SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – “Though bouts of morning sickness are normally indicative of a healthy pregnancy, severe cases can cause nutritional imbalances that interfere in the supply of folic acid, increasing the chances of deformed and low-birth weight newborns.”
Dr. Han Jeong-yeol of Cheil General Hospital, who led a study into the effects varying levels of morning sickness have on the lifestyles of expecting mothers, has discovered that women who experience particularly acute bouts of morning sickness should seek medical treatment to protect the health of their unborn children.
Han said, “Nutritional imbalances during the fetal period can have negative consequences once the child reaches adulthood in the form of vulnerability to diabetes and imperfectly developed nervous systems. As such, pregnant women with are struggling with severe morning sickness should receive devoted care and treatment.”
Data for the study was gathered from 472 pregnant women at four hospitals.
Among the study participants, 381 (80.7 percent) reported having endured morning sickness, 7 percent of whom were hospitalized, and 63 percent were administered light treatment.
The likelihood of morning sickness recurring in later pregnancies was 11 times higher than not if a woman had suffered through it once before.
On average, nausea and vomiting during pregnancy began to manifest halfway through the first trimester (sixth week), with the majority no longer suffering from morning sickness by the 14th week.
The study encourages regulating one’s diet by dividing meals into smaller portions and avoiding spicy and oily foods.
The research was published in the latest issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology Science.