September 26, 1997

Easing the wretchedness of morning sickness

Dr. Beverly O'Brien

Charlotte Bronte died from it 10 months after she was married. The famed author of one of the world's greatest love stories, Jane Eyre, suffered from dehydration and liver damage. She starved to death.

Charlotte Bronte had morning sickness.

Today, one per cent of pregnant women is hospitalized with severe morning sickness. This may not sound like a lot, but it means about 500 women each year in Alberta cannot work, take care of their children or maintain an active social life because of severe morning sickness.

Most women, about 80 per cent and from all walks of life, suffer from some degree of morning sickness at some point in their pregnancy.

Dr. Beverly O'Brien is trying to change this and make pregnant women feel better. The former community health nurse is the principal investigator in a study looking at ways to alleviate the vomiting, nausea and retching associated with severe morning sickness.

The study is testing ginger - the hot spicy root usually found in Asian foods and crispy cookies - which a Dutch study concluded helped pregnant women. But O'Brien wanted more information, and she wants to compare the efficacy of ginger with the current, drug therapy, Diclectin.

O'Brien says more than 30 million women have used Diclectin since the 1950's and there have been no documented side effects. But because of the thalidomide scare, many women are reluctant to take the drug. And, as a result, no one knows just how well it works.

For some women, it doesn't work at all, says Canada's leading expert on morning sickness. That could be the case with ginger also.

"If ginger does help, it won't stop the morning sickness," says O'Brien. But it could make women feel more comfortable.

Ginger is believed to be a digestive aid in Asian cultures. Asian health practitioners prescribe three to five times the dosage used in the study to help alleviate morning sickness.

Could ginger be a natural method of easing a condition that Aristotle wrote about, that Egyptians included in their hieroglyphics and philosophers mentioned around the time of Christ?

O'Brien is quick to point out that some women say nothing at all helps them. In addition to the nausea and vomiting, some women live with an increased heart rate, a hypersensitivity to sensory stimulation and a despair that they'll never feel better, says O'Brien.

What O'Brien does know from her years in the field is that lying down and resting with eyes shut and no movement helps the most.

"This is something no medical or midwifery textbook has written down," says O'Brien.

Nine women have joined the study so far. It is funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada. O'Brien hopes to include 180 in the study by the time it ends in two years.

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