For a pregnant women with morning sickness, the taste, sight, or smell of food can cause nausea, vomiting, and excessive salivation. Although called “morning sickness, this condition can occur at any time of the day. It typically begins at four to eight weeks in to the pregnancy and continues for up to sixteen weeks. Overall, the condition  is  most common in women who become pregnant before age thirty, but about 70 percent of all pregnant women experience nausea and vomiting at some point.

Causes of morning sickness

No one knows why women suffer from morning sickness. Hormonal changes, particularly high levels of chorionic gonadotrophin- the placental hormone that promotes the ovaries to sustain  production of the progesterone necessary to maintain the pregnancy-are thought to be a factor. Because these hormones changes occur at the same time as metabolic and chemical changes, they are probably an important factor. The fall in blood pressure that is typical in early pregnancy as also likely to cause nausea. Psychological factors may contribute to a small extent, particularly in an unplanned pregnancy.

Symptoms of morning sickness

Symptoms of morning sickness can include

• Nausea
• Loss of appetite or anorexia
• Vomiting
• Anxiety
• Depression

Homeopathic treatment of morning sickness

Homeopathy is one of the most popular holistic systems of medicine. The selection of remedy is based upon the theory of individualization and symptoms similarity by using holistic approach. This is the only way through which a state of complete health can be regained by removing all the sign and symptoms from which the patient is suffering. The aim of homeopathy is not only to treat morning sickness but to address its underlying cause and individual susceptibility. As far as therapeutic medication is concerned, several remedies are available to treat morning sickness that can be selected on the basis of cause, sensations and modalities of the complaints.  For individualized remedy selection and treatment, the patient should consult a qualified homeopathic doctor in person. There are following remedies which are helpful in the treatment of morning sickness:

Phosphorus

Patient is very sleepy. she has very sensitive abdomen, painful to touch; violent pain in the ovaries extending down the inner side of the thighs in the first trimester; vomiting usually in the morning; she has violent palpitations, more after movements; she has neuralgic pains in the limbs; restless due to insufficient sleep, thus patient feels drowsy in the morning; wants to sleep in the evening. she likes to eat, as many of her gastric troubles are ameliorated by eating; cannot go to sleep until she eats something; pain in pit of stomach with nausea and vomiting; there is burning in stomach which is ameliorated by cold things; dislikes warm food; she has eructations desire for cold water and ice, cold-drinks, but vomits as soon as it gets heated in stomach; wants something cold which refreshes momentarily; this thirst for cold drinks reappear when cold drinks get warm in the stomach; unquenchable thirst; dryness of mouth and throat; stomatitis or oral cavity is covered with thrush; vertigo usually in the morning; staggering while walking as if intoxicated. vertigo after taking food in the evening; heaviness and confusion in head; burning in the rectum during stool; copious diarrhoea; constipation; stool is hard long and slender, like dog stools; she has no urge to pass urine though the bladder is full.

Phosphorus lady is very chilly and her complaints appear from getting wet in rain, more during the thunder storms and evening; she is oversensitive to external stimuli; anxious lady; intense burning everywhere and every time in the body due to pathology in blood; burning in between the shoulder blades. Nymphomania; desire to be rubbed vigorously; though the patient is chilly, the stomach; face and symptoms are relieved by cold; during pregnancy though she craves cold drinks, sight of water causes nausea and vomiting; she closes her eyes while taking bath; perspiration smells like sulphur.

Mentally she is very keen but physically too weak; indifferent to every person in contact; she wants to be magnetized as she has exaggerated ideas about her own importance; sad sluggish tearful.

Anacardium

Morning nausea, with empty feeling in stomach; vomiting of ingesta which gives relief; nausea <before and after eating, >while eating or after vomiting food; weak digestion, with fullness and distension of abdomen.

Bovista

Morning sickness, vomits only water, >after breakfast; sensation as if she had a lump of ice in stomach; voluptuous sensation in genitals.

Carbolic Acid

Vomiting of pregnant women, with frantic headache and irritability; nausea early in morning; dull aching, uneasy feeling in stomach; torpor of bowels.

Cocculus

Nausea felt in head; inclination to vomit in morning on attempting to rise, with tendency to faint; <from riding in carriage or sailing; yellow tongue; aversion to food.

Nux Vom

Nux Vom is the remedy for morning sickness with constant nausea and a sensation of “only if i could vomit I’d feel much better”; there is a strong predominance of retching over vomiting; insufficient labor pains extending to the rectum with desire for stool or frequent urination are quickly relieved by Nux Vom. prolapse of uterus with great excitement of sexual organs leading on to sexual dreams and orgasms in sexual and irritable women; they lead an idle life, partake of rich and highly seasoned food and drink large quantities of stimulating liquors which stimulate excessive venery and exaggerated passion.

Ipecaucuanha

Constant nausea; vomits just after eating; vomiting of foods and drinks taken in followed by bile, mucus with morning sickness; clean tongue with thirstlessness and distress in stomach; loss of appetite with disgust for food, coldness of extremities, imperceptible pulse, profuse discharge discharges of cold and clammy sweat; colic of gripping character about the umbilicus.

Kali Carb

Sleepy after eating, nausea at the time of waking up but better when lying down. sour vomiting, throbbing and cutting pain in the stomach.

Gossypium Herb

Morning sickness with a sensitive uterine region. backache, weight and dragging, feeling in the pelvis.

Sepia

Nausea at smell or sight of food, especially in the morning before eating; eating may temporarily relieve the nausea; stomach feels empty, even just after eating; a craving for sour food.

Acetic Acid

There is sour belching and vomiting during pregnancy with profuse water- brash. excessive salivation; fermentation in stomach; she has violent burning pain in stomach and chest, followed by coldness of skin and cold sweat on forehead; sour and bitter taste in mouth with excessive salivation day and night; she has constant feeling as if some ulcer is present in the stomach causing all the trouble; she vomits after every kind of food; nausea in the first trimester with painful enlargement of the breast; milk engorgement; milk is bluish and transparent; nipples are sore; distress in stomach gives great uneasiness; she has intense thirst and passes large amount of urine, with great prostration.

she has dropsical condition of the body; haemorrhages may cause fainting attacks and hot feeling with pulsations; oedema of legs with ulcers on the mucous surfaces; patient is pale thin and having anaemic look; uncontrollable thirst; burning and gnawing pain in the stomach with distension; abdominal discomfort is relieved by lying on the stomach or by pressure; rheumatism of upper and lower limbs with lameness and weak feeling; mentally she is very confused and peevish; forgetful, can not remember the recent events and forgets her own relatives; complaints about everything; irritability.

Kreosotum

Kreosotum lady has got very peculiar head, stomach and extremities symptoms; headache with dull, occipital pain and there is sensation as if a board is pressed against forehead; deafness and tinnitus; bitter taste in mouth with foul smelling; when the lady takes food there is sense of burning in the stomach and then she nauseates and vomits within two hours; undigested food particles are seen in vomitus; very offensive smell; sourness in abdomen with haematemesis; frequent and sudden urge to urinate; dragging backache; arthralgia of hip joint and knee joints; sleep is disturbed.

all the discharges of Kreosotum lady are putrid and acrid; they burn the parts upon which they pass; there are violent pulsations all over the body; there is profuse haemorrhage from small wounds; eczema, pustules and echymosis; dreams of fire and anxious events; haemorrhoids; patient desires so many things but doesn’t like them when offered and refuses those things; she is very irritable and is worse from music; it takes her weep and brings palpitations; she is very childish, stupid, and has loss of memory.