Morning Sickness Causes
Unfortunately,
no one is exactly sure what causes morning sickness but it would seem that
the cause is a combination of issues related to the chemical changes your
body is going through. Those changes include rapidly increasing estrogen and
progesterone levels, an enhanced sense of smell and excess stomach acids. It
has also been suggested that stress and fatigue that commonly accompany
pregnancy also play a role. One
of the theories is that morning sickness is caused by the dominant hormone
during pregnancy, progesterone. Progesterone has a "softening"
effect on the muscles in the body. It is thought it helps prevent preterm
labor by effecting the uterine muscles. It also effects other muscles, such
as the stomach and intestines. The progesterone relaxes the workings of the
whole digestive track which makes the elimination of bodily wastes slower
which can lead to a slow emptying of the stomach which leads to excess
stomach acids. Another
theory, and more widely accepted, is that morning sickness is caused by the
buildup of hCG (human chorionic gonadotopin) in your system. hCG is produced
after implantation takes place and continues to increase until about the 12th
week of your pregnancy, at which point the levels of hCG starts to decrease.
If you are lucky, this is when your morning sickness symptoms will start to
decrease as well. Morning sickness isn't all bad
though. Recent studies have suggested that mothers who have morning sickness
have fewer miscarriages so there IS a bright spot in the midst of your
morning, or in some cases, all day miseries. |
