Nausea, Dizziness, and Food Cravings – Understanding The Early Symptoms of Pregnancy

While pregnancy may always be an anticipated event, you must know that the journey all throughout can be rather uncomfortable, if not painful. Pregnant women experience many changes during pregnancy and such can result to the development of many discomforts or pregnancy symptoms.

Early pregnancy symptoms may not be the same for every pregnant woman, but most women complain of nausea and vomiting, dizziness or fainting, and food cravings during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Nausea and vomiting usually occurs during the first week following conception. You may feel like vomiting early in the morning when your stomach is empty or at midday after taking in food or drinking coffee. Normally, this symptom disappears at the onset of the second semester of pregnancy. Nonetheless, since it can cause you much discomfort, you may prevent this by eating small but frequent meals. Milk or saltine crackers are recommended in this case.

It’s also quite expected to feel dizzy (sometimes to the point of fainting) during the early stages of your pregnancy. The reason for this is the drop in your blood pressure levels due to the growing uterus. Abruptly standing up, sitting for more than 15 minutes, and going upstairs are conditions that may make you feel dizzy. Not eating well enough can cause dizziness spells, too. That is why it is highly recommended for pregnant women to eat healthy snacks during the day. Working moms can make it a habit to bring healthy foods such as raisins, cheese and crackers, carrot and celery sticks, granola bars, and fruit slices like grapes, bananas, and apples.

Food cravings are also quite common during the 1st trimester. Even the pregnant woman herself may be surprised to have sudden cravings of foods she never gave much thought of before. Sometimes, the cravings may not be what you would ever expect, such as warm apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Some women, instead of having food cravings, experience aversions to food. The mere smell of a particular food can make them feel nauseated.

These early pregnancy symptoms are only temporary; being so, they should start to disappear after some time.