Morning Sickness Cures Unproven

The Scoop

Nausea bands, ginger, vitamin B6. Do any of these remedies really work to relieve early pregnancy nausea? The answer is unclear, according to a team of scientists from the Dublin City University in Ireland who conducted a review of research on the safety and efficacy of morning sickness remedies—and turned up only sketchy results.

Published online September 8, 2010, by the Cochrane Review, researchers reviewed 27 trials with 4041 pregnant women to note levels of nausea with the use of such treatments as acupuncture, use of ginger, anti-vomiting drugs, and vitamin B6. Their results showed very inconsistent findings on how well various natural treatments worked and little information on the risk for adverse outcomes when using anti-vomiting medications.

"A number of the studies we looked at appeared to show benefits, but in general the results were inconsistent and it was difficult to draw firm conclusions about any one treatment in particular," Anne Matthews, lead researcher at the School of Nursing at Dublin City University in Ireland, says in an interview with the UK's Independent newspaper.

Your Health

From sniffing freshly cut lemons and sucking on vitamin B6-infused lollipops to wearing motion sickness acupressure bands and the good old standby of ginger ale and crackers, there's no shortage of home remedies for treating morning sickness. Still, with such limited availability on how well these remedies work (and whether some of them are safe), it is always a good idea to check in with your doctor or midwife about the course you are taking to make it through normal first-trimester nausea. You care provider might also be able to make specific recommendations for remedies to try. Anti-nausea and anti-vomiting medications are typically reserved only for cases of hyperemesis gravidarum, or excessive vomiting in pregnancy.