Question: Can you tell us please when morning sickness stops for pregnant women, and what treatment could reduce it? Thanks. Baan Ahmed, Osborne Park

Answer: Morning sickness affects more than 50% of pregnant women. It usually starts after the first month of pregnancy and continues for most women until the third or fourth month when it spontaneously improves. About 1% of pregnant women have morning sickness throughout their pregnancy. The exact cause of morning sickness is not known but it is likely that a combination of hormonal and environmental factors contribute to morning sickness. It is often said that morning sickness indicates a healthy pregnancy and there has been some research that confirms that women who suffer from morning sickness are less likely to miscarry. This is not likely to make you feel better when you are vomiting however!

There are many home remedies suggested for morning sickness, it might be necessary to try a few until you find one that suits you. Some popular remedies include eating dry toast or a dry biscuit before getting out of bed, smelling a cut lemon (this does actually work but it is slightly inconvenient when driving the car or going to work!), eating smaller meals more often to avoid getting too hungry; ginger tea is also said to be effective.

If the morning sickness persists and interferes with normal pregnancy weight gain then your general practitioner can prescribe safe medication to help get the nausea under control.