It has always been believed that nausea during the first months of pregnancy was a good sign, as it meant that the pregnancy was developing in a healthy way. Well, researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in the United States, have just found evidence that this discomfort, so unpleasant for pregnant women, is usually linked to a lower risk of having an unwanted abortion.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine , was conducted among a total of 797 women, who kept a daily log of pregnancy-related symptoms , including nausea and vomiting.
In the eighth week of gestation, 57.3% acknowledged having felt nausea; and in 26.6% of the cases, these were accompanied by vomiting. According to the researchers’ analyzes, women with nausea and vomiting in the first months of gestation had a lower risk of pregnancy loss: between 50% and 75% compared to those who did not experience nausea or nausea accompanied by vomiting . Of all the pregnancies, a total of 188 ended in miscarriage.
“Our study assesses symptoms from the first weeks of pregnancy, immediately after conception, and confirms that there is a protective association between nausea and vomiting and a lower risk of fetal loss,” explained the Stefanie N. Hinkle, Ph.D., lead author of the study. The causes of these morning sickness are still unknown, but researchers suggest that they are responsible for protecting the fetus from toxins and pathogenic organisms present in food and beverages .
