Patterns of nausea and vomiting in first pregnancies
Creators: name: Strahn, Marcia Ann
Publisher: name: University of Utah
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Nausea
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: One component of this study was to describe patterns of nausea and vomiting reported by primigravidas women.  Since nausea and vomiting are so widely experience by pregnant women and since surprisingly little is know about he cause of these symptoms as evidence by the wide rage of theories, the study of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy presents problems of definition and diagnosis.  The second aspect was to begin to develop a tool for further research related to nausea and vomiting in pregnancy to enable the practitioner to offer better support to the mother and recommend treatment based individually on evaluation of specific symptoms.  This was an inferential study with a one group design utilizing a survey as the primary tool.  The survey instrument was composed of two parts, one developed by the investigator and the second developed by Sullivan for use in a previous study on pregnancy symptoms at the University of Utah.  Sixty-one primigravidas women voluntarily completed the survey from at the time of their scheduled prenatal visits. The following four patterns of symptoms became apparent in the analysis of the data:  (1) no symptoms of nausea and/or vomiting; (2) symptoms of nausea and/or vomiting in the late night hours or in the morning hours; (3) symptoms of nausea and/ or vomiting occurring at varied times during a 24-hour period; and (4) symptoms of nausea and/or vomiting during late morning, afternoon, and/or evenings.  The findings were both positive and negative.  No significant relationships were found between the pattern of nausea and vomiting and the following variables: age, weeks of gestation at the time of the survey, onset and duration of nausea and vomiting, gastrointestinal symptoms in the second trimester, incidence of vomiting subsequent to alcohol intake, pain with menses, history of nausea while taking oral contraceptives, frequency and onset of menses, stresses related to social situation, family relationships, finances, life style, and changes in personal habits, Cornell Psychiatric Index, neuromuscular and skin symptoms in the first and second trimesters, plans for pregnancy, perception of nausea interfering with activities of daily living and plans to breast feed.  Those findings that were significant are the following:  Ease of pregnancy was strongly associated with symptoms of nausea and vomiting; that is, those with many hours of nausea thought their pregnancies more difficult than expected. Those with higher scores for symptom proneness and gastrointestinal and general adaptation stress symptoms in the first trimester tended to have more nausea.  Those with the early day pattern felt the least improvement after vomiting, while all those with the late day pattern reported improvement after vomiting.  Those women with early day pattern had less nausea after eating and more vomiting before eating than the other two groups of women experiencing nausea and vomiting in their pregnancies.  The commonly used drug for nausea, Bendectin, was not highly effective in the treatment of nausea and vomiting.  Minimization of nausea and vomiting through further research related to patterns and treatments can contribute greatly to the comfort and happiness of women during pregnancy.  Anticipatory guidance can be provided related to findings of this study.  Indiscriminate use of Bendectin is unwarranted.