Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called Ask a Nutritionist. My name is Brittany Vincent,

and I am a registered and licensed dietitian at Nutrition on Weight and Wellness.

And today I'm going to be talking about a topic that almost always comes up with my clients that are

pregnant. And that's morning sickness because it affects about 75% of pregnant women.

Despite the name morning sickness, it really can hit any time a day, sometimes causes vomiting, too.

Typically, it's going to happen in the first trimester.

Often it gets better or completely goes away in the second and third trimester.

So with the morning sickness, you have the nausea, sometimes vomiting, low appetite. Many women also have

food aversion. So this can make eating extremely difficult. And at the same time, this is a season

when your nutrient needs are actually higher than ever. So I think this episode is really important for anybody struggling with morning sickness

or if you're planning on getting pregnant in the future, you'll have some of this knowledge

ahead of time. And I've been there. You know, it is rough. I had morning sickness with both of my

pregnancies. And it can be a really tough go. But today I'm going to talk about

why morning sickness happens, strategies to improve morning sickness. And most importantly,

I'll provide some practical, real food strategies that will help you stay nourished, even when your appetite can be low or just

completely unpredictable. And whether you are struggling with nausea all day or maybe it's

fairly mild for you. And my goal is that you can walk away with simpler realistic tools that

support you and your growing baby. So let me start by talking more about why this happens.

And morning sickness is not usually random.

It's often driven by a combination of things.

And during pregnancy, especially that first trimester,

you're going to have a rise in the hormone

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