What we know about treating nausea during pregnancy

Feeling nauseous while pregnant can have a debilitating effect on your life – making it difficult to concentrate at work, care for other children and even perform ordinary tasks like taking out the garbage.

I experienced nausea in varying degrees during each of my three pregnancies, and I was always on the lookout for something to relieve the queasiness.  (By my own calculations, I spent an entire calendar year of my life feeling nauseous.) I tried everything: ginger candies, seltzer water, saltine crackers, acupressure bracelets, and eating smaller meals. For intermittent periods, I also used a prescription anti-nausea medication. Some of the treatments seemed to help me feel better for a while, but I didn’t find anything that I would call a panacea.

So I was intrigued to find that the Cochrane Collaboration recently updated their systematic review on interventions for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

Unfortunately, their analysis doesn’t offer any good news for women who are pregnant and feeling queasy. In total, they examined 37 randomized controlled trials that included a total of more than 5,000 participants and a slew of treatments. Among the interventions they analyzed were acupressure, acupuncture, ginger, chamomile, vitamin B6, lemon oil, mint oil, and several prescription medications.

While some studies showed improvements, the researchers concluded on the whole that results for nausea treatments were “inconsistent and limited.”

One major problem they found is the lack of consistent measurement for nausea and vomiting in pregnant women, and little information on whether the treatments improved women’s quality of life. They did find very few side effects or adverse outcomes for both mothers and babies.

The take-home message: There is no evidence that nausea interventions for pregnant women work consistently. But most commonly recommended treatments have no adverse reactions, so feel free to give them a try.