morning sickness
Nausea: A Good Thing?
by Sheri Wallace

A good reason?

According to the study, there is an increased production of insulin during the first part of pregnancy. Insulin regulates the blood sugar in the mother, and is usually released by her body in response to the food that she eats. When insulin levels and levels of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are high in the mother's blood stream, she metabolizes more fat -- at the expense of the developing baby, say the researchers.

Thus, morning sickness is thought to keep the amount of food in the mother's bloodstream to a minimum, thereby keeping the insulin levels low and stalling the increased metabolism of fat. This gives the fetus the required number of nutrients.

According to the study, one of the reasons that morning sickness can go away after the first trimester is because as the pregnancy progresses, IGF-1 alone becomes the key to the fetusA growth. Thus, it is no longer necessary to suppress insulin levels. As additional support for their theory, the researchers pointed to several studies that indicate women with no morning sickness have higher rates of miscarriage and more underweight babies.