Is morning sickness inevitable? Emetephobe!

[maudesid]

If you saw my last post you will know I got my BFP yesterday, and although it was very much planned I'm in total shock!
For a bit of context I have ptsd which caused an anxiety disorder so my anxiety is pretty high right now, I suffer badly with emetephobia (fear of vomiting) and I am already scared I will get HG or bad morning sickness. Firstly I'm not sure how my mental health would cope and secondly I own a business and work 10 hours a day in a physical face to face job so worried about that.
I just wondered if it's inevitable and how you coped or if some of you had no sickness?

Congratulations OP! I am also an emetophobe and was absolutely shitting it about being sick. I had a few bouts of nausea and what I can only describe as a travel sickness type feeling in the early weeks. I wore travel bands when it came on which really helped, and I also had a pack of plain crackers on hand all day at work as I felt the grazing helped keep it at bay.

I also would eat something before getting out of bed - usually just a digestive with a cup of tea.

I wasn't sick at all and the handful of occasions on which I felt sick stopped after about 10 weeks.

I didn't. I felt off/queasy and needed to have a jacobs cracker at about 11:30am, 4pm and 8pm to stave off feeling more queasy. I had an aversion to eating food, though, Had no appetite and felt full after a few bites.

Nope. Now expecting number 3 and I don't ever seem to get morning sickness fortunately.

@maudesid I’m 12+1 today and whilst I’ve felt nauseous occasionally I haven’t been sick.

My mum had three kids and had nothing with any of us

No nausea or vomiting in any of my 3 pregnancies.

I'm emetaphobic. I got through my first pregnancy and birth without vomiting. I'm just coming to the end of the first trimester in my second pregnancy and again no vomiting. Both times I have been very nauseous, constantly from 6-9 weeks and much less so from 10-14 weeks (I'm 13 weeks now so I hope it ends next week this time too!). I found this very distressing but this time I have got anti-emetics from my GP which has made it a bit better and I feel much more in control. But I had no medication in my first pregnancy and I still was never sick.

I get very easily sea sick and car sick, so I was worried about morning sickness.

However, like many, it went like this: queasy for the first 3 months (not just in the morning, more likely in the evening, actually), but never sick once.
And then it completely stopped after 3 months.

I found that eating food with a strong taste and smell (e.g. mints) would fend off the nausea.
And some smells would make the nausea stronger (e.g. traffic fumes, urgh)

However, I was also knackered during this 1st trimester, and that was actually the hardest bit. I almost fainted once or twice (anemia). So do be ready to take it easy.
You may get an extra burst of energy in the 2nd trimester. Make the most of it!
In the 3rd trimester, your mobility will probably be much reduced, so take it easy again.

Congratulations on your bfp! Many have no nausea and many more have nausea with no actual sickness, so it’s not inevitable. If you get sickness go straight to your gp for antisickness medication. Good luck

Not formally diagnosed but I am also petrified of being sick (the thought of it makes my heart race, sweaty and panic).. I was so so worried but I’m now 11 weeks and not been sick once, I’ve definitley felt nauseas at times which isn’t pleasant but never physically been sick and hoping that continues. X

Congratulations! I’m a fellow emetophobic too, my first two pregnancies went without a hint of nausea. I’m currently pregnant with my third and have been extremely nauseous and I find the anxiety that comes with the thought of vomiting makes it worse. I was prescribed cyclizine which helped a lot. I thankfully wasn’t actually sick, though just being extremely nauseous (days I couldn’t get out of bed) was hard.

Pregnancies can be done without being sick, I’m now 17 weeks and (touch would) haven’t vomited in this pregnancy either.

What I would say, when labour comes (I know it’s a long way off) make your midwife aware of your fear. I made sure to tell mine and it meant they didn’t try to persuade me to have gas and aid (in case it made me sick) and they were understanding in why I wouldn’t try certain pain relief before opting for an epidural or no pain relief at all.

Good luck!!

About 1/3 of pregnancies involve no nausea whatsoever, if I remember right, so no, it's definitely not inevitable.

Congratulations 🥰
Baby #1.. Hospitalised for sickness, awful.
Baby #2.. Felt nauseous alot but only sick 5 times.
Baby #3.. sick a lot and felt nauseous constantly.
Baby #4.. only been sick twice so far but feel nauseous constantly.

My friend has 3 kids and never got morning sickness though! Lucky cow. So it is possible.

Fingers crossed you don't get any!!x

Emetophobe here as well! I found weeks 7-9 the hardest as I felt nauseous (and obv anxious) all the time but as many have said here I was never sick. Pregnancy nausea is also quite different to regular nausea. It feels almost like extreme hunger and making sure you eat constantly helps a lot! Keep crackers on your bedside table and eat a few whenever you wake up in the night and before getting up in the morning. From weeks 10-14 I was able to work normally and get back to regular life, with only very occasional bouts of queasiness.

Other things that helped were vitamin B6, ginger lozenges against nausea, preggie pop candy and fennel tea. I also wore sea bands but I'm not sure that made such a huge difference. There's also an app called Nevasic which plays a strange tinkly music that is supposed to help balance the dizzy feeling in your ears and ease nausea. I found that was alright but gave me too much headspace to focus on my anxiety. What actually helped most was playing mindless mobile games (the ones where you line up blocks or pop bubbles etc) because that kept me just occupied enough to forget the anxiety and the nausea usually went away too.

The nausea returned briefly around week 28 but it turned out I had gestational diabetes so I think that was actually a blood sugar problem. As soon as I adjusted my diet and drastically cut down carbs, it went away completely. I never even had heartburn during the third trimester. I had an elective c-section and didn't have a hint of nausea during or after the birth. I declined the morphine since that often has nausea as a side effect and found that my pain was totally manageable with OTC meds (I used Solpadeine and ibuprofen, and didn't even need to take them around the clock).

Congratulations. I have never vomited in pregnancy. I had mild nausea in one pregnancy.

I am diabetic so try to maintain steady blood sugar. I do wonder if eating little and often helps.

3 pregnancies, no morning sickness at all on any. A little bit of nausea but was easily solved by random things like sesame sticks, Loop de Loops and juice bar juices 🤣 Don’t ask me why - I just have memories of wanting these things when I felt a bit nauseous (which was very seldom).

I was queasy for all three of my pregnancies, but the only time I threw up was when I scoffed a huge bag of Dolly Mixtures.

Congratulations! 2 pregnancies here 1st undetected until 30 weeks the other I know from dtd. Both had no sickness or symptoms but i did pay for it from around 30 weeks with other issues!!🤣

Congratulations! Another here who didn't have any nausea or morning sickness throughout my pregnancy although I did end up with pre-eclampsia and an emergency c-section.

On the other hand my friend has just had a baby and she had HG throughout and ended up being overdue and induced.

Not inevitable. First time never sick only hungry. Second time felt a bit sick for first couple of months but never felt like I’d be sick

Three DC. Was never sick with any of them. Never even felt slightly nauseous apart from one occasion with DC2 when DH offered me some chips and I turned them down because I didn't fancy them. Previously unherd of.

Definitely not inevitable as lots of my friends didnt get sick.
I did get HG but i had twins so my hormone levels were really high.
One thing i would say is IF you experience any nausea or vomiting then speak to your GP and they can give you some medication. I eventually found a combination of anti sickness meds which meant I was no longer sick and eventually weaned off and it stopped altogether.

Thank you! I can't tell you how much your words are helping, it's encouraging hearing from others with the same phobia as well.
I have therapy for my anxiety and ptsd and we do cover the emetephobia, I've certainly made progress as I work with very small children who are sick a lot and can manage that ok now. It's still very hard for me to feel or think about being sick though.
I think it is very slowly sinking in and I'm starting to feel excited, I'm feeling nauseous on and off but I think that is actually anxiety as I must only be 3-4 weeks.
Will phone my surgery next week all being well..

I also have a phobia of vomiting. I felt nauseous in first trimester but never vomited. I would say be prepared in advance - buy plain snacks eg crisps and buy ginger things like ginger biscuits, also fizzy water and ice lollies (not sure why but the cold sucking really helped!). These are all great for nausea. Also I bought sea sickness bands. If you ever felt the nausea or did develop vomiting there are lots of different medications you can get from the doctor too. I do think as I was so scared that I wouldn't have actually let myself vomit, I was borderline a few times but just knew my body wouldn't do that to me lol if that makes sense. Good luck!

Soon after getting pregnant I bought a bottle of peppermint oil from amazon. A couple of drops on a tissue to sniff and it takes away the feeling of nausea straight away... I have to keep sniffing it though! At night I do this too, you can drip the drops straight onto your pillowcase. During the day munching or chewing helps, which seems counterintuitive with sickness but it does help to eat.

Another lucky one with no nausea or vomiting here. All I had was a slight aversion to certain foods and smells and lost my appetite a bit. But on the whole felt really well. Really feel for people who struggle with sickness - you all have my utmost respect for what you have dealt with!