Being Pregnant
Big Study Finds Nothing Helps Morning Sickness. Grrr. Sniff. Heave.
The highly regarded Cochrane Library has published a review of 27 clinical trials involving over 4,000 pregnant women and the news is not good for the morning sick among us.
Nothing much seems to work. They looked at vitamin B, antihistamines, acupuncture, acupressure, ginger and “common anti-nausea drugs.” None of these were able to provide significant relief from morning sickness.
This is not all that surprising. The word on the street seems to be, “try it, you never know.” I recently wrote about a remedy that *actually works* and was cheered on by those who had given it a whirl. But the over-the-counter combo I wrote about– a mix of Unisom and vitamin B6– also makes women very sleepy.
The Cochrane researchers found that common anti-nausea drugs– perhaps including the one I wrote about– induced sleepiness. So they were crossed off the list. (They could still work at night presumably?)
Dr. Anne Matthews of the School of Nursing at Ireland’s Dublin City University said in a statement:
“A number of the studies we looked at appeared to show benefits, but in general the results were inconsistent and it was difficult to draw firm conclusions about any one treatment in particular. We were also unable to obtain much information about whether these treatments are actually making a difference in women’s quality of life.”
The conclusion to the study is vaguely hopeful: We need more research! We need a cure! Sigh. Also, none of the common remedies for morning sickness seemed to do any harm. I’ll take “difficult to draw firm conclusions” as permission to keep trying all those other things until someone cracks the code on morning sickness.
In the meantime nobody has said a thing about dry crackers, small meals and avoiding all odors. So grab a box of saltines, it could be a long wait.
photo: fotoosVanRobin/Flickr
Go Back To Being Pregnant
5 Comments
Anonymous commented on Sep 09 10 at 11:23 amThere’s one thing that helps with morning sickness, time proven, and mother tested. But just like it’s ecological benefits, no one will study it because it’s been painted with a scarlet letter. I’m talkin’ ’bout weed, y’all, and I’m not kidding.
Kate commented on Sep 09 10 at 1:05 pmI agree with the previous poster. Demonize me if you will, but I have smoked a bit to deal with my morning sickness (diclectin doesn’t always cut it), and my OB said that she couldn’t blame me. Puking 10+ times a day wasn’t good for baby or I.
Katy commented on Sep 09 10 at 2:09 pmThe only cure that I know of (having tried a lot of things, including Reglan and Zofran) is time. And it might take until the baby is on the outside. Which is what I keep telling myself at 18 weeks along. The pregnancy sickness will end when I’m no longer pregnant.
And just having a medicine to try (when the non-pharmaceutical options weren’t working) did, in fact, improve my quality of life because by then the midwives were reassuring me, keeping an eye on it, and it gave me a greater sense of control, and they did put sort of a pause or slow-down on the vomiting itself for the month I took it.
ChiLaura commented on Sep 10 10 at 10:48 amAs much as it “doesn’t work,” at least Zofran stopped the vomiting and the weight loss. I may have still felt like shit making lunch for my kids, but at least I didn’t have to worry about puking on it.
Marlene commented on Jul 14 11 at 1:29 pmSay what you will, but Zofran was a godsend for me. Non prescription remedies all fell flat, even ginger, which has helped me for vertigo-induced-nausea every time. The doctor finally caved and gave me Reglan (I’d lost 10 pounds and was unable to keep water down). That made me tired and I still vomited. We switched to Phenergan, and results were much the same — sleepy and unable to eat/drink. Zofran though? It was like angels singing.
I’m 6 months pregnant and still need at least one Zofran a day to keep my food down. I assume I’ll need it the whole way through :( Thank G-d we found SOMETHING.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Kristin Ruiz 
Rebekah Kuschmider .jpg)
CaitlinHTP (Caitlin Boyle) 
Lauren Hartmann 
Michelle Horton 
Ceridwen Morris 
Katie 
Devan McGuinness 
Lauren Jimeson 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
5