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Morning sickness is among the most common signs of pregnancy. Usually, morning sickness starts around the ninth week of conception. But some people experience it sooner.
Morning sickness is among the most common signs of pregnancy, along with a missed period. Keep in mind that the weeks of your pregnancy start from the first day of your last period.
This means you're not pregnant for the first two weeks of the gestation period (pregnancy) since your body is still preparing to release the egg from the ovary. Even if you are counting from the time of fertilization or implantation, one week is probably too soon to get morning sickness.
Usually, morning sickness starts around the ninth week of conception. But some people experience it sooner.
How soon can you get morning sickness?
Although it's called morning sickness, symptoms can occur at any time during the day or night. Some women start feeling nausea as early as two weeks into their pregnancy.
For others, morning sickness starts a few months after conceiving the child. Many pregnant women experience morning sickness during their first trimester. Some women have morning sickness throughout the length of their pregnancy.
In rare instances, morning sickness becomes so severe that it progresses into hyperemesis gravidarum. In this condition, the vomiting and nausea caused due to morning sickness lead to severe dehydration. The woman may experience a loss of over 5% of her pre-pregnancy body weight.
If you have hyperemesis gravidarum, you may need to be hospitalized for treatment with medications and intravenous fluids. It's essential to see a doctor when a pregnant woman has the following symptoms:
- Inability to keep liquids down
- Severe vomiting and nausea
- Passing only a small amount of urine
- Passing urine that's darker in color than normal
- Racing heart
- A feeling of dizziness and faintness
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Nothing can relieve the symptoms of morning sickness.
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Symptoms of morning sickness
Common symptoms of morning sickness are vomiting and nausea. These signs may be triggered by heat, spicy foods, or odors. Sometimes, there are no triggers.
Risk factors
Although morning sickness can affect any pregnant woman, it's more likely to occur in women who have nausea due to migraines and motion sickness. If you had morning sickness in your previous pregnancies, you're likely to have it in any later pregnancy.
Women who're pregnant with multiple children are also more likely to experience morning sickness. Hyperemesis gravidarum is likely to occur in women who had the condition in a past pregnancy or have a family history of the condition.
Women pregnant with a girl are also more likely to have hyperemesis gravidarum. If you have excessive vomiting or severe dehydration due to morning sickness, speak to your doctor right away.
Other early signs of pregnancy
Besides morning sickness, some other early pregnancy signs appear sooner than nausea and vomiting. The most important symptom is a missed period.
If you have missed your period, it could indicate that conception has taken place and egg and sperm have fused. But a missed period does not always indicate pregnancy.
You could miss a period due to hormonal imbalances, stress, and dieting. Another early sign of pregnancy is frequent urination. You'll notice that you're going to the bathroom more than you usually do.
Frequent urination can indicate pregnancy even before a missed period. You tend to urinate more when you're pregnant because you have more blood than you previously did.
Your kidneys work hard to remove waste from the blood and produce urine. Since there's more blood, there's more urine too. Most women also feel tired early in their pregnancy. This is due to the high level of progesterone hormone in the body.
Fatigue gets better during the second trimester. But for most women, it returns in the third trimester.
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What to think about in week 1?
If you're still waiting for a word from your doctor during the first week after a missed period, you can do some things to prepare for the pregnancy.
- Take a folic acid supplement until the 12th week of your pregnancy. Even if you're not 100% sure that you're pregnant, you should take a folic acid supplement of 400 micrograms every day since it helps in conception.
- Take a Vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms every day.
- Stop smoking and drinking.
- Avoid foods that could cause infection.
Speak to your doctor about precautions to take during the pregnancy.
Can you have symptoms of early pregnancy and not be pregnant?
Sometimes, early pregnancy symptoms are similar to signs of other medical conditions. Even premenstrual symptoms may overlap with early signs of pregnancy in some cases. It can be difficult to determine if the nausea is indeed due to pregnancy.
You may also miss your period even if you're not pregnant. For example, if you gain or lose a lot of weight or exercise excessively, you may not have your period regularly. Your period can also be irregular if you're stressed or breastfeeding.
If you notice any signs of early pregnancy, such as morning sickness, take a pregnancy test.