Did your mother have severe morning sickness when she was pregnant with you, or with your siblings? Do you have sisters who were plagued by bouts of morning sickness during their pregnancies? If so, it turns out that you are likely to experience symptoms of nausea during your pregnancy as well. Studies show that morning sickness is linked to genetics. This means it can run in families.
If I remember correctly, one of my cousins suffered through severe morning sickness with all of her pregnancies. She has a daughter who may very well grow up and experience the same severe morning sickness as her mother once did. This information can be a useful tool. For example, let’s say, years and years from now, my cousin’s daughter grows up, and decides to start a family of her own. If she knows that she is very likely to experience severe morning sickness, she can plan around it. Perhaps she will try and work afternoon shifts, instead of morning ones. Or, she might decided to take her pregnancy leave earlier than expected. This might make her pregnancy a bit less difficult.
There was a study done at the University of Southern California, that specifically looked at hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), (which is what we usually call “morning sickness”). Symptoms of this condition include “unrelenting, excessive nausea” and enough vomiting to put a woman at risk of malnutrition, dehydration, and significant weight loss. This condition can send a woman to the hospital.
The study found that women who had a sister that had HG during her pregnancy are 17 times more likely to also experience HG when they become pregnant. Previous research, in a different study, indicated that severe morning sickness will either be experienced by both members of a set of twins, or by neither one. Together, these studies mean that there is a genetic link that influences whether or not a woman will suffer through severe morning sickness. The specific genes involved have yet to be discovered.
What are your chances of having morning sickness? You may want to connect with your living female relatives, and start asking them questions about what their pregnancies were like. If they experienced HG, they might have some excellent ideas about how to deal with it.
Image by Mahalie Stackpole on Flickr