Morning Sickness

I've experienced this on my 8th week of pregnancy and lasted until my 12th week but for some reason, I failed to blog about it. I hope this is not too late. *wink*

Based from what I've read, morning sickness is one of the very first signals of pregnancy and affects about 50% of all pregnant women. It doesn't just occur in the morning, either. An upset stomach and outright vomiting can happen at any particular time of day, making us all wonder why it isn't called all-day sickness.

No one knows exactly why some women feel sick while others appear to bounce through the day eating everything in sight. My doctor said the cause of morning sickness may likely be the level of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) or the pregnancy hormone in the blood. HCG rises a few days after a missed period which is when morning sickness usually starts. Continuously secreted by the brain and the placenta, HCG peaks at about 8 weeks and dramatically falls at about 12 weeks (just like mine) when a woman who has been sick and vomiting for months suddenly awakens with barely a discomfort. However, the 12-week limit doesn't always hold true for everyone. I was still lucky to have it ended on the 12th week because it was an extreme struggle for me. Had mine during evenings only but still it was something I don't wanna go through again in this lifetime! *LOL*

I've also read somewhere that there's a theory that a woman will more likely to be nauseous if the fertilized ovum came from the right ovary. There's an important ovarian vein that carries hormones from the ovary directly to our liver on the right side. The theory is that having our unborn baby originate on this right side brings on a kind of hormonal overload, delivering an extra wallop to our liver and making us sick. Women whose eggs had been released from the left side were less likely to have nausea.

Whatever theory, morning sickness appears to be triggered by the smell of certain foods, odors, or the smoke of a lit cigar. It usually is worse for first-time moms-to-be.