Pregnant Ladies! Self Care for Morning Sickness
It’s definitely an interesting time to be pregnant or to be bringing a little one into the world. We’re sure this isn’t exactly how you envisaged or planned for things to go.
One thing we can be sure of (whether it feels good or bad right now), is this: Life does go on. Even though it might feel like things are at a bit of a standstill sometimes! The sun keeps coming up, and we’re surrounded by new life, if we look for it.
There is no doubt that pregnancy can be a physical and emotional challenge and one of the most well-known is morning sickness. Are there ways to help reduce morning sickness naturally? When does morning sickness end? Are there things you can do to reduce heartburn? These are all questions we hear a lot from our beautiful mums-to-be.
While morning sickness frequency and intensity vary from person to person, there are definitely some things we’ve found that you can do at home to help reduce morning sickness:
Gua Sha for morning sickness and heartburn
Slight changes to your eating routine and habits
Supplements and aids to help reduce morning sickness
Gua Sha for morning sickness and heartburn
Gua Sha is the technique of rubbing a smooth-edged instrument across the skin. Where there is some imbalance the skin will turn a red colour and this is a positive outcome.
You can have a look online for an inexpensive gua sha tool or if you have a Chinese porcelain soup spoon at home this is perfect too.
In Acupuncture practice, the Stomach meridian runs down the front of the leg. Internally it connects with the stomach and this is an area to address when morning sickness or reflux is bad.
If you are feeling particularly weak go lightly with the technique.
This awesome video shows you how to use your Gua Sha tool or porcelain soup spoon. Gently scrape down your lower leg Stomach Meridian, just to the outside of the shin bone (not on it!)
Diet changes to help reduce morning sickness
Don’t let yourself get super hungry. If you focus on eating lots of protein and eating smaller portions more frequently, it helps to manage your blood sugar levels. Low blood sugar levels spike cortisol, which makes you feel nauseous when pregnant.
Dry Crackers and Water by your bed can sometimes help first thing in the morning. Sometimes you just need something in your tummy as soon as you wake up, to help reduce that first thing in the morning nausea.
Ginger Tea, which is just a couple of slices of ginger in boiling water, can help manage nausea.
Lemon Barley Cordial can help, if ginger tea doesn’t give you any relief. Try to keep it to no more than 1 a day.
Supplements and Medical Aids to help reduce morning sickness
There’s an acupressure point on the forearm that can relieve that queasy feeling. To use this to your best advantage, you can buy a seasickness band online or at your local pharmacy or online.
Also, making sure you change your prenatal supplements for trimester 1 or however long you’re experiencing morning sickness symptoms is incredibly important. The iron and higher zinc in your preconception multi tablets can make the nausea worse. Try instead Naturobest Trimester 1 with Ginger multivitamin. It’s awesome!
If you’d like some extra help, book an online Acupressure consult and we can go over everything with you including more Acupressure points to help!
