5 September 2026 · Roshni Mahtani Cheung
Cofounder, Little Rei · Mother of one
Morning Sickness, and the Biscuits by the Bed
The plate of plain biscuits and the glass of water on the nightstand is the most-repeated advice in early pregnancy. It worked for me, which surprised me, because almost nothing else on the list did.
An empty stomach makes the nausea worse, and your stomach is emptiest after a night's sleep, so eating before you sit up heads it off. The part people leave out is that you have to eat lying down, or at least before your feet touch the floor. Skip that and it often doesn't work, so a lot of people try it once and give up.
The name is wrong and it matters
For most women it isn't only in the morning. The name leaves you wondering what's wrong with you when it arrives at six in the evening, which is when mine always did.
Most pregnant women get some nausea. It usually starts before week nine and eases between weeks fourteen and twenty, though for a minority it goes on well beyond that. Knowing that pattern helped me more than any remedy did, because the worst part of the first trimester was not knowing whether I'd feel like this for the rest of the pregnancy.
What helped
Eating before getting up, as above. Then small amounts often, because an empty stomach and an overfull one both set it off, so I ate roughly every two hours and never until I was full.
Cold food, because heat carries smell, and smell was the trigger I could least control. Cold rice, cut fruit, plain crackers and yoghurt got me through weeks six to twelve, and I couldn't be in the kitchen while anything cooked, which my husband handled without once making it a thing.
Ginger, which has reasonable evidence behind it for mild to moderate nausea. It's the one traditional remedy I'd use again: ginger tea, ginger sweets, ginger in anything.
Fluids in small sips through the day, not a glass at a time. A full glass on a bad stomach came straight back up and left me worse off than before.
What didn't
The acupressure bands did nothing for me. The evidence on them is mixed, though, and plenty of people swear by them, so I wouldn't talk anybody out of trying a cheap pair.
Dry toast, which everybody recommends and which I couldn't get down. Eating more protein, which people kept suggesting, when the whole problem was that I couldn't face food. And pushing through it at work, which I did for about three weeks before admitting that I was not, in fact, managing.
Elsewhere in pregnancy
When it stops being ordinary
This is the part I wish I'd seen in bold. Sickness in early pregnancy is usually treated as something to put up with, but there's a severe form that needs medical treatment.
- Unable to keep any fluid down for more than about a day
- Passing very little urine, or urine that's dark
- Losing weight instead of holding steady
- Dizzy on standing, or a racing heart
- Vomiting blood, or severe pain with the sickness
Hyperemesis gravidarum is the severe end of this. It's a treatable medical condition, not bad luck. There are anti-sickness medicines that are considered acceptable in pregnancy and are prescribed regularly. A woman who's been vomiting for a week shouldn't let anybody talk her out of asking for them by telling her it's natural.
Shan is ten and I remember almost nothing about weeks six to twelve except the shape of the ceiling above our bed and the fact that the biscuits worked. I never did find out why the ginger helped and the toast didn't.
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.