| SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Pregnancy
Pregnancy: Everything You Need To Know
Common
Pregnancy Symptoms:
Here's Help To Get You Thru
Feeling
awful? If you are in your first trimester
of your pregnancy, then it is likely that you have all the
common ailments, nausea, mood swings, tiredness, backaches,
headaches, and sore breasts. You are not alone and it does
get better. Think of your symptoms as proof that you are having
a healthy pregnancy. The more awful you feel, the healthier
your baby will be after it is born. Some women are very lucky
to not feel bad at all and deliver healthy babies, but most
women have to do a bit of suffering.
The hormones, HCG and progesterone, seem to be the culprits
for the pregnancy maladies. The HCG is secreted by the implanted
embryo and stimulates progesterone production. The more HCG
and the more progesterone, the more symptoms you are likely
to have. Once the placenta takes over, progesterone production
HCG drops and the worst symptoms seem to go away. When levels
of the hormone cholecystokinin increase in pregnant women,
it increases the efficiency of digestion by making better metabolic
use of food within your system. The unpleasant side effects
contribute to:
- Low
blood sugar
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Delayed
emptying of the stomach
- After-meal
sleepiness
WAYS TO EASE MORNING SICKNESS AND OTHER PREGNANCY ISSUES:
Avoid
nausea triggers, such as cooking food, and cleaning
out the litter boxes, or any other smell that might trigger
a gag reflex. Often normal things that never bothered you before
will make you run to the bathroom now, such as body odors,
leftover food in the fridge, coffee, gasoline, solvent fumes,
garbage, scented cosmetics and toiletries.
Have "designer" days. As much as
possible, design your day to avoid the known triggers. Plan
ahead and try to
know what makes you feel worse and what makes you feel better.
Go shopping and run errands during the part of the day that
you are less likely to get sick and have the most energy. Don’t
over do it either, that can trigger getting sick or more fatigue.
If you start the morning off sick, you are likely to stay
sick all day. Set a tray of easy-to-digest favorites at your
bedside. Eat before your feet hit the floor. When you awaken
to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, treat your
belly to a nibble or two. Continue to munch all morning, carrying
your nibble tray around with you, even in the car, work, or
stores. Better to look like a pig than get sick everywhere.
Eat
nutrient-dense foods, such as avocados, kidney beans,
cheese, fish, nut butter, whole-grain pasta, brown rice, tofu,
and turkey. If peanut butter is too strong, try almond or cashew
butter, and spread it thinly on crackers, bread, apple slices
or celery sticks. Avoid spicy, fatty, or sugary foods; they
can cause nausea and heartburn. Try to get as much protein
as possible with out having to eat large meals that can make
you sick.
Avoid letting your saliva hit an empty stomach. An empty stomach
is hypersensitive to saliva, and nausea will soon follow. Line
your stomach with milk, yogurt or ice cream before eating a
saliva-stimulating food (such as salty foods, or dry foods
such as crackers). Try peppermint candies or gum to help nausea
but not on an empty stomach, that could make it worse. Eat
foods with a high water content to ease dehydration that aggravates
nausea, such as fruits.
Take prenatal vitamins with your biggest meal to prevent nausea.
Vitamins can be a big trigger of nausea-unless they are taken
with a large meal. Also try taking it at night before bed,
so that you will be asleep once it is digested.
Eat
high-energy foods. Complex carbohydrates act as time-release
energy capsules, slowly releasing energy into your bloodstream
and helping to keep your appetite satisfied. The main food
group represented here is grains (rice, corn, wheat, oats,
barley), found in breads, cereals, pastas, and crackers. Make
yourself eat. No matter whether you feel like it or not, eat
something. If you don't eat, you will get an acid-filled stomach
and low blood sugar. Nibbling on anything that makes you feel
good to prevent an empty tummy.
Get out and see the world. Visit friends, go to a movie, rest,
take a walk, or go to a park with friends. Any change of scenery
may provide a stomach-settling distraction and get you out
and about.
Drive, don't ride, many women find the have an increase of
nausea when riding in the car as opposed to driving.
Reduce
stress. Prenatal researchers feel it's better for a
baby in utero to be spared a steady barrage of stress hormones,
and stress can increase your nausea cycle. Try acupressure
and/or acupuncture. Both Eastern and Western medical practitioners
have found a trigger point on the inner aspect of the wrist,
which if stimulated, may relieve nausea and vomiting associated
with pregnancy and other conditions.
Dress comfortably and wear loose clothing. Many women find
that anything pressing on their abdomen, waist, or neck is
irritating and nausea triggering
Position yourself for comfort and prevention. Heartburn is
another common part of the nausea-pregnancy package. This burning
feeling, which is caused by reflux of stomach acids, occurs
more frequently during pregnancy. For heartburn, keep upright
or lie on your right side after eating.
Sleep it off. It's fortunate that the extreme need for sleep
coincides with the morning sickness phase, this way you can
just stay in bed. So precious is this rest that you will want
to ensure that sleep goes on as long as possible.
Have one last meal before retiring, preferably of fruit and
long-acting complex carbohydrates (grains and bland pasta).
Take chewable calcium tablets, which act as antacids, before
retiring or upon awakening.
# # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
> Home > Pregnancy Articles : Main Page
|
