The Holistic Birth Podcast

Relieving Morning Sickness

May 21, 2023 Holistic Birth & Beyond Season 1 Episode 4
The Holistic Birth Podcast
Relieving Morning Sickness
Show Notes Transcript

Experiencing morning sickness and need ways besides ginger to help relieve it? Allison and Brigitte talk about many ways to help you through this unpleasant time in pregnancy. 


Join as we discuss:

  • Symptoms and when they occur
  • Is morning sickness a protection mechanism
  • Supporting your liver
  • Nutrition
  • Holistic and natural ways to cope
  • Selfcare tips


Resources Mentioned:

Gua Sha Instructions

Gua Sha

Boiron Homeopathics

Meditation for Morning Sickness

Sea Bands

Mountain Rose Herbs 

Enviromedica Beef Liver



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Looking for more? Check us out on Youtube & visit the blog for show notes and transcript


Connect:

Holistic Birth & Beyond, LLC

Into the Labyrinth Birth Services

Allison- Instagram & Facebook

Brigitte- Instagram & Facebook



Free downloads:

Holistic Birth and Beyond Freebies

Holistic Birth & Beyond’s Spotify

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Looking for more? Check us out on Youtube & visit the blog for show notes and transcript

Connect:

Holistic Birth and Beyond, LLC

Into the Labyrinth Birth Services

Allison- Instagram & Facebook

Brigitte- Instagram & Facebook




Brigitte: Welcome back to the Holistic Birth Podcast! Today we are going to be talking about morning sickness, which is very common and uncomfortable thing to deal with. We have some tips to share today.

Allison: Let’s dive in! So what is morning sickness? A lot of people have the assumption that it’s nausea in the morning, and the morning time is usually when it’s more intense but it can last the whole day. Some people feel a little betrayed by the title. But morning sickness is any nausea or vomiting you have throughout your day. Most of the time it’s common in your first trimester and typically resolves by 12 or 14 weeks. There are different things that could cause it. Hormone fluctuations, stress, nutrition imbalances are possibilities. Some non-western societies tend to have low counts of morning sickness or don’t have it at all so it’s kinda interesting to think about how the western culture is with maybe toxins or stress. Some people theorize that morning sickness is your body’s way of protecting you from things that might be harmful to you or your baby. Others say it’s the liver having a hard time detoxing the hormones. Basically it’s nausea, vomiting, having a hard time keeping things down and there’s also the possibility of hyperemesis. It’s pretty severe, that maybe you lost up to 5% of your pre-pregnancy weight, you’ve maybe had a hard time not only in the first trimester but it extends to the second or third trimester. I watched a documentary a couple weeks ago; Amy Schumer had hyperemesis and was very open and vulnerable about it. But it’s rough. I think it helped normalize it and to help people know that it may not go away after the first trimester.

B: Yes, I have heard it lasted entire pregnancies. It’s pretty miserable and not fun to deal with. For me personally, feeling nauseous is one of the things I really don’t want to feel. So I know that a concern that comes up a lot with clients is that they are wondering if their baby is going to be okay because they’re having a hard time keeping things down. Do you have any tips around that specifically? What do you usually tell your clients if they’re concerned about baby not doing well if they don’t eat?

A: A lot of times it’s the reassurance of things that can work for you. This can change day to day and I’ve seen really severe hyperemesis before where they’ve needed IV fluids or can only keep broth down. Most of the time it’s just a matter of finding works best with you, and we will talk about ways to relive it. But when people are worried about baby, I’ve had people who say that their culture tells them it’s a good sign that they are sick. If they want to ride it out, go for it! Most of the time when you hire your doula, it’s mostly already gone. People tend to appreciate changes in their nutrition that helps them to find the things that they can tolerate best or if they find certain times of the day that work well for them. Finding solutions can help with finding relief with that concern.

B: Okay, cool. That’s great info. So let’s get into ways to relieve it naturally. Herbals can help, such as ginger and peppermint. Those are usually the go to things, like ginger candies or ginger tea. Dandelion tincture can be really good because morning sickness is linked to the liver being depleted. Peppermint essential oil can be great, just smelling it or having a diffuser going can be helpful. Homeopathy remedies like cocculus, nux vomica, pulsatilla and sepia are really helpful for morning sickness. Those you can get online and we can link that in the show notes. It could be pretty easy to access, even at local health foods stores too. Smaller frequent meals like protein, balancing your macros so your protein carbs and fat are helpful. Eating nourishing foods and staying away from processed foods and sugar can be helpful. Electrolytes and salts are really good, so you can get little electrolyte drink mixes just making sure you’re careful of sugars. Another really interesting one is lemon and barley cordial that you would do once a day and then just lemon in general when adding lemon to your ginger tea or something like that could be really beneficial. Some people go with CBD to help with nausea. Just managing stress with meditation and anything to reduce the stress you’re dealing with on a daily basis.

A: It’s hard because it’s kind of a catch 22… you’re feeling stressed about the nausea and then it adds to the symptoms. Yes, meditations can be super helpful. I think there are different videos you could find on Youtube. You could journal or find exercise or walking outside can be great stress reducers. Talking to someone you trust too.

B: Getting out in nature is helpful. Getting sunlight and fresh air are good things!

A: Other ways to relieve would be using Sea Bands which are basically a bracelet that has a point that goes to your wrist that can help with the acupuncture point PC6. You could find that yourself if you’re looking at your wrist, find your tendons on your wrist, find the point right below where your vein crosses over the tendons. Usually there will be a light soreness to the point so that can confirm you’ve found it. Acupuncture can be really great. Your acupuncturist will know which points to avoid and which ones to prioritize. There are other points that can help your body.

B: I recently discovered Gua Sha which is a little stone that can be used on the face with reducing wrinkles and increasing circulation but it can be used anywhere on the body. It’s hitting acupuncture points and there’s actually a technique where you use it on the front of your legs to rub the area. We will put a link in the show notes for something to reference on this.

A: And if you are adding an acupuncturist to your team, you might as well add a chiropractor too! They are really fantastic. Also, take a look at your prenatals and assess the contents of it. Sometimes really high levels of iron in the prenatals can make people feel more sick so taking a look at that. If you’re working with a nutritionist you could find an alternative or shifts in your diet. Sleep is a big factor too! The liver typically detoxes between 1-3am so trying to enhance sleep during that time is good. Consider eating a protein snack in the evening before bed.

B: Usually a lot of the time it’s related to people not eating enough, commonly protein. It’s again catch 22 because you feel like crap and you don’t want to eat but at the same time you kind of have to start taking those little snacks and eat those as much as you can to hopefully reduce the nausea.

A: Some people eat beef liver to help support their own liver. Sometimes it’s raw or in capsule form, right?

B: Yeah because some people can’t tolerate the taste of liver and it smells weird too. I take the capsules myself too and it helps with a lot of things, including vitamins, minerals and especially vitamin B12.

A: Cool. I feel like people do tend to stress about it. It’s not enjoyable!

B: No, it’s terrible!

A: It’s so awful. It limits your ability to do other things in your life so finding good outlets and that right ingredient list that works best for you is important. Each week can be different so if something isn’t working for you anymore try adding or subtracting something else to find relief. Even the positions people are in can be a contributing factor for some, like if they stand too quickly.

B: Yes, yoga would be a good movement opportunity. And Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT tapping) is a good tool. Having those outlets to cope with it is crucial. Sometimes it is what it is and there’s no way to avoid it, where you maybe have to ride it out.

A: Good list. The blog that we will have and any other format that we post in will have good recaps of all of these things too. So if you’re trying to scribble these things down as we are talking, don’t forget that we have other ways that you can go and look at this list of ideas. We’d be curious to hear what worked for you and what didn’t work for you.

B: Yeah, would love to hear from everyone if we didn’t mention something that worked for you, that would be great. Send us an email or drop a comment on YouTube. Send us a message on social media too to let us know what worked for you. We’d love to hear from you!

A: Your intuition is strong and your body is smart.

B: Our bodies are amazing, they know what’s up! Sometimes they are trying to send us messages. Alright, so I think that’s it for this short and sweet episode. Just remember that this is a normal thing to go through and you are doing the best you can; that’s what matters. We just want to help you feel better if you’re feeling crappy! This is the end of this episode and definitely catch us next week when we talk about how to choose your provider.

A: Yeah, I’m excited for that!

B: Me too!

A: Every time we prepare for a new episode we say, “this will be a good one” and we get excited about each one.

B: Yes, for sure! We will be giving you tips on that. Thanks for listening and we will catch you next time!

A: Bye bye!