact day she's like, oh wow, this feel I mean, she had just had a baby, but she's like, I don't feel sick. I don't feel sick to my stomach, I don't want to throw up. Um, so for some unluckies, it is the entire 40 weeks. Um, and hormones, we always look at, you know, I always look at why, what's going on, and why is this happening? Um, best we can tell this is hormones at play. Um, particularly it's the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone, which is um obviously very um active during pregnancy. It's always there, but bumps up higher during pregnancy. Estrogen is also shifting a lot, and then changes in blood sugar and digestion as pregnancy affects a lot of the body. There's also some evidence in genetics that perhaps genetics play a role. Um, not always is that the case. I know for in my case, my mom never got sick. She was fine. I got incredibly sick and was not fine. So, you know, take take it for what it's worth. But they they they say see some evidence in genetics and gut sensitivity, which is kind of interesting. Um, so perhaps like gut health, that we, you know, lifetime gut health may have an impact on how someone experiences pregnancy, stress levels in life, and then um placenta development, which the placenta develops and grows the entire pregnancy along with a baby, of course, um, could influence symptoms, the severity of symptoms because there's lots of different layers of how people experience um morning sickness. So for an and I was I had five pregnancy, well more than that, but I had five children. I had five babies and experienced morning sickness, in my opinion, pretty severely. And for me, it was the typical five, six, seven-ish weeks it would start with my first baby. It was gone by the 12 to 14, um, like we we typically see, but each pregnancy it lasted a little bit longer. So by the fifth pregnancy, it was up until 22 weeks that until until it finally faded. I don't know why. But um for me, and it may be different for you, but for me, if I was awake, I felt like throwing up. Like the minute I opened my eyes and got out of bed in the morning, I felt like vomiting all day until I was asleep again. Um, I didn't always vomit. It just always felt like that. There was this low level, like I'm gonna I could throw up at any minute. So like brushing your teeth made makes you gag, you know, smells of things. Oh my gosh, smells of things make you um want to gag and throw up um tastes of things sometimes did, but just a low level, ugh, all the time. I've I felt so bad for my husband. I'm like, I am sorry, I'm gonna just be sitting here for the next 12 weeks. And I literally would just kind of park it on the couch for a while, um, find mindless things to do. One of them was staring out the window at a tree, you know, like that just it's kind of rough. And of course, you have to function, you have to move on and function, and people find different ways to do that, and we'll talk about a couple of remedies or possible remedies that we can do that. Um, so most um commonly this nauseous nauseousness and and vomiting in pregnancy is ugh, it's yucky, it's uncomfortable, but it's not dangerous typically. Um however, there is a more severe condition called hyperemesis graviderum, and that is where we we're we're it's it's so bad that we're have persistent vomiting, not able to keep enough nutrients down and to be safe, not able to keep fluids down to be hydrated. Um, so you're showing signs of dehydration. You're pregnant, you're supposed to be gaining weight, you're losing weight. Maybe you're uh you know, blood sugars are low, we're dizzy, we're fainting. Like that's scary stuff, you know. That's more extreme, not super common. Um, but but some medical treatment is is is is needed in those cases. And early event intervention helps actually. If you're experiencing pretty severe symptoms, seek early intervention that can be helpful from from your provider. So some remedies that everyone can use that may help. Um not no one thing works for everyone, but kind of try and see what works for people. You can kind of again layer on strategies depending how severe your symptoms are. But look, focusing on nutrition and eating patterns. And I know when you feel sick, like the most people that I've spoken to that have um morning sickness going on, like they're happy to get down whatever. Whatever sounds good, whatever smells good, whatever tastes good, and they feel like eating because there's so many things they don't, right? So, um, however, that said, like it can be incredibly difficult to want to eat nutritiously, um, but it can be important. So eating um small, frequent meals, um, empty stomach, like that feeling of hunger kind of worsen the nauseousness actually, um, and protein, like focusing on protein, even in tiny amounts. So that could be a little bit of nuts, it could be um, you know, just any kind of small proteins that you can eat throughout the day, whether that's yogurt or bits of um jerky or something, um, little bits of protein are gonna help. And then bland foods are gonna help. Sometimes greasy, spicy, strong foods exacerbate all of it, but bland food foods like toast or cereal or rice or bananas um can often be better tolerated. Um, I know for me, I like the best thing I could do to get through the day was have a little bowl of cereal. Like, and I am uh I love Cheerios, just plain old ordinary Cheerios are my jam. I don't eat a lot of cereal, but I do like Cheerios. And so I'd have a little bowl of Cheerios or cornflakes, just straight up cornflakes, no sugar on them or anything. Um, and if I could throughout the day, if I just popped a Cheerios every few minutes, kind of kept something going, or if I popped a little cornflake every few minutes, that was kind of my my best bet to get through the day. Um sometimes when you wake up, um maybe it's because the morning sickness hits people, maybe that's where it got its name, but um, keeping a little snack by your bed, eating before you get out of bed, like a salting crack or something super bland. Um, whether that is Cheerios, cornflakes, whatever that might be something that may help a little bit as well. And then keeping hydrated, that's hard too. Sometimes the taste in your mouth is different when you um when you're feeling nauseous. And so water might taste weird where you otherwise like it, or the drinks you like might taste have a different shift to them. But taking small frequent sips, uh just kind of like the same thing with small little tiny snacks can help. Um, hopefully having something cold. Cold's nice, although some people might like broth or something. Um, ice chips, chewing on ice chips again, that keeps something going down into your stomach. Sometimes a popsicle or something cool, refreshing will be good. Electrolyte drinks, having a little bit of electrolytes going, especially if you're vomiting a lot. If the vomiting is frequent, it's hard to keep nutrition in, like those nutrients can get to you a little bit quicker in fluid form. There are some supplements, natural supports, you may or may not find them helpful. Ginger, I tried it, didn't help me at all. But some people love it. So whether that's capsules, tea, chew form, however it is, it does have clinical evidence to support that it can reduce the nauseous feeling. Um, vitamin D. Um, a lot of people will use vitamin D unisom together. That's been used for a long time. Sometimes that's recommended, and it's been well studied that that can help as well. And then uh a practice that can help is acupuncture. So especially the P6 point on the wrist, and that's something you can, you know, sorry, acupressure, that's something you can do on your own. Um always check, however, with your provider before starting, you know, anything like this. Um so if if you're experienced this, you know how limiting this can be. If you have responsibilities and jobs and expectations and obligations throughout the day, it can be very difficult to meet those when you're feeling bluch, just always bluch. Um, so see what you can do, test certain things. You may have good moments, good days. Um, I found if I had something to really focus on, say it was work or a project or um then that helped a little bit. I could like kind of pull myself together and do that. And and it takes a lot of energy, however, to do that, right? To kind of push through the the feeling nauseous, but it did for in my case, it helped a little bit to be able to go and do something. If I the less I had to do, the more miserable I kind of felt. Um, but yes, get a distractions is really just find some healthy distractions can be good too. And looking at some lifestyle adjustments, rest, like rest as much as possible. Um, for some people that's forced rest, right? Like you just feel so gross, you're just down. Um, but fatigue, like it's it's fatiguing to feel nauseous all the time. And avoid some triggers that you find or for you might be triggers, whether that's warm air, um, stuffy environment, certain smells, you know, can be very difficult. Sometimes it's nice, cold, um, cold, refreshing air, cool air can be helpful. Um, and a gentle movement in the air, right, can help be helpful for a lot of people. And then stress reduction actually matters. Like, give a little bit of thought to that because um anxiety or nervousness um when when we're feeling stress, that can kind of increase our the intensity of nauseousness. Now, for those who have really extreme cases, um maybe these natural helps and lifestyle shifts or adjustments are not gonna touch it. We might need to get medical attention for some of that. And so, medication, there are medications that can be um safe and effective, and these are something you would work on with your provider, your midwife, or your doctor. There are anti-ametic medications that can be taken, um prescription of vitamin B6 plus diloxalamine, I believe it's is how you pronounce it. And in severe cases, and I've had many clients have to do this where you get IV um fluids are are given. At one of the hospitals I work at, we have a nurse um who is pregnant, and she's gosh, I think it's her third pregnancy, and she gets the worst of the worst with this, and and she has to go to work and be a nurse and take care of other people and do long 12-hour shifts. And a lot of times you'll see her at the desk with an I and V infusion going. She has an IV in herself and and under the care of her provider, she does infusions, especially during work, um, and will unplug herself, go take care of her patients and stuff. But in some cases, that's kind of what you need to remain remain hydrated and nourished, right? So there's a those are some medical approaches, and then we have the whole emotional experience of this because it can be so exhausting. Um, because when we look at the numbers, we'd say morning sickness is very common, but it can be incredibly challenging, like emotionally challenging, physically challenging, and it can be a challenge to those around you, right? Um, I I've felt always felt bad for my kids when I was pregnant because I like and my husband, I just kind of sat there for a few weeks or months until until that passed because it can be so exhausting and challenging to do that. And had some funny stories come up with it. Like um with my first um pregnancy, I threw up the most and it was very, very frequent. Um, you know, I'd I'd eat my breakfast, go to the sink, throw up. Um that was a pretty common occurrence. I tried not to do it, you know, I was in college at the time and and working full-time in an operating room at the time, and I could kind of keep it under wraps most of the time at school and work, um, but that was exhausting to do. And there's one time um at work, I was a scrub tech, so I was scrubbed in on a surgery, which you're in a sterile field, you know, you have a gown on and mask and sterile gloves. And I think we were doing a gallbladder surgery, and I um and and it and it feels kind of weird to breathe with a mask. I mean, we all got pretty used to that during the pandemic, I guess, but um this was many years ago, and um and but that's stuffy air, like I was feeling that part of it, right? And I was running the camera for this gallbladder surgery, so we had it was laparoscopic, and I was running the camera, which was like some up and down motion and kind of like car sick type motion on top of what I was feeling, and I could feel it coming, I could absolutely just feel it coming in the middle of this surgery, right? And so I handed off my instruments um to the doctor, which was not cool. Uh, turned out of the sterile field and had a moment. Um, and that's fun in a mask, let me tell you that. I couldn't live that down at work. They that was the first time I told them I was pregnant. You know, I'd never thrown up in a surgery before. I was fine. I loved surgeries, and I wasn't sick because of that, but the situation um you know brought on the the vomiting episode, and I got some pretty cute kickback from all my coworkers. The nurse took me out to the scrub sink, um, got me cleaned up. Um, the anesthesiologist teased me because I threw up on his shoes. But anyway, fun stories can come out of that if you have a good sense of humor. I'd be thrown up outside the car sometimes after go to the car wash because I had been driving it. Um, and uh so yeah, this can be like it's sometimes not put you in some weird social situations, right? Where you're thrown up all the time or excusing yourself um to throw up. So years later, I mean, even at the time, I have uh, I don't know, I like to laugh. I have a good sense of humor, but um, it can be hard, all right? That can be very emotionally challenging and it can affect um your ability to work, your ability to care for others, to care for yourself. It can affect your mental health because it is kind of isolating too. Um, and we connect that to pregnancy. You're like, oh, I'm gonna have a baby, this will be so great. And then you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like dying every day. Um and and I remember regretting my choice every time after after my first pregnancy and how um how much I did not like that that morning sickness feeling that really at that time only lasted about 12, 13 weeks. Um I I I hesitated to want to do that again, right? So I'm like, I don't know if I want to um choose to be pregnant again. Um I did obviously four more times, but gosh, it's a discouraging feeling, right? You can feel really frustrated, kind of disconnected, and doesn't mean anything's wrong. Um, it just means you're navigating this very real-time physiologic change um as as we see everything that the body does through pregnancy. Um, on my third child, I um she was not a super planned child. I was training for a marathon actually, and um was not planning on getting pregnant. I had a, you know, this marathon coming up, and I could tell, like um a few weeks before the marathon, probably like four-ish, three or four weeks before, um, I usually I'd love before my long runs, I think it was up to like 22, 23 miles, and I would feel my I would check my heart rate before I'd go on my long runs. And it was awesome. It was like 40 beats a minute because my heart was, you know, doing all this awesome aerobic exercise and and it was fun to get your heart rate down that one. I'm like, wow, that's so cool. Um, but one of my long runs, I think it was my last one before tapering before the race, my heartbeat was 72 before my long run. I'm like, what? That's weird, what's going on? Didn't think much of it, went on my long run. Um, continued to to taper, and I was waiting for my period to start. I really was. I'm like, all right, I know I'm not gonna be in my period during this marathon, um, but where is it? Because we're getting closer to the marathon, it's only like a week away. Um, and I'm like, oh my gosh, really? Are you serious? Am I pregnant? Took a pregnancy test. Sure enough, I was pregnant. Um, and you know, I'm I'm not saying to I'm not encouraging this, you know, don't do this at home, check with your provider. I just ran the marathon. I'm like, you know what? I've done all these long runs, I've got one more in me. Um, so I was like eight weeks pregnant when I ran that marathon and terrified, and I only knew I was pregnant a week or two before the marathon, and I was terrified to think any minute this nauseous feeling is gonna hit me. And how in the world am I gonna do a 26.2 mile run with this horrible nauseous feeling? And by some miracle, I did not get sick until the week after the marathon. And I will tell you, that was my best marathon, most comfortable and fastest marathon, probably because uh my theory is the relaxing hormone. Um Like that it was actually a great marathon. So I tell that girl she's 23 now and I tell her, like, hey, you you ran a marathon. Um so the next week, however, boom, there was the that nauseous feeling, and I felt so grateful that it waited tiny bit longer on that pregnancy, which was awesome. Um and then by my fifth kid, I was sick until about 22 weeks, so more than half the pregnancy. And by then my other kids were older, they knew I was a couch potato for a little bit. Um still managed somehow. We managed somehow to get through life, but um on chewing on my little Cheerios helped a lot. So so what as we look, you know, I I being a doula, I always look at this from a duoler perspective. Um and and you know, a lot of times as duolas want to support um folks in pregnancy, labor, and birth, um, this is definitely a part of it. Sometimes it's just in the beginning, but sometimes that morning sickness is the first moment when pregnancy feels real, right? When it feels real. And as you realize, like take the humility to realize your body is growing a human. So that might be the first time pregnancy asks us early on to just slow down a little bit, right? Just slow down a little bit. Give some attention and intention to your care. Let yourself be um cared for, receive help from others, um, set up for yourself a small system around you of people who can check in on you, who know that it's real, know that it stinks, um, and acknowledge your limits. Maybe for this little time in life, you aren't gonna be that 110 mile an hour person. Maybe you need to dial back just a little bit for yourself and for your baby. So this is not always a time for just charging through. And I've, you know, I I'm not I'm not good at not doing that. Um, but it does slow you down, right? So this is a time. Let yourself have permission to let this be a time to seek support, um, to expect flexibility from yourself and and and a gentleness for yourself. And hopefully in your inner circle you can find support for that. Um, I did have friends having babies the same time as me who never had a day of sickness, you know. Some some people are not gonna experience this. So as you see a pregnant person, um, as you yourself are pregnant, um, give grace, right? Like if you see another pregnant person, check in on them, make sure they're okay. I had a friend in my last pregnancy when I was sick the longest who brought me the most wonderful miso soup. And that was phenomenal. The it helped the morning sickness and the nauseous feeling for sure, but it just lifted my heart too. Like it made me so um feel so good that somebody, you know, drove to my house with this delicious soup and it helped me for at least for half an hour, which was great. So go ahead and let yourself be cared for, whether you're sick for four weeks or nine months. Um depending on the severity of your sickness, take take the best care of yourself that you can. So if you're in the thick of morning sickness right now or something you've experienced in the past, hopefully this offers a little bit of clarity, um, some reassurance and some practical tools, some things to do. Cheerios is my top. Um, sipping on on um something throughout the day is gonna be helpful too. But you deserve a little relief, as much as you can get and find, right? You deserve to be cared for. Um, and know that you don't do this alone. A lot of other women in the world are doing this with you. Um, and this is one of the unfun parts of pregnancy. It's kind of nice. Some people call that the honeymoon in the middle where they're not too big and heavy and they're not sick anymore, and they're just feeling awesome, right? And there are some for most people, there's some awesome moments of pregnancy. Um, but thanks for being here today. Um, hopefully this episode was helpful in some way for you or someone that you know, knowing that morning sickness is a piece of this, and take time to take care of yourself. Um, acknowledge that you're, you know, doing this amazing work of growing a new human, um, which is the coolest work you might ever do in your life. It's pretty awesome. So thank you for being with us today. I hope you have a wonderful day. Hope your day is filled with some kind of connection with someone. As always, I encourage you to reach out, connect with someone, maybe someone who's just hard who's hard for you to connect with. Um, reach out and make that connection. It'll make your day better and theirs as well. You never know what a smile or a reach out can do. Hope you have a good one, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00: 24:36

Episode credits will be in the show notes. Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth.