Aid for Morning Sickness

Welcome to "Old Wives Tale Tuesday!"  I've got quite a few friends battling morning sickness lately, and I thought I would share a few things that I have learned and/or used over the years to help with that special time of pregnancy.

Let's start with WATER... being dehydrated is, in my experience, the number one reason for morning sickness, followed closely by constipation.  My mom always told me that pregnancy is a natural part of life and as such, it shouldn't stop us from living a mostly normal life (of course you should listen to what your doctor or midwife tells you first).  She would go on to say that if it did then we should look at what we were doing on a consistent basis that could be causing the discomfort. When ever I started to feel nauseous I would think about how much water I had been drinking and then reflect on how long it had been since I had a good bowel movement. 100% of the time I was not doing well in either area.

Pregnancy and Peppermint.  I love using peppermint (or spearmint if you have high blood pressure) for so many things during pregnancy.  It eases morning sickness by relaxing headaches and relieving gas.  One cup of peppermint tea in the morning and after meals can drastically reduce nausea.  It does this by naturally stimulating the digestive system to move things along and hydrating both mommy and baby.  Putting a drop of essential oil on the wrists, ear lobes, back of the neck, or rubbing into the palms of the hands and cupping over the mouth and nose while breathing in brings alertness to sleepy mommies to be.

Dr. Christopher's Lower Bowel formula.  Let's face it, most pregnant women battle constipation during pregnancy.  This is due to the higher levels of hormones which slow the digestive process and leads to constipation.  Some people recommend Psyllium, but there are so many mixed beliefs about this product that I just don't go there.  Lower Bowel is designed to give you a temporary boost until your body can start taking care of things on its own again.  Dr. Christopher designed all of his products so that your body would not become dependent on them, that's part of what I love about his stuff.

Ginger.  This is my last resort aid for anything.  For some reason, I just really don't like Ginger, in any form...but a lot of people really swear by it for pregnancy.  they say that it is a good replacement for peppermint if you can't use it for any reason, and does so many amazing things...but I dislike it so much that I have blocked all of the good things from my memory.  Just know that if you are pregnant and you like Ginger (as a spice), then you should eat a lot of it, as often as you can.

One day when I am on a computer that is a little faster than a toddler walking to the mail box, I will come back through and add fun pictures and a link to find lower bowel.  If you have heard of any other traditions to ease morning sickness that are not included here please add it to the comments.  We'd love to know.  You never know when something that you say might be the only thing that can help someone reading this.