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| Wednesday, 12 July 2006 10:14 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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Scientists from the University of Liverpool claim that nausea and sickness during pregnancy are the body's way of protecting mother and baby against poisons and stomach bugs in food.
Gillian Pepper and Dr Craig Roberts at the university put together 56 studies from 21 countries that looked at the prevalence of nausea and sickness in pregnant women. They linked these figures to the typical diet in each country.
They found that countries with a high intake of sugars, sweeteners, stimulants such as caffeine, vegetables, meats, milk and eggs had more sick pregnant women, and those with high intake of cereals and pulses had lower levels. "Taken together, our results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting links between nausea and vomiting during pregnancy and diet," they write in today's issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Dr Craig Roberts said: "While there may be no particular harm in eating, say, meat, now that we have refrigeration and best before dates, our bodies may be pre-programmed by evolution to avoid these particular foodstuffs in the first trimester.
"It may be that the nausea women feel towards certain foodstuffs could be helpful and that although it is inconvenient and miserable, their nausea could be nature's way of avoiding problems in pregnancy for both mother and foetus”.
Dr Maggie Blott, a consultant obstetrician at London's King's College Hospital, said: "I can understand why Mother Nature might do this.
"Morning sickness is always worst in the first three months, which is when the most important part of a foetus's development is happening”.
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