When is the earliest you can feel nauseous from pregnancy

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, often known as morning sickness, is very common in early pregnancy.

It can affect you at any time of the day or night or you may feel sick all day long.

Morning sickness is unpleasant, and can significantly affect your day-to-day life. But it usually clears up by weeks 16 to 20 of your pregnancy and does not put your baby at any increased risk.

There is a chance of developing a severe form of pregnancy sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum. This can be serious, and there's a chance you may not get enough fluids in your body (dehydration) or not get enough nutrients from your diet (malnourishment). You may need specialist treatment, sometimes in hospital.

Sometimes urinary tract infections (UTIs) can also cause nausea and vomiting. A UTI usually affects the bladder, but can spread to the kidneys.

Non-urgent advice: Call your midwife, GP or 111 if:

you're vomiting and:

  • have very dark-coloured urine or have not had a pee in more than 8 hours
  • are unable to keep food or fluids down for 24 hours
  • feel severely weak, dizzy or faint when standing up
  • have tummy (abdominal) pain
  • have a high temperature
  • vomit blood
  • have lost weight

Treatments for morning sickness

Unfortunately, there's no hard and fast treatment that will work for everyone’s morning sickness. Every pregnancy will be different.

But there are some changes you can make to your diet and daily life to try to ease the symptoms.

If these do not work for you or you're having more severe symptoms, your doctor or midwife might recommend medicine.

Things you can try yourself

If your morning sickness is not too bad, your GP or midwife will initially recommend you try some lifestyle changes:

  • get plenty of rest (tiredness can make nausea worse)
  • avoid foods or smells that make you feel sick
  • eat something like dry toast or a plain biscuit before you get out of bed
  • eat small, frequent meals of plain foods that are high in carbohydrate and low in fat (such as bread, rice, crackers and pasta)
  • eat cold foods rather than hot ones if the smell of hot meals makes you feel sick
  • drink plenty of fluids, such as water (sipping them little and often may help prevent vomiting)
  • eat foods or drinks containing ginger – there's some evidence ginger may help reduce nausea and vomiting (check with your pharmacist before taking ginger supplements during pregnancy)
  • try acupressure – there's some evidence that putting pressure on your wrist, using a special band or bracelet on your forearm, may help relieve the symptoms

Find out more about vitamins and supplements in pregnancy

Anti-sickness medicine

If your nausea and vomiting is severe and does not improve after trying the above lifestyle changes, your GP may recommend a short-term course of an anti-sickness medicine, called an antiemetic, that's safe to use in pregnancy.

Often this will be a type of antihistamine, which are usually used to treat allergies but also work as medicines to stop sickness (antiemetic).

Antiemetics will usually be given as tablets for you to swallow.

But if you cannot keep these down, your doctor may suggest an injection or a type of medicine that's inserted into your bottom (suppository).

See your GP if you'd like to talk about getting anti-sickness medication.

Risk factors for morning sickness

It's thought hormonal changes in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy are probably one of the causes of morning sickness.

But you may be more at risk of it if:

  • you're having twins or more
  • you had severe sickness and vomiting in a previous pregnancy
  • you tend to get motion sickness (for example, car sick)
  • you have a history of migraine headaches
  • morning sickness runs in the family
  • you used to feel sick when taking contraceptives containing oestrogen
  • it's your first pregnancy
  • you're obese (your BMI is 30 or more)
  • you're experiencing stress

Visit the pregnancy sickness support site for tips for you and your partner on dealing with morning sickness.

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Video: how can I cope with morning sickness?

In this video, a midwife gives advice on how to deal with morning sickness during your pregnancy.

Media last reviewed: 27 February 2017
Media review due: 27 March 2020

Morning sickness is one of the most common early pregnancy symptoms, but the severity varies for everyone. Some people feel a slight queasiness that comes and goes, while others feel sick enough to vomit. So when does morning sickness usually start and end? Here's a guide for parents-to-be.

When Does Morning Sickness Start?

While the morning sickness timeline isn't set in stone, most pregnant people start to feel queasy halfway through the first trimester, between weeks six and eight (though it may also start earlier. "Generally, it's not going to start after week 14," says Michele Hakakha, M.D., FACOG, an OB-GYN in Beverly Hills and author of Expecting 411. The exception: Late in pregnancy, your baby may push on your stomach and intestines, causing nausea. Many of the same strategies you use for standard morning sickness can also help with this late-pregnancy nausea.

Iakov Filimonov/shutterstock

Scientists still don't fully understand what causes morning sickness or why some pregnant people will only feel a bit queasy while others will vomit. The leading theory is that the pregnancy hormone hCG, as well as estrogen, begin to rise in the body and trigger a cascade of responses, including nausea and vomiting. Some researchers think that morning sickness may be the body's way of protecting a growing fetus by purging the body of anything potentially toxic. This may explain certain food aversions or sensitivities to smells that previously didn't bother you.

In one study, researchers found that people with morning sickness symptoms were less likely to have a miscarriage. But that is not to say that if you don't have morning sickness, you should be concerned. Lots of expecting parents will skip the dreaded morning sickness phase and go on to deliver healthy babies.

For many pregnant folks, morning sickness symptoms will begin around week 6 of gestation. They often stop by 10-14 weeks but may continue until weeks 16 to 18—or occasionally until the end of pregnancy. Despite common misconception, the nausea doesn't only happen in the morning for many people.

To manage some of the less-than-pleasant symptoms, try eating salty crackers or ginger. You should also talk to your doctor about your prenatal vitamins. For some pregnant parents, the iron content in prenatal vitamins can be high enough to cause an upset stomach, nausea, and vomiting. In one study, researchers found that by simply avoiding iron in supplements, pregnant people were able to dramatically reduce the amount of morning sickness symptoms they felt. If you do opt to avoid iron in your vitamins, make sure you are getting iron—and folic acid—from another source.

A few great sources of iron and folic acid include:

  • Dark green leafy veggies like kale, spinach, and watercress
  • Brown rice
  • Fish and red meat
  • Tofu, nuts, and seeds

When Does Morning Sickness End?

Most people start to feel much better by week 16. Only a small number (around 10% of parents-to-be) experience nausea and vomiting all pregnancy long.

There are certain items that can help you feel better, like ginger candy or a vitamin B6 supplement. Over-the-counter and prescription medicines can also help, so make sure to talk to your doctor. Severe weight loss as a result of illness may be dangerous to a developing fetus and should be treated either at home or in a hospital setting, says Marra Francis, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist in The Woodlands, Texas.

If your morning sickness isn't letting up, let your doctor know. You could be dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), which is a severe form of morning sickness that can last the entire pregnancy. HG can be a debilitating condition that may require hospitalization for IV fluids. Some of the symptoms of HG include:

  • Nausea with extreme vomiting
  • Weight loss
  • Dehydration and disruption of electrolytes
  • Inability to retain food or drink
  • Nausea does not ease

HG is rare; only around 2% of pregnant parents will experience this severe version of morning sickness.

Also, alert your doctor if morning sickness stops abruptly during the first trimester—but keep in mind that this doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with your pregnancy. For some, nausea is a symptom that they feel every day, and for others, nausea is intermittent.

Dealing with morning sickness may not be the glowing part of pregnancy you were looking forward to, but it will not likely last for more than a few weeks. To help deter morning sickness, you can talk to your doctor about supplements, diet, exercise, and other factors that can help keep you from feeling a wave of green.

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How soon after conception can nausea start?

Nausea or vomiting This symptom can set in as early as two weeks after conception, which is around the fourth week of pregnancy and right around the time you'd miss your period if you were pregnant. But some may not experience nausea or vomiting at all.

Can you feel pregnant after 2 days?

However, keep in mind that premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms and those of early pregnancy can be very similar—and pregnancy symptoms most often don't occur until after you've missed a period not before. Having symptoms a day or two after having sex is usually not a sign of pregnancy.